How I Clean Pet Laundry

My papillon, Kitsune, suffers from flea allergy dermatitis.  When I say suffers, he really suffers.  A single flea bite is enough to send him into a frenzy where he’ll scratch and bite at himself until he bleeds.  He sometimes loses spots of fur, and his skin gets dry and crusty.  Yeah, it’s not pretty.

Luckily, since we moved out of the city, we haven’t had to deal with fleas.  Still, because of how badly Kitsune reacts to them, I make sure to use preventatives in the warmer months.  A big part of keeping fleas and other pests at bay is making sure that our house is cleaned often.  Plus hey, who doesn’t like a nice clean house?

Seasonal allergies, especially to tree pollen, are also an issue at our house.  My partner, Chris, and I both deal with allergies, especially in the spring/early summer.  Keeping the dogs, and our home, clean goes a long way towards keeping major allergy attacks at bay.  Besides vacuuming often, I do my best to keep up with the laundry – the pet laundry especially.

I keep pet laundry separate.

It’s not that the dogs, or their laundry grosses me out, but the dogs’ stuff will often have fur on it.  I like to avoid transferring this to our clothing if at all possible.  Kit and Fen spend a lot of time outdoors, so them tracking in pollen on their fur is a concern during allergy season.  I use a plastic hamper to hold pet laundry until laundry day.  It’s not the prettiest method of storing dirty laundry, but it gets the job done.  I especially like that it’s easy to clean out and disinfect as needed.

Before washing my pets’ laundry, I remove as much fur from it as possible.

For items like blankets or plush toys, I’ll shake them out a bit before washing them.  Larger items like pet beds can be vacuumed with a vacuum hose.  I don’t personally pretreat any of my pet items, so I can’t offer much advice there.  I don’t usually have issues with major stains on pet items and if I did, my dogs wouldn’t care.

Finding the right laundry products…

If you purchase laundry products, look for detergents that are hypoallergenic and free from perfumes and dyes.  Pets can have sensitive skin and dogs in particular are sensitive to strong odors.  For this reason as well, fabric softener isn’t usually recommended when washing pet laundry.

I dry most of my pets’ laundry in the drier.

I’ve noticed that doing so helps to remove any remaining stuck on fur.  Be careful if you’re drying things like dog sweaters or fuzzy plush toys.  Pet clothing, like human clothing, will often have a tag with care instructions that will tell you if it’s safe to be machine dried or not.  Plush toys that have fuzzy fur can be destroyed if the drier is too hot, so it’s often best to air dry them.

Washing and drying plush toys with squeakers has been hit or miss for me. 

Sometimes they’ll come out unscathed, but other times their squeakers will be ruined.  If I’m washing a toy that my dogs are rather impartial too, I’ll often take the risk and throw them in the washing machine.  If it’s something they especially like, I’ll err on the side of caution and opt to hand wash.

The types of things I’ll usually wash in machines include blankets, some plush toys, pet beds, and dog clothing.

Things like collars, leashes, and the dogs’ harnesses I usually just hand wash.  That way I don’t have to worry about them getting tangled up in the machines, plus they are easy to hand wash, and dry pretty quickly.

How often is too often?

Like with human laundry, there is a fine line between keeping clean and over-washing.  Over-washing things like dog blankets, beds, and toys can decrease their lifespan.  Not washing them often enough can leave our homes smelling not so fresh.  So how often is too often?

Well, it depends.  In the spring and summer, for example, I tend to wash my dog’s bedding every other week.  This keeps it clean, parasite (fleas and ticks), and pollen free.  In the winter, however, when parasites and pollen aren’t really an issue, I tend to let dog bedding go longer in between washes.

Plush toys, leashes, harnesses, and collars I wash as needed.  My dogs don’t wear clothes very often, but when they do I generally have them wear something a few times before washing.  But your mileage per wash will vary depending on a lot of different factors, such as the climate where you live, the season, and how dirty your dog tends to be.

Did I forget anything?  Comment below!  Let us know if you have any tips for keeping pet laundry fresh and clean or just share what you do with your pets’ laundry.