If you’re a dog or cat parent, it can be a challenge to keep your carpet clean. Pets can chew up your carpet and leave stains. Furthermore, they can leave hair, which can build up in your carpet. Fortunately, Dan Dan the Carpet Man is here to tell you, you don’t have to give up your pet to keep your carpet clean. Here are a few tips every pet owner can use to keep their carpet looking fresh.

Purchase Stain Resistant Carpet

Stain resistant carpet is always an excellent option. If you’re replacing the carpet, stain resistant is typically more resilient, and it can last much longer than normal carpet. Stain resistant carpet gives you a protective factor that is part of the fibers. In addition, it’s a great idea to have your professional carpet cleaner apply a protectant, such as DuPont Teflon carpet protectant, at each cleaning.

Scotch Guard or Dupont-Teflon(and the like)

If your carpet is a few years old, then it’s probably in your best interest to protect your carpet with a soil and stain repellant. This puts a protective guard on your carpet that will need to be repeated after a while. Reapplying the protectant with each cleaning helps the fibers maintain their structure and keeps additional stains from ruining your carpet. This process should always be done by a professional to make sure every fiber is treated properly.

Cleaning Pet Urine

Pet urine is one of the most frustrating things to battle when it comes to your carpet care. If you’re trying to get urine spots out of your carpet, it’s best to catch them as soon as possible. When you first see a spot, get several paper towels or a cloth and blot bystepping on the spot through the cloth. Then liberally apply 3% hydrogen peroxide (man-made fibers will NOT be harmed by this), and blot again. Repeat when dry as many times as needed. This allows you to pull up the urine, while waiting for your professional carpet cleaners to perform a cleaning.

Keep your Pet’s Nails Trimmed

Depending on the length of your pet’s nails they can cause damage to your carpet. When your pet gets excited and starts doing zoomies across your carpets, it can snag the strands of your carpet. Although it’s super cute when your pet does it, it creates an unraveling effect that leaves spots of your carpet bare. It’s also important to know when you’re trimming your pet’s nails; you use a pet file on them. Not only does trimming your pet’s nails protect your carpet, but it protects your hardwood floor as well. Dan, owner of Dan Dan the Carpet Man, has his animals (the kids left home, but their animals didn’t!) taken to the salon or vet since he is ever worried about that scary issue of cutting the nails too close and making them bleed.

Vacuum often, at least 2x weekly

Even if your pet doesn’t shed a lot, there will still be dander in your carpet. Dander can cause your carpet to get weighed down and have an odor to it. To prevent this from happening, you need to vacuum often. If you have high pile carpet, you need to use a vacuum for high pile carpet to ensure you get all the dirt and dander out. Then, at least every other time you should move furniture to ensure you’re vacuuming every spot of your carpet. This will also prolong the carpet’s life by removing particulates that damage the fibers by grinding them as they are walked on.

Steam Clean often

Getting your carpets steam cleaned often helps to disinfect and deodorize the carpet and cleans any dander, hair, or pet saliva that might have gotten embedded into the carpet. This also prevents premature wear of the carpet by removing contaminates that can break down the fibers if left present.Having your carpets professionally cleaned by a reputable company is the best route. Portable carpet cleaners should be avoided if truck mounted equipment can be used, based on the access of the property.

When you have pets, there are several steps in taking care of your carpet that can be implemented. Maintaining your carpet shows a reflection of your home and the pride you take in how clean it is. A clean carpet shows your guests how you take care of every aspect of your house and creates a happier and safer environment you, your family, and your pets.