How to Clean Up After Your Pet
Getting a new family pet can be very exciting, especially if you have small children who will be able to grow up with a new pet. Many wonderful memories can be made and shared together when a family adopts a new pet. But with a new pet comes much responsibility. It’s important to know how to take care of your new pet, and in particular, it is important to know how to clean up after your pet. Because here’s the thing: pets don’t clean up after themselves, but they sure do know how to make a mess!
When your pet spills its food: while your first instinct will be to scrap the food up and put it back in their food bowl, it is healthier for the animal to just dispose of that food. If you use household cleaners on your floors, especially around your pet’s food dish, the chemicals may get onto their food and make them sick. You may want to consider switching to electronic mops that use steam instead of chemicals to prevent the possibility of making your pet sick.
When your pet dirties on the floor: depending on the kind of animal you have, this can be a minor issue or a major issue. For example, if a cat urinates on your carpet, it can be difficult to get the smell out so that the cat doesn’t continue to use that spot on the carpet over and over again. You’ll want to investigate if something is wrong with your cat if he or she does urinate on your carpet, as cats are very clean animals and can sometimes urinate in front of you to get your attention. You can clean cat urine with baking soda and vinegar to neutralize the smell. It is also a good idea to steam clean the area once it has been neutralized.
When your pet knocks something over: if you have a small, rambunctious puppy, you may want to put away things like plants or flowers for a while. These little guys are sure to knock tables and the likelihood of your favored plants falling to their doom is high! If it happens, try to remember that your pet is still just learning the ropes of your home. Eventually, they will stop running around the house like a maniac, but in the beginning it can take a while for a new pet to get its bearings.
Whatever pet you decide to bring into your family, remember that messes and accidents do happen. It’s all part of the process. If you have a plan of how to deal with those messes when they arise, it will be less stressful for everyone involved. And remember that your pet doesn’t mean to do these things, so there’s no need to get angry at him or her. Just clean it up and get on with your day. Your pet will learn over time what kind of behavior is acceptable and what kind of behavior is not acceptable. If you need your pet to be home-ready sooner, you can consider taking them to obedience class. Not your cat, though. Cats don’t like being obedient. Happy pet parenting!
Good reminders that animals especially puppies and kittens can cause messes so be prepared to be cleaning up. I never thought about not putting food back into the bowl because of floor cleaner chemicals but makes sense.
My sister has a black lab. I am showing her these tips. She sure can use them.
These are great tips. We live in a neighborhood now and people let their dog go in our yard all the time. Its frustrating because it kills the grass and even if the waste is picked up, my kids still get it on their feet or shoes when they run through the grass to play.
Great tips! I especially like the one about neutralizing pet urine smells in the carpet.
These are great tips! I didn’t realize that cats like to “go” in the same place over and over again until it happened to us! She kept using the same spot on the floor, even though we cleaned it up every time. Finally someone told us what was going on and we had a professional cleaner get the smell completely out and it solved our problem. I wish we would have read tips like this when we first adopted our kitty!
Thank you for sharing this. It drives me crazy when people do not clean up after their dog. My homeowners association will charge you $100 if they can’t you not picking it up