Tip 1: Washable dog beds

Some manufacturers offer dog beds where you can remove and wash the cover. A distinction is made between covers for the dog beds, which can be removed in one piece, or individual parts, such as the inner cushion. We recommend choosing a dog bed where you can remove and wash individual parts. This allows you to keep the dog bed fresh quickly and easily. Regular washing of the dog bed and Co. helps to neutralize the dog odor and to remove the unpleasant dog odor that can arise.

With dog beds, it makes sense to take a closer look when buying them in order to enable easy handling in everyday life - this way your apartment will no longer smell of dogs.

Tip 2: Feeding & watering place

The feeding and watering area is the place in your four walls that is estimated to be the messiest. As soon as our dogs drink, it's like a small flood. Food that has fallen down is carefully licked up, the spilled drinking water remains. Position your dog's feeding and watering area in an area that you don't walk much around the house. The hidden corner helps you not to spread the water unnecessarily by stepping in. In the case of parquet, a protective mat for office chairs is also recommended to protect against moisture.  A hidden place helps you to keep this rather unclean place from being in the foreground by not being noticeable when entering the apartment. By the way, a hidden place allows your dog to eat in peace and quiet.

Use so-called "elephant skin" to paint the walls. Elephant skin is a protective covering for wallpaper and walls and is transparent and washable.
"Floor protection mats" for office chairs are large and are ideal under the food bowl to keep the floor clean and protected.

Tip 3: Aroma oil diffuser

As an animal household, scents or perfume must be used sparingly. What can you do about the dog smell? It is preferable to maintain good hygiene in your household instead of masking smells. Determine whether your dog's smell has health reasons. Feeding has an impact on your dog's bad breath and general smell. If everything is fine from a health point of view, you can neutralize the dog smell with an aroma oil diffuser. Be thrifty – Animals don't like artificial scents. Too much perfume may help the home stop smelling of dogs, but it can lead to changes in the dog's behavior. Dogs have a much better sense of smell than humans. In general, therefore, the heavy use of scents should be avoided in order to remove dog odor.  Aromatic oils not only give a pleasant scent, but can also have an effect. Your apartment no longer smells of dogs and the scent has a positive effect. In the case of essential oils, this is particularly useful lavender oil or chamomile oil. Lavender oil can have a calming effect, chamomile oil helps with nervousness. Please keep in mind that all essential oils are aggressive and irritating to sensitive skin and mucous membranes. If you or your dog are allergic or have sensitive skin, you should avoid direct skin contact. Use a few drops in an aroma diffuser and enjoy the soft fragrance in your home. When buying, make sure that you are buying 100% pure oils.

Essential oils should be avoided in households with cats. You can switch to normal, not too strong perfume scents that are suitable for pet households. 

Tip 4: Clean your paws

A matter of course in rain, mud and nasty weather: wipe your paws. Why not every time? We and our dogs carry most bacteria and dirt from the outside in.  Just as you take off your shoes in the entrance area, you can wipe your dog's paws in front of the door or in the entrance area. A small microfiber cloth in the entrance area is sufficient for this. For sensitive dogs or dogs with allergies, cleaning the paws is an excellent measure for better well-being. 

Ritualize wiping your paws so that through regular repetition your dog will eventually stop in front of the door on its own for you to wipe its paws.  

Tip 5: Regular grooming

A dog sheds more or less depending on the individual coat texture and partly independent of the breed. Some breeds require special grooming, while other breeds just need more or less regular brushing. The type-appropriate grooming, which is adapted to your dog, will save you a lot of vacuuming work in the house and enable your dog to feel better. Especially for dog breeds with special fur, such as long fur or particularly curly fur, we recommend that you make an appointment for a consultation at the dog grooming salon. Watch out for dog laundry! Dogs have a natural greasy film that protects their skin and coat against dirt, sun and moisture. If you wash your dog too often to neutralize the dog smell, the protective layer will be destroyed. When washing dogs too often, dogs tend to intentionally soil their fur in order to take on a natural scent. Too frequent dog washing with dog shampoo is therefore neither healthy nor good for your dog. If the fur is dirty because you walked across the mud, use clean water and rinse your dog off with lukewarm water without any shampoo. 

Tip 6: Robot vacuum and mop for animal hair

A robotic dog vacuum and floor mop isn't the cheapest investment you'll make, but it will be worth it. Before you decide on a robot vacuum cleaner for dog hair and mopping, you must be aware that this will not replace your normal vacuum cleaner. The vacuum robot for dog hair and the mopping robot sometimes runs twice a day, every time we are outside with the dogs. A vacuum robot for dog hair and a robotic mop help you around the house and provide good support when it comes to cleaning the floor. The wiping function of the robot vacuum cleaner helps to neutralize and remove dog odor by regularly wiping. Especially during the change of fur, it is worth its weight in gold not to have to vacuum every few minutes and to use the vacuum robot for the dog hair that falls out. When buying a vacuum and floor mopping robot, make sure that it is tailored to your dog's coat. Many manufacturers now offer models of robot vacuum cleaners especially for dog hair.

Tip 7: Replace detergent

Dogs, like all other animals, do not like strong perfumes. Detergents and fabric softeners contain a lot of perfume, which our dogs perceive more intensively than we humans. What you perceive as a pleasant fresh scent is unpleasant for your dog. Unfamiliar smells or smells that your dog can't relate to are marked. This can be the case, for example, with a new dog bed. You buy a new dog bed with strange smells and your dog tagged. You wash the dog bed with detergent because it stinks and the vicious circle starts. Your dog will re-mark the washed dog bed to eliminate the odor that is unpleasant for him. If the apartment smells like dogs, you can clean smelly dog items with natural household products. This is good for the environment, hygienic, odor neutralizing, cheap - and above all pleasant for your dog. When washing dog equipment such as collars, leashes or dog beds, do not use detergent, but washing soda or vinegar.

washing soda

To remove dog smell from dog accessories, you can use washing soda. Washing soda is environmentally friendly and relieves the waste water. Due to its alkaline properties, soda neutralizes the acidic degradation products of surfactants that are contained in most common detergents. For each wash of dog products you need 1 tablespoon of washing soda and optionally 10 drops of essential oil. Washing soda is not suitable for animal fabrics such as wool or silk. Soda removes and neutralizes stubborn odors such as dog smell in textiles and is therefore particularly suitable for dog beds.

Avoid washing soda on natural fibers like wool or silk because it destroys animal proteins. Detergent soda works well for synthetic fibers and cotton. The alkaline properties mean that soda can attack some surfaces. Therefore bypass for cleaning glass, aluminum, linoleum, marble and granite.

Vinegar

There is a lot to be said for washing with vinegar: Vinegar is biodegradable, natural and odor-neutralizing. Vinegar protects your laundry from fading and keeps the colors bright for a long time. Because vinegar works against limescale, you can do without fabric softener with vinegar (by the way, you should avoid it anyway). Vinegar is an insider tip for lint and dog hair because vinegar reduces the static charge and therefore the lint does not stick to the fabric. Add approx. 100 ml white table vinegar to your laundry in the fabric softener compartment and wash your laundry or dog clothes in the normal washing program. Vinegar has an odor-neutralizing effect on dog odor.

The acetic acid stimulates the formation of digestive juices. Its disinfecting effect blocks putrefactive bacteria in the intestines and supports your dog's digestion.
Add naturally cloudy organic apple cider vinegar to the feed 1 to 2 times a week (1 tsp small dogs / 1 tbsp large dogs).

Tip 8: Dryer before the washing machine

Unfortunately not the most sustainable tip, but definitely very helpful with a lot of animal hair. If you have a dryer, you can put clothes full of pet hair in the dryer before washing. Set your dryer to the coldest setting and start drying for about 10 minutes. Tumble drying will soften the fabric and loosen pet hair. Before you wash the clothes, you should shake them out briefly and then wash them as usual.

Tip 9: Vinegar spray for upholstery and carpets

Upholstery and carpet suffer the most in terms of dog odor. Not all carpets and upholstery are machine washable. You can use vinegar to remove dog smells from carpets and other upholstery. Vinegar is an easily biodegradable agent that is effective against dirt and odors. Vinegar is unbeatably cheap compared to carpet and upholstery cleaners and is also harmless to your dog's health. Vinegar is a household remedy against the unpleasant smell of dogs and is completely natural. The acid in vinegar has an antibacterial effect, which is why vinegar is a good odor neutralizer. Incidentally, the unpleasant sour smell of vinegar disappears a short time after cleaning. For example, our dogs like to lie down on our carpet immediately after cleaning carpet and upholstery with vinegar without any problems. So it doesn't seem to bother her at all.  Mix vinegar (e.g. white table vinegar with 5% acidity) in a 1:1 ratio with warm water in a spray bottle. Before spraying the upholstery and carpet, test the vinegar spray on an inconspicuous area to see how it reacts to the fiber. After a successful vinegar test, you can spray the entire textile with the vinegar spray and work it into the fibers by dabbing with a cotton or microfiber cloth (caution: do not rub!). Let the room air out for about 30 minutes until the textiles are dry.

Vinegar contains 5% - 15% acidity, while vinegar essence contains 25% acidity and needs to be dosed lower. Unlike vinegar, vinegar essence is chemically produced. Vinegar cleaners contain other ingredients such as perfume as cleaning agents.

Tip 10: Box with dog toys

Most dog people know the problem: there are dog objects lying around everywhere. A simple idea is a dog knick knack box that you put all your dog items in when you tidy up. Toys are more interesting for your dog if they are not always available. This is a perfect argument for leaving a maximum of one toy for your dog. It is best to decide on a chew stick or root or a chew toy. Change toys on a regular basis so that they provide a new stimulus for your dog. Everything that is always available becomes boring over time - even for your dog.

You can train your dog to pick up and fetch the exposed objects. How to teach your dog to tidy up. This takes a lot of patience at first, but can be very helpful over time.

Tip 11: Lint remover or pet hair mitt

Every animal household with a dog or cat knows the eternal fur problem. With fabric, the individual hairs work their way into the fabric and are difficult to get rid of. A lint remover is ideal for clothing. You can get it in the form of a sticky roller, a rough fabric brush, or a metal lint remover. Pet hair gloves are made of polyester with a type of barb that picks up any kind of lint. Brushes, metal lint removers or animal hair gloves are more sustainable, because they can be used more often than the sticky tape. They don't produce any additional garbage.

Tip 12: Taboo zones for the dog household

House rules with taboo zones are a simple educational tool for keeping specific areas in the house clean. One room where a taboo zone makes sense is the kitchen. If you make the kitchen taboo for your dog, the kitchen will automatically become cleaner because the dog does not regularly lose fur or dander and also carries in dirt. You implement taboo zones by separating this area and setting boundaries with body language. To do this, you can use child gates, lock the door, or ban the dog from accessing this area over and over again. We have made the kitchen taboo for our dogs, even though we have an open kitchen. Through constant blocking, sending out, and alternate behavior, our dogs understood from the start that the kitchen is not their space.

Tip 13: Rituals

Rituals are of great value in everyday dog life and training, as they give the dog a line, improve communication between you and your dog and generally improve the dog's well-being. There are studies that have shown that rituals among animals are spiritual medicine and increase the animal's overall happiness. If we build up ritualized behaviors in dog training, they will one day become automatic. Rituals are guides for our dogs, what to expect and how to behave.

Wait at the front door

Just as you teach your dog not to rush out the front door in front of you (impulse control), you can teach your dog to wait outside the front door when coming back. Without exception, on every walk, repeat that your dog sits down in front of the front door before you enter the house. You can combine this ritual with wiping your paws. Your dog will quickly understand this constantly repeating process. The more often you do this with your dog, the easier it will be for your dog to do it without your help.

After the walk to the square

A ritual that we implement in our house rules is to lead the dog straight to the dog run after the walk. On the one hand, this helps your dog to come down in a targeted manner and, on the other hand, the remaining dirt from the paws is not distributed in the apartment. The advantage is that you get a much better grip on the dirt from the dog bed and the area around the dog bed. Plus, it has many other educational benefits that we won't go into detail about now.