# Keeping house clean



## yaminaisabel (Jul 19, 2015)

Hi all,
We adopted a german shepherd about 1 month ago. This is my first time having a dog residing mostly inside the house. My question for everyone is how do you guys manage to keep your floors somewhat clean. I feel like between going out for walks, and going out to the back yard to play, and the mess with drinking water that my floors just can't stay decent. Help? 

I have a roomba, and I'm going to try to use it more for maintenance, but how do I deal mainly with the slobber and the water dripping from his mouth after he drinks water?


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## Dunkirk (May 7, 2015)

I hear ya! You could have a face washer handy for use on the dog only after he drinks. With the roomba, you'll be emptying it a lot. I'd thought of buying a robotic cleaner, but my sister-in-law says her robotic cleaner jambs up with dog hair, so I didn't bother.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Welcome to the joys of dog ownership! They make up for the mess in so many other ways.


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## wick (Mar 7, 2015)

yaminaisabel said:


> Hi all,
> We adopted a german shepherd about 1 month ago. This is my first time having a dog residing mostly inside the house. My question for everyone is how do you guys manage to keep your floors somewhat clean. I feel like between going out for walks, and going out to the back yard to play, and the mess with drinking water that my floors just can't stay decent. Help?
> 
> I have a roomba, and I'm going to try to use it more for maintenance, but how do I deal mainly with the slobber and the water dripping from his mouth after he drinks water?


For the water issue I recommend finding a large mat that is used under dish dryers, they asborb and hold it in well and are washable. 

As for the floors..... I have hard wood and sweep and mop once a day, and we keep our carpet covered with 40$ large rugs from target and vac when its convenient lol. Keeps the goodstuff from being ruined without killing ourselves.


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## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

hahahahaha. clean?


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## Charlie W (Feb 12, 2013)

Lol, I feel your pain! I have an industrial vacuum cleaner and vacuum the house once a day. In winter when it's muddy I put towels on the floor when they come in and they are confined to one room until they dry. I mop the wooden and lino floors regularly..It's a lot of work, but a small price to pay for having them around. They also get brushed regularly to hopefully minimize the amount of hair they shed around the house. I can't help you with the water ting, I've never found it an issue.. Happy cleaning


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## trcy (Mar 1, 2013)

I vacuum once a week. We don't brush them regularly. You should see out pool filter. The kitchen floor I've given up on. It gets swept up, but until summer is over I'm not stressing to much about it. The dogs run in and out and we have a pool. It's a losing battle until it cools off. Then I will use the scooba on it. 

Being in California we don't get rain or mud.


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

Welcome to the dog households! Deja's water bowl is in the utility room but mostly she drinks from the toilet which makes it look like someone in our household has become incontinent. At least they don't slobber like Mastiffs.
If the dust bunnies seem to come to live, I vacuum. I can care less about hair and sand on the floors. I think it makes for a strong immune system. None of us ever is sick (*knocking on wood) To me my house is to live in and like Jax said, dogs make it all worth it.


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## WIBackpacker (Jan 9, 2014)

Haha.... yeah, it's an uphill battle.

We ripped out the carpeting in our house, and put in hard floors. When I was budgeting for my first GSD, I included the purchase price of a new Dyson vacuum in the "puppy budget". It helps.

I bought about a dozen inexpensive washable place mats (like you'd use at the dinner table) that match my area rugs, and keep one under each food & water bowl. They get rotated out and tossed in the washing machine a few times a week. I sweep a lot, it's just become part of the routine.


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## amburger16 (May 22, 2015)

Lol, I tried for weeks for clean.. Now I just wear my shoes in the house because I hate stuff stuck to my feet. Bear gets a bone goes in his crate on Sundays and I vacuum and wash the floors. By Sunday evening its a mess again.


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## Kyleigh (Oct 16, 2012)

Unless your dog lives outside, or you wrap him in plastic / bubble wrap before he comes in the house ... you're doomed!

Seriously! I have a cat, a long coat GSD and a parrot ... I simply gave up a LONG LONG time ago (about 15 years ago !)

The upstairs floors get washed every 2nd weekend, I vaccum 2-3 times a week - if I'm in the mood. 

I live in Ottawa, ON so nice weather for me in the summer means I am ALWAYS outside (because we freeze our butts off in the winter). 

I personally could care less about the floors and the fur and the feathers when I could be outside enjoying my pond, garden and the dog!

I don't live in a pigsty by any means, but I don't have a spotless house either (and there are no carpets in my house anywhere!)


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## Gretchen (Jan 20, 2011)

We've given up on having the perfectly clean house. For a vacuum I bought a Dyson Animal. I wished I would have bought one years ago, it really does clean very well and probably would have kept my carpet in better shape. We are looking into replacing downstairs carpet with Pergo.

The couch has a couch cover from Surefit, we bought two in white, they wash very well.









For our sloppy drinker we bought this for water mess. neater feeder









and will still probably need a waterhog mat underneath once we get new floors

Oh, and for those wet, muddy days we have a waterhog mat at the front door and keep a large towel in the coat closet by the front door so its always handy.


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## Traveler's Mom (Sep 24, 2012)

Pre dog, I had a nice clean home. I said PRE-dog.

I just bought a top of the line Shark vac. Don't know why I waited so long. It works! I only vacuum maybe once a week but I break out my carpet cleaner abut every other month. I have light beige carpet everywhere except kitchen and the bathrooms. I trained Traveler to wait just inside the door so I can towel off wet paws. It helps....some.  We live in Florida and I'm sure you could build a pretty nice sand castle with all the sand in my home but that's just the way it is.

I wouldn't trade him for a spotless home- no way! It used to drive me nuts but now I worry about how I'm going to ever be able to deal with the day he crosses the bridge.

Lynn & Traveler


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## middleofnowhere (Dec 20, 2000)

Dog water bowls are in a neater feeder in the laundry/mud room which is tiled and tucked away and just sorta a wreck anyway but neater feeder really helps with the drips and drools. Most of the house is hardwood. I just sweep a lot. Like when I think of it or feel like it. Sometimes several times a day, sometimes only a couple of times a week.


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## LoveEcho (Mar 4, 2011)

Mat/tray under food and water dishes, and swiffers (both wet and dry). My husband is a bit of a clean freak, so we are pretty on top of things with two dogs- I sweep every other day and vacuum a couple of times a week. We have a small (1000 sq ft) house though. We also pen them in our mud room/foyer after walks until they dry off and the dirt comes off.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

As a neat freak, my house will NEVER be clean to my standard while I own GSDs, lol.

I vacuum every other day, sometimes daily or even more than once daily depending on the level of shedding and whether an outside person has to come into my house, haha. I've never tried a Roomba but even a daily vacuuming produces a load of hair that is more in volume than the size of a Roomba so I doubt that would work for me.

Water in the house? Nope, nope, nope! My hardwood floors would be all warped and buckled by now, the way my dogs drink. I keep a bucket of water clipped to the fence outside (filled/changed several times daily) and a bucket in the basement on the unfinished/laundry side, under the sink so it's right next to the floor drain. The cement there is always wet, but it doesn't matter. I also add water to my dogs' meals so they don't drink a lot out of the buckets unless they've been exercising/training.

My hardwood floors need refinishing because of the dogs tearing around, but I'm waiting a few more years since I will not be adding any more dogs for a long time and the current ones are finally settling down.

The landing by the side/back door is tile which is great, if the dogs are wet or muddy I can wipe it off and no harm done. I keep a towel hanging there and they are basically trained to enter the house once at a time in the same order and get wiped off.


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## Charlie W (Feb 12, 2013)

trcy said:


> Being in California we don't get rain or mud.


Do you have any idea how envious I am? :laugh:


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## Galathiel (Nov 30, 2012)

I have beige carpet (had it BEFORE I brought home a black GSD). I vacuum the main living area where we hang out every other day. I have to empty the container (I have a Shark) after vacuuming EACH room as there is a paper bag sized mound of hair that was picked up. Why isn't my dog bald by now????? I also run the vacuum over the tiled kitchen area. It does a good job of picking up sand and fur tumbleweeds. As to the water ... blah. My dog has loose lips and dribbles EVERYWHERE. I have a mat under the bowl and a towel spread in front of it. It's still a mess.


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## DiggerDog (Jun 24, 2015)

I have a walk in shower and keep the water bowl in the corner of it


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