Pets are a cherished part of the family, but many customers ask A Personal Touch Carpet Cleaning for advice on pet-proofing their upholstery. This is an area of considerable experience for our professional carpet cleaners, and we think the following tips will come in handy.
Buy Furniture That Uses Pet-Friendly Materials
This is an ideal way for both you and your pet to enjoy the comfort of your living room sofa, and the two best materials are microfiber and leather. Microfiber offers impressive durability, while pet owners love leather because it’s easy to clean. Also, both materials are far more odor-resistant than competing alternatives.
Match Your Furniture Color With Your Pet’s
Unless you own a hairless cat or routinely shave your dog, you’ll probably end up with at least a minimal amount of pet hair on your furniture. Rather than fight it, why not use your pet’s color to your advantage and buy furniture of a similar color? Or at the very least, purchase blankets/throws that are of a similar hue. This will cut down on your regular cleaning, and probably keep you from tearing your own hair out.
Buy a Dog Bed
While there’s no guarantee that your dog will like a bed as much as the couch, it’s safe to say that most dogs will spend at least part of their time in a bed that’s just for them. Nowadays you’ll find beds with all sorts of added benefits: heated, pillowed, bolstered, orthopedic, the list goes on. If your dog really wants to be part of the action all the time, start by putting his bed in the living room so he’ll still be close to you. One he acclimates, he’ll probably seek the bed out wherever it is. But even at a bare minimum, the more time your dog hangs out in his bed, the less time he spends shedding/scratching/biting on the furniture.
No Bare Wood
If your dog is a chewing machine (or a puppy, as the terms are more or less interchangeable), it’s a good idea to avoid any furniture constructed from bare wood. Some dogs love laying into a naked wooden chair leg, and breaking a dog of its chewing habits can be difficult, especially if you’re out of the house a lot. Since chewing is not only harmful to your furniture but also to your pet, we recommend either crate training your dog, or spraying down your wood furniture with a repellent such as bitter apple spray.
Make Certain Rooms Off-Limits
This is an easy solution – just remember to close the doors of the rooms that you don’t want your dog to enter. This likely won’t apply to your living room or kitchen, but for these spaces you could use baby gates for prevention as well as training purposes.
Trust Us For Your Carpet and Upholstery Needs
In addition to expert upholstery cleaning services, A Personal Touch Carpet Cleaning excels at spot removal, pet damage solutions, and much more. In fact, we’re so confident in our abilities that we’ll provide you with a free quote for any service you need. Contact us today and let’s get started. Remember at A Personal Touch, “We don’t cut corners, we clean them.”
