Dog smell giving me a bad review

[Tina183]

Hi Community,

I have been an Airbnb host for quite awhile now but have just received my second feedback about my dog's smell being an issue for their stay. 

It's with the space that's part of my house but I keep the dogs on my side only and rarely have the door open between the space unless doing laundry.

My dogs are never in the space, I get change my clothing before ckeaning and do give them baths.

So should I take it to heart or let it go? Any great tips on dog smell I might not be thinking about. 

[David6 · Accepted solution]

@Tina183 

  If two separate guests have mentioned this I’d be looking into this a little bit deeper. Are there any blankets or bedding the dog sleeps on that could  be washed more frequently? 

Don’t have a dog but I often boil a saucepan of vinegar to clean the air of heavy cooking smells after guests have left.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Tina183 

maybe it is not the dog smell but the dog dry food smell ?

[Susan1028]

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@Branka-and-Silvia0 wrote:

@Tina183 

maybe it is not the dog smell but the dog dry food smell ?

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Good point.  Dog food regulations are almost nonexistent and according to vetrinarian blogs, food allergies are dirctly linked to dog odor, skin, and coat condition with many malodorous pups being palgued with yeast infections inside and out from grain content.

My Lab and our little terrier were prime examples, and once I changed the food to grain free, upgraded food brand and began reading labels carefully, eliminated bad poultry/meat/fish "meal" and "byproducts" soy, corn, and other "industrial/not fit for consumption" waste from the ingredients, their overall health improved dramatically, chronic anxiety/itching disappeared, and so did...(drumroll) the bad body odor and smell in our home.

[Ann489]

@David6   please tell me more about the vinegar-thing...how exactly do you do it and does it reallly work? 

[David6]

@Ann489 

Half a bottle of cheap white vinegar in a pan of water. Boil for as long as possible with extractor fan on. This seems to clean the air and remove the smell. I wash all the kitchen down with vinegar, washing up liquid and water  before I clean as usual. Scrubbing the grids that front the extractor hood. After some guests who have fried food - a yellow sticky deposit will also be on sides of kitchen cabinets and on the top too Even after a short 5 day stay I’ve been knocked out by the odours. It’s as if they have been there for years. 

[Ann489]

@David6   Thank you, David! I will definitely give it a try!  We also have guests who like to cook  "odorous" foods once in a while and I have always struggled with getting rid of the odor.  😉

[Susan1028]

@Anne0485 in Boise

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(yea...this new tagging system does need fine tuning...)

I provide Avocado oil for cooking with a few spices as a "prevenative."  Avo oil healthy, delicious, odorless, and has one of the highest flame points of any cooking oil, so it's safer, less smelly, and cuts down on greasy film. Its a couple of dollars more, but pays for itself in cleaning hours.

[Linda108]

Dog smell is like cigarette smoke, when you are used to it, you don;t smell it. I agree with @David6  that if more than one guest mention an issue, it is time to address it.  How about washing the dogs themselves?  I wonder if your space and the guest space share any heating or cooling ducts.  That would move odor from one space to another.

[Tina183]

There is one vent but I have it closed with a laundry sheet on the inside. 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Tina183 

Totally agree with @Linda108 that you probably won't notice it at all and that dog smell is like cigarette smoke in that it 's really hard to get rid of the smell once it's there. 

A long time ago my parents bought a used car...... it smelled like dog and made me and my mom so sick, my dad re-sold the car after a year. The 1st owner who had the car for 2~3 yrs had a dog. The 2nd owner (a friend of a friend) had the car for about 5yrs had no dog, no pets at all. My dad was the 3rd owner and there was no dog in the car for 5 yrs but ESPECIALLY on rainy days the car stank like a dog. 

Vents could be the reason..... or even if the dogs aren't in the space now, if they used to frequent the space in the past then something on that side of your home (carpet, walls, furniture.....) will still have that smell. 

[John2643]

I don't think vinegar is actually useful for pet smells (I had a very badly-tamed feral cat for a decade) but an ozone generator really does work.  I have one like the  one named below (about $70 from Walmart) and I run it for 1-2 hours (it has a timer) and leave the house for the day.  You absolutely must not run it with people/pets in the house!  Ozone is not healthy in the massive amounts this generates, but it kills all kinds of odors.  Leave sheets off mattresses to deodorize mattresses, and the like. 

Della Commercial Style Air Ozone Generator 3,500mg Purifier Industrial O3 Deodorizer Sterilizer, Silver

[Gordon0]

You've gone noseblind, @Tina183, and it's quite normal for dog lovers. My friend swears her house doesn't smell (she has a Newfoundland) but it REEKS. You just need to make sure you target dog people, as they're noseblind too!

[Sarah977]

@Gordon @Tina183  (this new tagging feature is obviously not working as it should, since you don't appear on the list at all, Gordon, among about 12 Gordons)

That is basically true about the dog smell, but not always. I'm a dog owner, but my dog is primarily an outside dog. She only comes in occasionally, but I don't have carpets or upholstered furniture that would retain a smell even if she had one. I think that's key- If you have primarily hard surfaces, with covers, curtains, etc, that can be washed, there's really nothing to hold the smell. My dog, a Korean Jindo, is also a breed that actually doesn't smell like dog. Many of my non-dog owner friends have commented on this- they'll pet her, then smell their hand and say "That's weird-she doesn't smell like dog-she has no smell at all! ". 

Nor am I immune from dog smell in other people's homes.

However, she does reek in the many months of rainy season here when her fur is constantly damp. And I can assure you she smells really bad to me then, as well.

[Susan1028]

: ) !