When you’ve got 10 or 12 or 20 dogs in the house, smells are unavoidable. And not all of them are as lovely as “wet dog”, either We get dogs who are incompletely (or simply not) house-trained, dogs who are old and have incomplete control of some bodily functions, and dogs who get sick and have accidents. And the house smells. Usually.

Barbara and I have developed a set of tactics to keep the smells down to a bearable level (but it’s still embarrassing sometimes to have guests just after we’ve been dealing with a dog having, ummm, digestive problems). We have some favorite cleaning products that you can find at the Sheltie Rescue Mall, we own (and even use sometimes) a Rug Doctor carpet shampooing machine, and there’s always the old standby of opening the doors and windows and turning on some fans.

I just heard about a web site that reviews products that fall into the category of “air purifier for pets”. No, they are not designed specifically to purify the air to make your pets happier – the idea is that they can make your life easier, healthier, and more enjoyable. An air purifier for pets is, using this web site’s definitions, a device that filters the air (removing things like pet dander, dust mites, and pollen) and frequently deodorizes it, too.

Surprisingly, perhaps, Barbara and I don’t own an air purifier for pets ourselves, but maybe we should try one out. They’re not all that cheap, and some of them are rather expensive, but maybe it would be worth it. Gotta think…

(P.S., I really do like the smell of wet Shelties!)

[[REVISION: I have removed the links that were formerly in this post because the company has decided to cease advertising the product itself. Whether or not the product is still available, I don’t know.]]