Managing the Carpet with Your Pets?

[agilityaussi]

All brave pet/rv people,

The simple question worth a million dollars is: how do you all manage carpet and dogs in your RV?
The ultimate deal will be replace the carpet by laminate or vinyl, but we are not ready for it yet.
I am thinking about runners (if they do not move around though), any other ideas?
It is not too bad if it is dry weather, but when it rains....oh boy, agility shows are outdoors usually and even if it is indoors it is dirt surface, granted sometimes we can crate inside too, but still....
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciatted.
thanks
Mo and Ch dogs

[Jimmyzw22]

We have three Boston Terriers that travel with us. I am in the process right now of changing all carpet to laminate flooring for that reason. Plus carpet holds mold and allergens.
Jim

[mudpuppy]

We travel with four dogs. Carpet runners and sheets on the furniture.

[Wicked Whippets]

You agility people think you have smart, well trained dogs, but my whippets have mastered geo-carpet locating! If one of the Wicked Whippets is not feeling well and quickly needs to eliminate something from their system they can find any spot on the carpet in an area where I can't cover it with a rug to leave a surprise. Eventually, I'll get around to removing the carpet and replace it with something with fewer spots on it.

[Wayne M]

I have taught Miya to walk only on tile, cement, and grass (including wet muddy grass). So far I have been sucessful with grass and some cement. I'm still working on tile only. It is a never ending battle.

We have a shampo machine that we use when we return to the stick house. I'm thinking of carrying it with us. It does a good job of cleaning up. For those accidental "water" spots created by Miya (One every 6 months or so) I use a cloth that is the first product of "Shanwow." It soaks up the water very well if you follow the instructions.

I'm trying to teach Miya to read so she can clean up after herself. So far, no luck.

[AFChap]

Wehave two little dog buddies with us. We keep a towel at the door for really wet/dirty doggie feet. We have a small hand carpet cleaner machine for bigger problems, but use it very rarely. I use Simple Green and a damp cloth for small cleanups. Once a year we have Stanley Steamer come and do their thing.

[powerboatr]

towel at the door for the wet feets. plus a thick door rug 2x3 to catch the crud.
all shoes are laid on a mat/rug under the steering wheel, all shoes are removed there and none allowed any further cept slippers
we now have tile floors, but we also have two large rugs laid out so the tile inst so cold or hard on the feet. we have tow over 60 lb puppies so feet cleaning is a must, both dogs know the drill, I say foot and get a paw, then we count to four, sometime i have to remind them they have four feet

we have an inexpensive DYNAMITE by dirt devil its a no frills bag less that flat sucks the pet hair right up, it also fold down pretty small and weighs next to nothing
then use the built in vac for the dusting and little stuff

[golden]

If you travel with dogs, it is virtually impossible to keep your carpets in pristine condition. We realized that early and accepted it. Recently, however, we bought a high dollar vacuum cleaner for the house recently(we were getting new carpetting and wanted to start out at a high level regarding dogs. We just got back from camping 11 days with the dogs in mostly inclement weather and I decided to use the new vacuum versus the old one when I returned home. What a colossal difference! One pass removed all the dirt, hair and much, if not all, the odor. I guess what I'm saying is that if you want really clean, be prepared to spend a lot of money. I wouldn't have done it just for the RV, but since I already had it for the house it worked out great. Now I intend to take it with me whenever we are on the road for over two weeks.

[smlranger]

We also keep a towel at the door to wipe feet. We have two washable area rugs at the entrance and also have the Bissell little green machine for those infrequent but inevitable mishaps.

However, the carpet will go and be replaced with laminate flooring in the near future. Carpet is just not practical in a motorhome, especially with dogs.

[Ed S]

so far the best thing I have found to protect the carpet is the purchase of industrial carpet mats or runners. 3 or 4 ft wide, Lenghts from 4 ft up. They do slip on the carpet so I bought the non-slip stuff for und rugs. Works ok but still some movement. Carpets are dry and clean. Mats go down on floor when we park and rolled back up when we pull in slides Thinking of trying two sided carpet tape to hold in place or snaps.

Good luck

[sky_watcher]

The towel by the door and the loose, washable rug aren't just for my Abbers' four paws; it's for her mom's 2 feet as well! After being out on the trails, and it is so wet right now in central Ok, we're both dirty. I vacuum regularly and use carpet cleaner when necessary. And my expectations are reasonable, for her and for me. LOL Living in a rural campground beats living in town any day!!

Lorraine

[Lynnvt]

You would think that RV manufacturers would figure it out, that there are a considerable number of RV consumers who would prefer hard surface flooring. We asked when we bought our Cameo but they don't produce them with hard surface. There are so many threads on this board about taking out carpet and installing some sort of hard surface flooring.

[Money Man]

luckily our coach came with an all-tile living area. other than that, we bought a super-cheap comforter with which we cover the sofa and we crate them at night in foldable nylon crates (petsmart/petco). so far so good--although maxwell had a bad night a couple of nights ago--but at least it was in his crate which was easily hosed out and dried. first time for that experience.

our suggestion is that you hurry and budget your conversion to laminate or wood.

i think tiffin has figured out that we don't want carpet; they converted to all hard-surface flooring in 2008 and now even the area around the driver and passenger seats is hard-surfaced.

[sky_watcher]

Not trying to hijack; just a comment. I want to know why the Newmar manufacturer would think that putting carpet in front of the stove/refrigerator area apparently for the slide that there is a good idea? Gets dirtier than the carpet at the front door(2004 Mountainaire 5th wheel).

Back to the topic at hand.