The OCD Way to Clean Up Dog Poop in a Car
Ok, this is a disgusting story involving a stray dog and the poop he left behind. So plug your nose and read on to learn how to clean up the smell of dog poop.
One day while working at my auto detailing shop a woman came in with the mother lode of all poop problems. She worked with the local Humane Society and took stray dogs into her home while they were waiting for adoption. On this particular day she had picked up a very frightened dog. On top of that the dog was terrified of riding in the car. Can you smell a disaster coming?
While the customer was driving through town, the dog had a case of explosive diarrhea. Dog poop sprayed all over the cloth car seats and carpet. It even got on her. How she was able to even drive the car was beyond me. This OCD car guy would have figuratively shit my pants and left. Okay, maybe I would have just thrown up. I am a dog lover after all.
The Best Way to Clean Dog Poop on Carpet and Car Seats
First, put on your hazmat suit. For the guys working at my detailing shop, this meant rain jackets, big rubber gloves, breathing respirators and safety goggles. Trust me, no one wants poop in their eyes. We couldn’t begin to do an interior auto detail without first getting the thicker puddles and pieces of poop out of the car. After all, this was the mother lode of dog poop accidents. We didn’t want to use the shop vacuum because we were afraid we would never get the smell out of it.
We decided to start with paper towels. Lots and lots of paper towels. A few of the guys who adorned the respirators were gagging at this point. I could smell the dog poop across the entire shop. Once they had dealt with the larger pieces, we could get started on scrubbing out the car. I must have been paying the guys too much – because they actually did it. The crew began by spraying down the interior with some disinfectant. We let that soak in for about 45 minutes. No germs could take that. Then we sprayed the car seats and carpet down with a strong batch of interior shampoo mixed with almost-boiling hot water.
Next, the guys went over the whole inside of the poop-mobile with soft bristled scrub brushes. They then switched over to big cleaning sponges and hit everything a second time. Now we could take the wet/dry vacuum to the car seats and carpet. The guys must have gone over the interior with the vacuum for half an hour. The next step was to get in there with some clean terry cloth towels and dry everything down.
How to Remove the Smell of Dog Poop From Your Car
Now that the car was clean, we had to remove the minor poop smell that was left behind. We used an enzyme-based deodorizer on all of the cloth and carpets. (Read my post on removing car odors to learn more about enzyme-based deodorizers.) We let the deodorizer absorb into the material and dry completely. Finally, we brought out the ozone machine. These are small electric appliances that generate a fog of ozone. It penetrates into porous surfaces and breaks down odors even more. At this point, all that was left to do was let the car sit with all of the windows down so it could fully dry out.
The only problem I could see coming was putting the dog back in the car. The customer actually came back to pick up her car with the dog. (I bet she took an hour-long, steaming hot shower first.) I guess she was afraid to leave the dog alone. I just hoped that when she drove the dog around there wouldn’t be another poop explosion. I have to say that cleaning up dog poop ranks at the top of the list of gross things that can happen in a car. Even vomit would have been more pleasant. By the way, we did charge a little extra for that one. The next time you drive around with a scared or sick dog in the car, you might want to think twice.
Feel free to ask me poopy questions below, if you are having a hard time removing the smell. I’m happy to help. Seriously, I live for this stuff.