 Hi there. I visited a friend the other day and as I walked into her house, her house smelled like dog poop. I was like, whoa. And the homeowner was really embarrassed about the smell. And as her little dog came running up, he was kind of like hiding and kind of looking around and kind of skittish. And I could tell the little dog was ashamed too, because it was probably dog poop that I was smelling. And the homeowner says, hey, I'm really sorry that I invited you over here and that my house smells so bad, but I can't find the poop. And so I'm hoping that you can help me find the dog poop. And as we looked around the house together, I couldn't find it either. And the little dog kept like cowering away. I'm like, this dog's embarrassed. This is really sad. So I brought the little dog over and lo and behold, the dog was had poop, but it was still stuck to his behind and the fur, it was caught in the fur. And so we had to bathe the dog and we had to try to clean the dog up so that we could get rid of the smell. But the reason that I bring this up is because sometimes pets have accidents and sometimes they leave a mess behind and the owners are embarrassed and the dogs are embarrassed. And then what do you do? So I was really excited when I found Allie Smith today and that she was going to be able to come on our show. And the reason I was excited is because she has trained over 1200 dogs. So she used to be a pet center. And then she moved into being a pet trainer. And she's got one of the best dog blogs that is that is up and running right now. And so she's got a wealth of information for us. And she's the owner of a company called Rebarkable. Isn't that a cool name? It's super cute. I'm going to ask you guys if you will today to jump in with your pet mess questions, because today we're streaming to the Ask a House Cleaner show. And we have a lot of professional house cleaners that are wondering, is it their job to clean up a pet mess when they get into a house? And then also we want to ask the homeowners if you have a question today because we're also streaming to our Clutter Corner Live show. And so if you are a homeowner and you have a pet and you might have pet accidents from time to time, this is the chance to get them answered because Allie is our expert. So please help me welcome Allie Smith to our show. How are you today? Good. Thank you very much for having me. I'm really excited to get the opportunity to talk to your audience because I think we all love our animals and we all want the best for them. But you guys have a particularly unique placement in this situation. And it's going to be a really interesting one to dive into. Well, let's start with the situation of me going into my friend's house. And there we have this situation where there's obviously something that's happened. How do we deal with that first from I'm coming in, I'm from the outside, I don't live in the house, but I'm smelling the dog poop. And there are lots of people that after a while they don't smell the animals in their house. So how do we deal with that first? So the first thing is is making sure that the person you're going to see is willing to talk about it and happy to engage in that conversation, which is one of those awkward social situations that we're like, should I say anything? Don't I say anything? What do I do? But for me, I think sometimes if we address the elephant in the room just go, can I, is there something like if you try, even if you go with the polite route of have you changed their freshener or something? Even if it, because you know, there are some smells that we like and other people don't. But you know, dog poop isn't usually one of them. And if they sort of do engage, that's when you can be like, okay, can I help you, particularly like if they're less able, you know, they might be really grateful that you're willing to help them with this sort of thing. And so as we're not offensive about it, it's usually okay. And then probably do exactly as you've done, go for a little hunt through the house, which is probably the worst treasure hunt in the world. And if you don't find anything, that is probably when we do investigate, you know, the dogs, because it does happen, you know, particularly like if we have client like if your customers or the people that live in the home have longer hair, like our dogs inevitably swallow longer hair, right? And then they all like they can end up with a little little nugget just hanging off somewhere that they can't quite get to. And particularly breeds like gashens and corgis that have the long body. And sometimes Yorkshire terriers, if they can't actually reach their backside, they can't sort that out by themselves. And that's when like, if they're bath friendly, if they're okay with a bath, great. If they're not a wet wipe is absolutely fine. And if mom and dad aren't necessarily too precious about, you know, what their groom is done or like a particular cut or style, and they are hair based, you can just snip it, you know, you're not going to snip a golden retriever, but something like a doodle. Usually you can do a little bit of a quick cut and just get rid of it because that is probably the least stressful for all involved. Because, you know, I'm a big advocate of not stressing our dogs out. Because also stressed dogs tend to make stressed dog parents. So, you know, keeps everyone happy. But yeah, it's that would be how I would probably have approached that one. Well, I appreciate your insights because it was a sensitive conversation. And I smelled it when I walked in. I wasn't going to be the first one to say anything. But when my friend said, Oh, I should apologize for the smell. This is really bad. And she was the one to bring it up. Then I say, What's going on here? You know, maybe, maybe let's take a look at the dog and see if we could find it. Yeah. So I appreciate your insights on that. I want to stop for a second. And I want to say, Hey, to Rachel Rose. She says, So glad to be here. I have three dogs and I have a never ending job picking up their hair. I'm actually collecting the hair to make a homemade knitted jumper. I love that. I have often debate, sorry to interrupt you. I've often debated whether you can use dog fur as like insulation for the house because I'm like, huh? Sometimes, sometimes. Natasha already says my English bulldog has made my cloth couch stink because of him. Yeasty knows how would you clean the couch to get the stink out? That's a great question. Yeah. Yeast is a fun one. I think that's going to be vinegar, isn't it? Because vinegar tends to neutralize the yeast and what would grow. Because you know, that yeast is a living organism, right? So you've got to kill the kill the actual yeast itself. But the other thing is with your bulldog, take a look at his diet, because yeasty dogs tend to have something in their diet that's encouraging yeast production. So if you can tinker with his diet a little bit, you should actually get his yeast down, which once you've cleaned your sofa will stop the re-infection of the sofa. And it will save you a lot of cleaning and it will probably save him a lot of not stress, but itchiness. Yeast isn't nice when it's in places. It shouldn't be. No, and I'm glad you brought that up because there are little animals that stink sometimes and then homeowners will try to just brush their teeth or try to think of things. And I'm glad you brought up changing the diet because sometimes it is diet related and that's that's how they're processing and digesting it. Yep, absolutely. And it's one of the core components. Even on a smelly dog, like if your dog has a really particularly pungent odor to them generally, you change their diet to something slightly higher quality, the smell tends to reduce, which explaining that to people sometimes is almost like mind-blowing, but you know, it's hard when we've been when we've been sort of marketed, you know, all these these really low quality kibbles and we go, Oh, but the TV said it was great or, you know, similar. And well, it's true though, isn't it? Marketing these days is really powerful. And we've been so like indoctrinated by it that we just don't question it anymore. It's like, Oh, it said on that one it won all the awards. And it's like, Oh, yeah, but so yeah, it sometimes is questioning also what works for your dog specifically, because much like us, dogs, cats, gerbils, everything has a specific biome that everything works through. And if it doesn't agree with them specifically, it doesn't matter what it did for other dogs. It's all about your dog. Okay. Well, and that's really important to know, because sometimes, like you said, we we fall victim to marketing. And then on the other end of it, there will be an accident or something. And then how do we clean up that particular dog? And I think many people, and I'm not saying all people, because I know there are people that do lots of studies and research, and they research the breed and all things. There are a lot of people that just end up with a dog, and maybe it's a loose dog or a stray dog or rescue or something, and they just bring the dog in. And then they haven't read a manual and they don't know how to take care of the dog. And so they don't know how to train it. They don't know what the particular specificities of the dog's diet or the any of those things. So they're kind of like winging it, you know, yeah. And I think that tends to happen with a lot of like trendy breeds. So that there's there's there's this really big misconception in my industry. And this is slightly tangential to what we're talking about. But the the like the doodles and your cockapoo's and so like your labradoodle your cockapoo that they tend to be like neurotic, crazy dogs. But it's actually usually not that they're they're neurotic or crazy or untrainable or any of these weird labels that they get. It's actually just that they've been marketed so strongly as a beginner friendly dog that all the beginners get them. And then they realize they have all of these needs. They're like, well, what do you mean? I've got to take them for like three hours a walk a day and stimulate their brain and train them and do all this. And it's like, yeah, they they because the poodles in there, they are smart. So yes, they shed less, not totally shed free but less. But they are smart. And when they're smart, if you don't push the brain, they get into trouble because that's, you know, the what's the phrase the devil makes work for idle thumbs definitely happens with dog brains too. So and that's really interesting. I think that's a lot like people where, you know, a tiny little baby seems like it's easy to take care of. But it's actually as it grows, it grows in responsibility as well. A lot of me trucker 70 forces. Are there any products we should not use around our pets? Yeah, this is actually really, really important. And I'm really glad somebody asked it because the stronger the smell on stuff, it can throw our dogs because our dogs are something like 50 times more perceptive to smell than humans, which is astonishing. And they basically see the world in smell. So if we sort of like wash their blankets with fabric softener and things like that, it can actually have a long term detrimental effect on them and their wellbeing. And that has been shown in studies, which is mildly terrifying, because I definitely used to do that until this study came out. I was like, okay, we're ditching the fabric softener. Certainly on the dog stuff, I mean on the human stuff is slightly different. But anything that for mine that they have their nose on regularly tends to get tends to not get put in the same wash as everything else. So would you would you avoid fabric softeners and detergents that have strong smells for that reason? Yes, I and certainly like the scent boosting stuff. I would absolutely give that a ditch. There are also certain essential oils that I cannot remember off the top of my head. Why does that always happen? There are like really, really toxic to dogs. So like in air fresheners and in like floor soaps and things like that, it can cause a big problem. So yeah, do make sure that whatever you're using is pet friendly. That's why I particularly like going for really basic ingredients like baking soda and vinegar and things like that. So I tend to use vinegar as a fabric softener in my dog stuff because that's fine. You know washes through all good. And then if you are particularly concerned about smells in it, because we all know that dogs can be a bit stinky, hanging them out on a washing line when they're gone through the washer is a really good plan because not only is the wind going to knock out some more of the dog fur that might have been stuck on there, the UV raise kill smell. So it's a really nice sort of double hit then to get it all nice and nice and fur free and back in the house and smelling decent, you know. So there are sort of more pet friendly ways to keep your home smelling good. Just because we've got a dog at our house doesn't need to smell like dog. So yeah, but that's my big one with living with dogs. Well, aside from talking about cleaning up messes and things, can we talk about fur for a minute because many dogs have lots of fur. And one of the questions I get asked a lot from both homeowners and professional house cleaners is how on earth are we supposed to clean up all the fur? And it seems like there are times of the year when dogs even shed more fur than other times of the year. Can you tell us a little bit about that and how we're supposed to manage that? So this one's going to really be down to you knowing your client and knowing their dogs essentially because different dog breeds have different styles of coats. So your Yorkshire Terrier coat is not the same as your Beagles coat, which is not the same as your German Shepherd's coat or your Huskies coat or any of those. So there's double coated breeds, which is your German Shepherd's, your Husky, your Labrador, your God Retriever. And they're the breeds that you will not see really go to the groomer that often because they're meant to be your wear and tear dogs. They're meant to go out into the bush or out into the wild, whatever you're doing and come back and they will shed the dirt naturally as they shed their fur or anything like that. Those dogs tend to be a bit grubbier to live with just because of that fact. Then you've got your hair based coats like your Yorkshire Terrier, your West Highland Terrier, your most Labrador and Poodles and Bichon Fries, all those. And then you've got your short, your short coats, slick coated dogs like Greyhounds, your most hound breeds basically. And they all require like different grooming practices. So for your slick coated dogs, something like a rubber curry comb, which is, this is literally, it's not paid product placement at all. This is literally just stuff that I use with mine. This is a Kong zoom groom and it's basically just a rubber curry comb like you'd use on a horse. Really good for short fur and really good for guard hairs. So if you've got a German Shepherd as well, that will take out the long guard hairs. The fluffier stuff, the undercoat on your double coated dogs, you want something like that, which is a butter comb. That will go through, that'll also work really well for your doodles and your Poodles and yeah, all your hair based breeds because it's designed to go in close to the skin and lift. Do it gently. Please don't stress your dogs out too much. The other one that's really great for fluffy coats is something like that, which is just a pet teaser. And it's the same one that humans use. It's just been redesigned with a few little cute dog designs on the back. Exactly same. But it works really well as you can see for the fluffy coats, which I literally was using this a little while ago. Because I decided it probably was best to come on this string with my dog's de-fluffed. So yeah, the tools you use are really important. And then your haired breeds probably go to the groomer more often too. So they're probably going to create less fluff. And then there's certain, gosh, this feels like a meandering answer. But then certain tools will pick up certain hair types better. So my shark lift away. Again, there is no pay product placement here. Please don't think that. But that, for me, works really well on my German Shepherd's hair. But my Roomba is really, really good at getting up the hound hairs, which are a slick coat. So yeah, it just depends. And sometimes it is like tinkering with the formula as to what works wear. So, you know, in a house that's like mine, where you've got a mix of coats, you're going to want a mix of approaches. But if you know that you're going into a home who's got three huskies, and it is, well, seasonality, I need to talk about that too. And you walk in there and you know that they're shedding. Book in more time, because it will get under the surface. It will stick on all the surfaces. It will do all of that. And I think if you actually say to the homeowner, hey, I know the season change is coming up, you know, do you want to keep me posted about fur levels? Because if I will just book in an extra hour, if that's okay, and make sure that I can go through it thoroughly. Because most of us dog parents don't like the flu that a dog's put out. And we all kind of understand that, you know, they do do that seasonal shed. So the seasonality with your double coated dogs, so again, your German Shepherd's, your Labrador's, your huskies, et cetera, they will shed on the switch between hot and cold and cold and hot. So spring and autumn tends to be like your peak seasons for fur. So we are like right in one right now. So yeah. And from the house cleaning side of that, at the time the animals are shedding, that's also cobweb season. So the spiders will try to come in when the seasons change from hot to cold and cold to hot. So that's a really good time to book in a deep cleaning, where you're going to need some extra time for the shedding of the animals, and then also for cobwebs, and then other things, which lots of other bugs will then try to either come in out of the cold or get out because it's too hot or something like that. So the seasons are a time that, yeah, deep cleaning is a definite notice. That's a perfect way to, you know, a good excuse. Maybe there should be like a six reasons to do a deep cleaning in spring and autumn. There you go. Terry Williams says we got an English retriever. The hair is out of control. Robo Vacuum sure helps. So I'm glad Terry that you found something that works. But yes, it's true when you get a dog and it's the first time you've had a dog that sheds that way. It can be a little bit surprising. And can you speak to us for a second about how frequently you might comb a dog with those special brushes that you show? So I tend to do once a week. But again, it depends. So your labradoodles and things, all of those sorts of coats you're going to want to do almost daily, but you might just do like a leg every day. Well, it can be really stressful on the dogs because dogs, most dogs don't like being groomed, right? They don't really enjoy it. So if you sort of set a realistic like achievement and it's not, you know, okay, you've now got to stand still fired over the next hour, whilst I comb you to oblivion, it can feel much more realistic for you and dogs. So you can actually make the process more rewarding part of your normal schedule. And if you just do like, they're back like this day, they're back that day, their stomach this day, you fill out the week and then that way they're only getting like 10, 15 minutes actual grooming. So it just makes it a little bit easier on the dog. So yeah, if you like, it really depends on your lifestyle and how fussy you are as well. But you know, the more you groom them and the more you get out of them, particularly like on the season changes, the easier it's going to be to keep it clean because, you know. Speaking of clean, many dogs will go outside and do their business outside, then they run back in the house. And if it's been raining or it's muddy outside, they'll just track all that stuff into your house. Do you have any suggestions on how to keep a house clean when a dog runs back in enthusiastically from being outside and kind of shakes the head and it goes all over and they've got mud prints everywhere. Yeah. So the there's two real main points, right? You've got the pause and then the body. The pause, get a stupidly absorbent bath mat. That's my best tip for that one. Because a suit, you kind of want something that as soon as they hit it, it absorbs as much as possible, right? Okay. And if that can happen, usually that's your bath mat. Is that going to be a rubber-backed bath mat or is there a particular kind that you recommend? I would do a rubber-backed bath mat. And you know, it doesn't need to be anything special, but just as absorbent as you can. And then you've got things like drying coats, which you can't really see, but essentially, whoops, and I'm getting stuck to it, it goes over the back, up the neck, and there's a tummy strap that goes in, under, and around. You're not getting in it right now, sweetheart. I'm sorry. So is this something that the dog wears or do you just kind of wrap them? Okay. It's kind of basically a robe for dogs, so as soon as they sort of come in from outside where it's pouring rain or a swimming session, anything like that, throw that on them, belt it round, and they can just trot around the house, and every time they shake, it just kind of helps dry them off and keeps all the mess within the robe effectively. What a great idea. I tell you what, dog people are geniuses with this sort of stuff because they don't like it. I don't really want the muddy spray up the walls, do they? After their dogs come in, it's like, oh my God. So yeah, there's all sorts of awesome inventions like that. So there's mud where the dogs shake their head, and it kind of flies everywhere. Tell me a little bit, if you will, about dog slobber, where dog's just slobber, and then it's got protein and enzymes in it, and it's really hard to clean up, and you wipe it up, and then there's still traces of it and all that stuff. How do you clean up that? That one is a really good question. Mine aren't too slobbery. You can train dogs, though, to actually wipe their mouth, so you can actually train that behavior so that they deal with it themselves before it goes all up the wall. And how do you do that? What is the process for that? So one of the best ones I've seen, and it's a silly video, but it works, is a great game that every time after he's drinking, they've got a bowl beside the water bowl with essentially like a hand towel strung around another bowl that's right beside it, and they're like, wipe your mouth, and he literally just goes over and goes, swish, swish, gets all the stuff in the gels and is done. So yeah, it's basically just a you'd have to lure them to the area, bring their face down and go one across, two across, and then reward for that, and tear it with a Q, slowly fade out the tree. It's fussy, but it's one of those things that can make your life a lot easier. In terms of cleaning, though, I usually find like hot soapy water, but it also depends on the surface, right? Because like if you've got it on like chalk paint, you don't want to be putting hot soapy water on chalk paint, because it's just going to start like absorbing it. And yeah, so that one I would dictate more by the surface than the material, if that makes sense. Well, I love the fact that you train a dog, I never thought about training a dog not to slobber, not to just kind of like spew it all over the walls. Because once it dries on the walls, it becomes hard. And it's like hard and crunchy. And you got to, if you're going to scrape it off, you can scrape it off with a plastic razor. But because of the proteins that are inside it, it still leaves a little mark, like a little, almost like a grease stain on the wall. And so depending on the dog and depending on the slobber, it can be really hard to clean up. You're like, what on earth? And then all around, all around the rooms, like four feet below, you'll see all these like little spots. And it's where the dogs have slobbered. Do you know the other one that is, I really hope you don't mind me saying this. No, we're here to learn. We're here to learn. The other, I'm going to try and remain as professional as possible in this discussion. But the other one that is awful to clean up is the male dog, Smegma. Because when you get a male puppy, or you leave your dog intact, they do tend to do the exact same thing that teenage boys do. And that is particularly not easy to get off of any sort of fabric surface. So like a fabric sofa, which the dog might climb up onto and curl up with mum and dad in the evening, tends to get these weird little marks on it. And the dog parents are usually like, I have no idea where this is coming from. And it's like, it's your boy dog. Ta-da. Welcome to having males. How do you get that out? Again, I found like a biological either soap or dish soap works really well because you kind of cuts into that. I mean, it's the same as washing clothes with it. You know, it's kind of gross. But it is, it's one of those things that does happen. And people really often underestimate how, you know, and like, they, my clients are usually mystified. They're like, this thing's happened. I don't understand. Is he okay? It's like, yeah, yeah, he's fine. It's just not, it's normal. It's just gross. So in America, we have a product called Otoban biostain and odor removal. And it's actually an enzymatic cleaner that breaks down the proteins. And so oddly enough, while it's wonderful for pets, as house cleaners, we use it for like ring around the collar and underarm sweats and stuff like that for people. Yeah. But it's really, really good for pets because it's clear. So you talk about the fabric that then has stains on it, but it will clear up those stains. And then also because of the enzymes, it eats up the odors as it cleans. Do you know, I've never actually considered using the same stuff that I would use for removing pee. So I often recommend Nature's Miracle as well. That's also really cool. So that was kind of my favorite for that. But yeah, it's funny, isn't it? I never put that up. I never put that together with collar stains and things. That's really interesting. Thank you. But there are cleaners that are really good for protein stains. And what we don't realize is like when a baby spits up, oftentimes that's the same as like if a cat pukes. There are protein stains. And so there are different enzymes that are in the human body or an animal body that when it comes out, you're like, wow, that smells really bad. It looks bad. And then it left a mark after we tried to clean it up. So would you use the same thing for cats? Like if you have a cat that pukes and eats a hairball and then pukes? Yes. Pukes, yes. Hairballs, yes. Male cat pee is different. Male cat pee tends to have this long lasting property that it's quite often to get rid of. So the best things I've sort of seen are like your oxy cleans and like your oxygen bombs and things like that. They can be really effective. And also the oxygen bomb actually for if you've got wooden floor that a pee stain is like sunk into, it can be really, really good at that. So you may not need to do the whole sand it back and re-varnish it with malarkey with a wooden floor that sometimes the oxygen bomb can actually take the oxygen. So for those that are new to the oxygen bomb, tell me a little bit about what that is and how somebody would use it on a hardwood floor because we get that question a lot. Oh, well then you might be better off telling this one than me because I've only ever used it like once or twice. Because like I moved into my house and whoever lived here before us didn't quite do what they should have done and again was looking at the sand the floor and I'm like, you know what, let's just give this a try. It doesn't work, it doesn't work and we sand the floor. So yeah, for us it was basically just like a powder solution that went on it and kind of just left it there for a while. Sorry, with a bit of water and then it just kind of fizzed and slowly like pulled all of this pee residue, I suppose, out of the wood and it was really effective. I was really, really surprised if I've been honest and we never actually ended up sanding our floors. So I was like, yeah, yeah, I was dreading that one. I'm not going to lie to you. So when you used it then did it, did it discolor the floor or did it remove any varnish or anything from the floor or no? It didn't for us but we did use it on a particularly mild one and we kind of did a few mild applications as opposed to like a big, big, big hit because again, I was trying to be really cautious and not remove the varnish because, you know, this is the, you can see in the background but it's the original floor that was built with the house and I was like, I'm going to have a real tough time trying to color match that if I want to do a small patch. So yeah. Well and from the professional house cleaner side, we run the risk when a customer says, can you help us clean up this mess because if we use something that then removes the varnish or discolors the flooring because we're the last one that touched it without the customer signing a waiver, we are responsible for replacing their floor if we damage it. Yeah, that's why that waiver is really required. Well there are a lot of house cleaners that will say, hey, we got a problem here because this dog peed on the floor, a cat peed on the floor and we have a discoloration. We're trying to remove the coloration and the the smell and we're hesitant because what we think we're going to use may or may not remove that varnish or the top coating. So I just wondered if beyond the oxygen bomb if there was anything that you recommended. Less so for wood floors but like carpets, baking soda is really solid. If you like, if you went into a house theoretically and you've seen it other than like absorbing it and getting it up as quick as possible and find that way, the next best step is to literally put the baking soda on it on a good solid coat and then leave it alone for as long as possible to let that baking soda do as much of the job as it physically can. And that way you don't have to do a huge amount of scrubbing either because I know scrubbing can ruin ruin stuff and that with your line of work must be must be tough because you know, I had the luxury with the oxygen bomb of doing in small low-level instances whereas if you're in a house once a week, once a month, whatever, you're not going to have that exposure. So yeah, it's I like small applications of things I don't know but you don't necessarily have that luxury which is sad but yeah sorry. Oh that's awesome thank you for sharing that. From a homeowner's perspective, if you are a new parent to a dog and your dog has not been trained, what is the quickest, fastest way to help your dog through the series of accidents that are going to happen on your carpet and your flooring and your furniture and all those things because while they're trying to be trained there's going to be some mishaps. Yeah it's really really hard to avoid any mishaps and very very very few people manage it understandably. So regular toilet training and skipping potty pads is one of the most effective ways of keeping pee off of your floor and that would be why if you are getting a dog I would always recommend that you avoid your extreme seasons if you live in a particular climate that is quite extreme because I've had clients that are like well I can't possibly take them outside it's like three foot of snow I can't do that there are two pound puppy it's like well yeah that that makes sense and I have a lot of sympathy then so if you are planning on getting a dog and you live in one of those environments try not to get puppy home at that time that's going to be your first big hit and secondly then train them straight to outside and then it's just about schedule then it's literally just after meals after play after they've woken up after they've drank anything they're like your hot times for when puppies most likely gonna pee take them outside play with them outside make sure you reward them really well for going where you want them to go and that that's then the next biggest cause of slip-ups is that we then assume once we've got a bit of consistency we then assume oh job done check that off the list don't have to reward them anymore they've got it cool and then we then we take the pressure totally off and we go okay have your freedom it's it's not a checkbox exercise it's a gradual fade out right because if you go okay job done tick that off don't reward them anymore they're going to go oh basically my job doesn't pay me anymore i'm not going to do the work anymore why would i bother so keep keep the rewarding up keep the structure up keep pushing it and slowly slowly remove the the prompts the management the the control essentially and then you should have success and but then the other thing is just watching them like a hawk if they're not like in their puppy proof space watching them really really closely is one of the easiest ways to catch an accident before it happens um tell me about puppy proof space what is that and how does that work uh clean up that's the simple way of putting it okay put a lot of your cleaning products away put your wires out of reach put nana's table and antique vase out of reach just minimize what puppy has access to because dogs don't generalize learning that well so certainly as a puppy so we also get a lot of problems then like when oh my god my puppy was totally toilet trained and we went over to my aunt's house and he peed on their rug i can't believe it's like has puppy ever seen a rug before there's puppy ever actually been on a rug so all of a sudden he's gone oh okay i and then basically your dog what you don't realize your puppies just learn i don't pee on hard surfaces and then when he goes into your aunt's house and there is a rug he's like oh i can pee on this this is okay pee's on that and then it's like well well over but all people get embarrassed and then it's a problem but you know it's puppies make mistakes and sometimes their learning isn't necessarily where we think it is and that's where like the puppy proof space is really important because if we can at least create a space that they understand almost explicitly that this is a no-go zone you know whether that's a crate or a playpen or a certain room um it just creates a small learning environment that they can then slowly expand and you can help them expand and generalize over time as opposed to going here's a whole house have fun and i guess i mean i've never really thought of it that way but i guess in a sense that's a whole lot like humans we teach you and that the bathroom is where you take do your business you don't do it all over the house you just go in this room and when you're in this room here's what happens in there you know exactly and weirdly enough the human analogy goes further because like the you know the stories about the kids that like end up like pooping in the cupboard or something if you punish your dog the same thing happens so like if you use punishment to train a puppy like where to where not to go um they can end up just hiding from you and assuming that it's if mum sees me go then i'll get in trouble whereas if they hide it and mum doesn't see it then we go back to the the awful treasure hunt um they won't get in trouble so it's it's a really weird juxtaposition that that the punishment is is like this weird um false equivalency and our dogs really struggle to understand that so yeah well it sounds like in psychology 101 we learned that the behavior your reward is the behavior that is repeated and so what I'm hearing you say is that when your dog uses the the puppy poop proof space properly that's when they should be rewarded like hey you use the potty yay that's awesome you rubbed your chin and you got rid of all the dribbles in the slobber yeah that's a reward you came in from outside and you wiped your hands on the little uh mat that was there for your wet paws yay that's a reward yeah train that behavior so that's the behavior that's repeated is that does that am I understanding that right absolutely yeah I mean that's operant conditioning and classical conditioning or combined and it just means that you're shaping the dog that's easy to live with as opposed to punishing and that thing goes back to the like psychology experiments too doesn't it like when if you entered the one I love or the the thought processes that I love is if you entered a room with 100 chairs one chair is yours but nobody told you which one and every time you sat on the wrong chair you got I don't know like a small static shock every time you sat on the wrong chair you would get really frustrated because you'd be like just tell me just tell me where you want me to sit and I will sit down whereas if somebody gave you a fire like a five dollar bill five pound note wherever you are in the world whatever um for sitting in the right one you sit there next time a little quicker you know and you wouldn't be worried about where you were meant to be you'd go well last time I was I they gave me a fire for sitting here so I'll sit here and it takes all of that guesswork out and the more we can take the guesswork out for our dogs or cats whichever is it same science works with cats the same science works with killer whales if you want to keep one of them um so thank you but no they would be a bit of a mission in the normal house but you know that's it if that's your jam why not so before you were a dog trainer you were a pet sitter and so my question is let's talk for a second about the pet sitting possibilities so you go away on a trip and you have a pet sitter come in and let's say the pet sitter doesn't know how you've trained your dog or your cat how do they adapt to that situation not knowing maybe the regular routine not knowing when those you you mentioned that after the dog eats or after the dog drinks that becomes the moment that you take them out for their their bathroom break or for what have you how does the pet sitter know um typically I used to do like a meet and greet with them so I would use I used to go into the home and have a full on discussion about what your normal day looks like what and it has to be realistic that was usually where this fell down if anywhere was that you know the homeowner and the pet parent would give you this like slightly rose tinted version of their life and then you'd go in and do the rose tinted version of their life and it didn't work um but I'm sure like in your industry it must be the exact same thing um but yeah so I used to go in have a really solid conversation and say okay well I can't be you because I can't be here 24 seven um you know I have I have my own commitments that I'm kind of bringing you into um so how do we best meet your dog your cat their needs whilst you're not here and then it would kind of be like a a negotiation of okay well then let's do two visits three visits ten visits I'll stay overnight whatever it is that you need that's then how I will try and fit in um that's when you suddenly learn that other people's cleanliness standards aren't necessarily yours um and that that used to be an interesting conversation um but you know in the main it was kind of a just make it work and then if they asked me to come again it'd be okay well I have now partnered with the local cleaning team and this is what's going to happen um and that wouldn't happen are you talking about severe cases of neglect in a home for example where there's extra clutter or there's there's yes that haven't been maintained yeah so sometimes you would walk into a home and it would be a case that the place so like I used to do overnight stays as well and that would be when I'd get particularly you know cautious about where I was going um and occasionally you'd walk in and the spare room where you would be saying would have dirty sheets on it it would have um like their laundry piled in a corner and like personal belongings all over the place and then I'm like oh my god this is just going to be a nightmare because if they accuse me of stealing a thing that I didn't even know was there how am I meant to to do that luckily my insurance would cover all of that if that happened but still it's something you want to avoid right so I used to kind of lay out a I expect a clear room with no objects in that are of any value I want I want a clean place to sleep and beyond that I think there was a couple of other little conditions you know about the bathroom being usable and things like that but so long as it was livable and comfortable then it was okay and and then you know silly things like I don't want a camera in the room because that's not okay if you're not watching me sleep I'm sorry um yeah there are all sorts of horror stories like that from my industry oh trust me um so it was just a case that you kind of had to make it as clear as possible with the client and then if those things were violated it was it was a case that that was the worst part because they'd be away on holiday and if you didn't do it nobody did it um there but that's when like getting emergency contacts and backup contacts are important because if if it is say you walk in and it is like totally unworkable then it's a case that it's okay well I'm really sorry but I'm either gonna have to bill you for this cleaning company that's gonna do a last minute thing we will minimize it as much as possible but this is your option we either have this or they go to your emergency contact you get you get everything but your deposit back and I'm sorry you know um so yeah it luckily I think I only ever had to do one of those um but you know so when you put your foot down so let's flip the script okay so now let's say that you are the animal and there is a pet center that's coming in to stay with you while their owner goes away for a couple of weeks and this has happened as a professional house cleaning company to me on multiple occasions we've had the homeowner go away on a trip and we come to do our regular cleaning and there will be accidents in the house and there will be vomit and things like that where I'm thinking it was a stressful situation because the animal is now out of its regular routine because the homeowner is gone how how do you um come into a situation like that you say okay there there's a bunch of stuff now and we don't know that the animal may have had somebody watching the animal but maybe the vomit is like two days old or something like that how do we clean up those kinds of messes that then to me would depend on um your relationship with local professionals firstly uh your relationship with your client and whether the pet's actually in danger because if um because say you walk in and it's literally like everywhere there's blood in it things like that then it's a okay this looks like a genuine emergency I'm going to directly contact the pet parents and just make sure and see what's going on um because they might be aware of it look I mean like you know let's say the pet's it is not there the cat has done that and the pets it is actually already at the vet with them you know we don't want to jump to conclusions just make sure and say look I found this is everything okay something really simple that doesn't assume any blame you know you want to keep your local professional contacts as as good as possible usually um as you know professionals we all there's always a muck up at some point and if we can support each other helps so if we cannot catastrophize things and not panic pet parents as well everything kind of usually comes out a bit better um but like I said just depends on whether you think the pet's in danger uh beyond that I would usually ask um my so from my side of things as a pet sitter I used to ask if there was a cleaning company coming or window cleaners anything like that so that they could make them aware that I was going to be in the house and give them my contact details um because you know typically in service-based industries you want to make it as easy as possible for the client right and like say for whatever reason I was a pet sitter I did know that the cat had vomited before I left I would have I would probably be polite enough to text you guys and go hey um fluffy's puked um I'm running out the door if you don't want to get to it don't worry I'll do it when I'm back at lunch or whatever um but if you can I'd be grateful sort of thing but it wouldn't be expected from my side of things um as the homeowner uh no as as a pet sitter I wouldn't as a pet sitter okay if if the pet's my responsibility I wouldn't be expecting you to clean that up um okay unless you were contracted to do it that's where like the gray area comes in right like if they're if if the homeowner is in the pet owner has already sort of said and agreed with you guys do you clean up all of this then I'm gonna be like well no that's that's you you know because yeah oh and let's talk about that for a second because I get asked this at least five to ten times a day that's the cleaning company that's going into a home they walk in let's assume that there's cat pee or dog pee or dog poop or cat puke or whatever something on the carpet and there will just be like a cleaning solution that's right next to the stain nobody said it worked but there's this really strong hint like hey clean this up and they're like the homeowner knew about it because they left me the cleaner right next to the stain like did they want me to do it like am I obligated to do it we didn't talk about it like what what happens next okay so I would say that if you when you guys have an intake form I'm guessing you must have like a has dogs has cats or whatever then I would suggest there be an addendum to your contract for pet parents or even just in every contact that's a late thing um contract that says you know should you have pets this is how I will approach it um because that then takes all of the owners off of you and then you know if they've signed it and they've already signed the agreement saying that you don't clean up dog poop you don't do this you don't do that and they know that then you can go back and go well it is in the contract under this clause that I don't do these things I consequently I have worked around it to the best of my ability but personally um I would just do it uh as long as it's not too regular do you know what I mean like if it's a one off if it's an oh my god the dog had an accident sorry to let you know uh but yeah photograph it send it to them and go hey just so you know fluffy had an accident because that's the other thing like sometimes if cleaner comes in and cleans it up and it is out of the ordinary and doesn't tell the dog parent that could be really important information for the dog's health or stress levels or training or anything like that so so always tell the the dog parent guardian owner of the home whoever is it's your main point of contact um that this has happened because even like sometimes if they can narrow down the window that it happened in is really important if they didn't leave you cleaning solution if they left you cleaning solution then then there might be a talk about manners well and I'm glad you brought that up because there is a diplomatic way to deal with that and what what I heard you say correct me if I'm wrong is as you're going into a home as a house cleaner accepting a job make it very clear what happens if your pet has an accident during the time I'm employed at your place so that we both are on the same page as far as the expectations go and if you clarify those before it happens okay and then you can just remind them yeah and then you can just remind them well when we did enter this agreement on that day and you signed this we did say this and then usually they go oh okay I forgot about that and and that's the reasonable client and you know you only really want the reasonable clients you don't want the unreasonable one that's going to argue with you and go wow what about this and you're like well okay bye that'd be my biggest piece of advice is take the good clients don't don't settle for the ones that are going to mess around too much there you go uh cody whitesill says itemization is very important in cleaning service so I think you should speak with a manager or the owner before moving forward and that's excellent if this is a first time situation and you're running into it and there's a surprise you show up and there's some kind of cleaning solution there like hint hint my dog peter pooped on the carpet you should bring it up with the manager and I'm going to agree with this for this reason if nothing is said and the cleaner cleans it up but they're doing a setting of precedence that they will do it again and so if there's a conversation up front like hey we took care of this today but want to let you know that we do have a service that provides that for an additional fee so that the expectation is don't be leaving the cleaning solution for me again if you know that you haven't trained your dog properly yeah and this is a recurring situation where every time I come back I'm going to be expected to clean this up is that fair absolutely absolutely um okay awesome and then uh there's somebody that says it doesn't sound pleasing to work with people with pets and I love that thing ironically no um and like I used to get told a lot that you know my job was their dream job and you know when you're like I'm not sure you understand how stressful this is um frankly because and and the worst part is is like you get a bond with their pet and you want to do the best by their animal as well because you love them even though they're not yours you love them you care about them and then sometimes when you say that you know Fluffy's mom isn't necessarily doing what Fluffy needs from Fluffy's mom it puts you in a really weird predicament that you're like I want you to do better because your dog is awesome and and it it's ethically it's really hard and then like you guys contractually it's really hard as well and and there's a there's not quite as many like big dog sitting pet sitting businesses right um as there are cleaning companies and things you usually have like more management structure so we're like a lot of pets that is our just a pet sale so their point of escalation is them so they can't go go talk to my manager you know they don't have that extra level of defense um so we then get put in this really weird position where we we are the business owner the service provider the contract writer the social media manager whatever and and consequently you become it can be really stressful and then you work like 24 seven and then people never seem to find it enough that's the other thing it can be quite thankless um it's why some pets it is if in do charge through the backside for their services and I make them right because it's it's not it's not easy it's a lot harder than it sounds I'm really glad you brought that up and gave us a realistic picture of that yeah sorry I I know that's kind of a bit of a bubble burst when you're dealing with somebody with pets because usually you want the bright sunny side but you again this is something that your audience must be able to resonate with as well because sometimes just your service isn't as valued and your expertise isn't as valued just because you're like in that service tier of of work and it's like well you've brought up a point earlier that is really interesting and it's about the stress level of the pet and I know for a house cleaning perspective every time I show up to a home and this is the first time the pet has met me I request that the homeowner be present I don't mind oh yeah pick up a service and it's okay if the homeowner is not going to be there when we clean but the first time I meet the pet I want the homeowner to be there because the pet will take the cues from the homeowner like do we trust this person and am I going to bite their leg off when they show up or is this person okay and so the first time that I show up as a house cleaner I've got my latex or my nitrile gloves on that's because I'm going to be wearing them every single time I come to their house yeah so I want to make sure that when I meet the animal for the first time and the parent is there that I can put my hand down with my glove on and let them smell and sniff my hand okay that's a weird scent and how you talk about animals have a strong to smell every time they see that they're going to know this is the lady that's coming to the house and she's also the person that's going to be running that loud vacuum cleaner yes yes and mobs and brooms and all of those weird things that some dogs really love to chase um which must make it really awkward for you guys but yeah absolutely do not enter a house certainly the first time without the dog's guardian in there and I would also ensure that uh but this is me being an over cautious trainer now because I I deal with a lot of big scary dogs right the big scary dogs are kind of one of my main points of focus um also just protect yourself and ask if they have a bite history ask if they have anything like that because the lot like you make your living physically right if your body is not involved you you ain't earning money and sure you might have you know insurance for all of that but still you don't want to get bitten um so do just ask you know get a little bit of history on the dog ask if they have a bite history when you are being introduced to a dog encourage them to have the dog on a lead because it's a dog acts out of character for whatever reason because you know socialization is a weird process and a lot of the time one of the things that dogs even like full grown dogs will have found that their socialization misses is things like high viz which might be something you guys use you know or have like luminescent color like rags or whatever and they can find those sorts of things weird and you are going to smell weird to the dog you're not going to smell like the other humans that they've interacted with so those points are risky points right you're coming into the dog's safe space you smell really weird and so let's just take an inch of extra caution um and alish alish is a great way to do that so yeah do be in there and i would recommend dogs on the lead before they meet that's a great suggestion thank you for that one of the things that i have found personally and i want to find out from a person with so much experience with dogs as a house cleaner going inside people's homes because that's sometimes where we find the accidents happen where it's an unusual situation and then the dog fills out of its i mean it is at its home but now there's a weird person and they're moving all of their stuff around and picking up stuff it doesn't get under it that like i say running the vacuum and that's when the dogs get kind of skittish and then they could have an accident or something like that i find that stopping to give the dog a directive before i go into the next room like hey guys i'm about to come into this room and i'm going to be cleaning and vacuuming this is a good time for you guys to run outside and play or go in the other room and just almost as if they understood me but give them a little bit of a heads up like hey i'm coming in there in a couple of minutes okay guys i'm in here now i'm gonna let you run in the other room okay and just by kind of showing them what happens they get up and they go play in the other room and then i feel like somehow we're working together instead of working not working against each other does that make sense yep absolutely um so they're not necessarily going to understand all of those words but when it becomes a practised pattern that they understand and they get some level of predictability with that that's when you'll see like them wander off into a different room like oh okay she always talks to me and sees these things and then she comes in here okay i'ma go in there because i just want to go sleep yes and that's when you reach like harmony do you do you get like the intrusive dog as well like the one that's here when you're working like if you're cleaning a toilet or something they're here no because i've been really i've been really keen to try to create a formula like you said when there's harmony and there's a routine and they can kind of expect something okay but then also i look at a little dog and this is coming from years of experience in the cleaning industry but i look at a little dog as having feelings as well yeah and so if the dog has an accident i think he's probably as embarrassed or ashamed as a person would be if they had an accident yes and so i don't i don't yeah i don't want to make the dog shamed or embarrassed that they had an accident and if we can clean it up then i would like to be able to to try to you know like you said address that with a homeowner figure out a way to do it where the dog is not embarrassed that there was an accident but then maybe address i don't know puppy pads or something like that what is your take on those little puppy pads that parents lay out and the dog can then have their personally i'm i'm really not a fan and unless it's a like i said like with severe weather unless there's severe weather involved and that has to be the option or like they're in an apartment and you know they're 30 floors up if if those are the ones that are the case then yeah i do i'm i'm a really big advocate of um real grass uh puppy pads so as opposed to like the fake ones the real grass ones uh um certainly with puppies and usually with older dogs because they've already acquainted themselves with going on grass it feels a little bit more natural for them so they kind of go oh there's a there this is where i would normally go to the toilet okay i do it here and it just helps to to focus them in a spot and not duplicate training because potty pads themselves that weird cushiony whatever it is is a really unique surface so this goes back to what we said earlier about generalization um that surface is not something that nature replicates in any way shape or form so when you then try and train the dog off of the potty pad particularly if you are in an apartment you can't phase it outside it becomes quite problematic and and a lot of dog parents just end up toilet training their dog twice which is such a pain you know nobody wants to do the training once and then go oh my god okay now i've got to do it again just in a different set of circumstances um so yeah if if they do need something like that if they do need that and you can't just like kick them into the garden i mean i say that in the nicest way possible don't physically kick the dogs um but if they can't go outside real graph pads are your next best real grass pads yeah so they they actually looks like grass it's like artificial turf or something yeah no it's real grass they actually grow like a small tray essentially of grass that drains really well into something below it and um and and usually they're like a subscription service that will like pick it up every month and send you a new one so so they will literally just give you a new grass pad every month so that you know it stays somewhere that your pup wants to pee so in this situation where like my friend who's now in in the senior years and has some mobility issues and is not able to actually like you said use the wet wipe and whatever to reach down and pick up her dog is this something that would then kind of retrain that dog to to then still keep his dignity while she's trying to keep her somewhat yeah absolutely um and and because most dogs are trained to grass it is it becomes more seamless do you know i mean the training then becomes much more understandable for your dog so that they can go oh grass is normal and then sometimes it'll take a little bit of encouragement but not usually an adult dog who's already trained to grow up he's usually quite quite easily transferable awesome thank you so much our time today is up and i've got a couple of questions that we didn't answer do you have just a second more should we answer those questions in the notes below um and i want to thank you guys so much for showing up this was awesome i've learned so much myself um Cynthia says is there uh please is there a specific chemical for cleaning pet stains so the smell is already there the pet stain is already there what do we use um so again this this would depend on the surface so i love baking soda for carpets leave that down as long as possible if you can get 24 hours out of it awesome if you can get four hours out of it fine um that works really well for carpet for wood floors usually you don't have to worry so much unless it's been sat uh that's when i like the oxygen bomb for that um what else did we say nature's miracle and your one was oh gosh what was your one um so the one that we've had really great success with is otoban um stain and odory mover and so that's the one that we prefer i know lots of people use angry orange do you do no i know no no i'll check them out thank you that's one that has a really great resounding result from a lot of the customers that we have so that's another product as well and i will leave links in the notes below to all of that as well as the links where you can find the training materials that ali has put together um ali where would our listeners go to find you um rebarcable.com is the website uh all my social media links work um then other than that i'm i'm rebarcable on facebook twitter uh redot barcable on instagram which is really nice and awkward i was like oh great one person managed to speak in that um but yeah so they're my main platforms um but yeah uh i don't think there's anywhere else if there is i'm sure i can let you know i've got links in the notes below to all of her social media so you guys can follow her as well but this has been really highly interesting i thank you so much ali for joining us today for having this conversation i want to thank all of you guys that joined us and have all of your comments here if there's anything we missed because we do have some here about anxiety and what happens with your dog we will answer those questions for everybody that's watching the replay and also for those of you that joined us that we didn't get your questions answered thanks again for today um until we meet again oh my gosh this is awesome leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it