Still smells? You probably rushed the wait.

The fastest way through it:

1. Read your bottle's wait first: every enzyme cleaner prints its own, and the label time wins.
2. Fresh spot: Blot, then soak it with Rocco & Roxie and leave it 10 minutes or longer (see Rocco & Roxie at Amazon). Naturally It's Clean asks for a few minutes.
3. Old, dried pee: soak it as deep as the pee went and leave it overnight, or a couple of days on older stains with Rocco & Roxie.
4. Let it air dry. No steam cleaner until it has sat overnight: high heat deactivates Rocco & Roxie's biological ingredients.
5. Sniff it once it's dry. Still smells? Soak it again, with more cleaner and a longer wait.

Still picking a bottle? See our enzyme cleaners for dog urine, sorted by mess.

How long each maker says to leave it

The pattern: fresh spots take minutes, old ones take hours. Old pee goes deeper, and Nature's Miracle says the smell only goes once the cleaner reaches all of it.

Wait times by stain age and surface

Your bottle's time still wins. Here is how the makers' times above map to the spot you are actually cleaning.

• Fresh pee on carpet: a few minutes to 10 or more, depending on the bottle, soaked down to the pad. Then leave it to air dry.
• Old or dried pee on carpet: overnight, and up to a couple of days on older stains with Rocco & Roxie. With Nature's Miracle, plan on a second deep soak.
• Tile and concrete: Pour it on and leave it, per Rocco & Roxie, then judge the spot once it is dry.
• Wood: One round at a time. The wait that matters is the dry time, because the next round only goes on once the first is fully dry.
• Couch cushions and mattresses: the foam holds pee deep, so treat it like an old stain and give it the long soak and a full dry. Our guide to getting pee out of a mattress covers the padding layer by layer.

Soak it, then leave it alone

A light mist won't reach pee that soaked into the pad. Nature's Miracle says reaching it can mean soaking the pad and the floor under the carpet.

• Soak past the edges. Pee spreads wider under the carpet than the spot you can see, so cover more than the stain and soak down to the backing and pad.
• For pee smell, Nature's Miracle says skip the blot: leave it wet and let it air dry.
• Old carpet stain? Give it a second soak, as deep as the pee went, and let it air dry. That's the Nature's Miracle way for old, stubborn smells.
• On tile, wood or concrete, Rocco & Roxie says pour it on and leave it. On wood, let the first round dry fully before you add more.

Pee on a couch cushion instead? The foam holds it, so read how to get dog smell out of a couch first.

Wood is the fussy one: our hardwood floor stain guide covers sealing, spot tests and how wet is too wet.

Common mistakes: don't cook the enzymes

Bleach, vinegar and peroxide: keep them off a treated spot

How to tell if it worked

Judge it once it's dry. Nature's Miracle says the smell fades as the cleaner dries. Rocco & Roxie says vacuum and check the spot once it's dry.

Still smells once it's dry? Do it again. The first round probably missed some of the urine. Use more and let it sit longer.

Smell back after round two: find where the pee went

A second miss usually means the cleaner never reached all of the pee. Check these before you pour a third round.

• The real edges. In a dark room, a UV flashlight makes dried pee glow, so you can see how far it spread and soak all of it, not just the visible stain.
• The pad. A top-down spray stops at the carpet. If the smell lives in the pad, soak through to it, or pull the carpet back and treat the pad and the floor under it.
• An earlier cleaner. A spot that was scrubbed with soap or a spray first can be set, so expect it to take more rounds than a spot that got enzymes first.

Your dog keeps going back to the same spot? They can still smell it, even when you can't. Treat it again. Accidents in new places, or a lot more of them, are a reason to ask your vet.

Smell came back weeks later? Read why pet odor comes back after cleaning for the usual culprits.

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