How to keep a clean house when you have pets

Puppies do chew – even on the legs of tables and chairs. Discourage chewing by dabbing the most attractive spots (your shoes, a cardboard box and anything wooden your puppy can get his teeth around) with oil of cloves. The bitter odour and taste are a deterrent to nibbling.

 

This is a great method for soothing painful gums in young teething puppies: freeze a few bagels until they are rock-solid and ice-cold. Let the puppy chew on them to ease his painful choppers. When the bagel becomes soft, take it away before he eats it and replace with a dog toy.

Accidents do happen, especially with new pets. Eliminate unpleasant urine smells from carpets with a 50:50 solution of white vinegar and warm water. Pour it onto the affected area so that it soaks through to the carpet padding, then allow it to sit for half an hour. Wash the affected area with cool water until the vinegar is rinsed out, then pat the carpet dry with towels. Cover with a 1cm-thick layer of dry, clean white rags, towels or paper towels, weight them down with heavy objects (bricks, paperweights, door stops and the like) and let the absorbent material sit for several hours to soak up the moisture.

 

Some pet owners have found that they can remove pet odours from a room simply by heating a cupful of freshly ground coffee beans in a cast-iron frying pan over low heat. As soon as the scent is released, remove the pan to the smelly room and put it on a trivet. By the time the ground beans have cooled, much of the pet odour should have dissipated.