Pet hammocks are a clever way to keep your car’s seat clean if you transport pets regularly. However, I recently learned that a seat isn’t the only thing that needs to be cleaned; a dirty pet hammock is harmful to pets. How do you clean an active pet hammock to keep your dog or cat healthy?
If you have a waterproof pet hammock, you can clean it by wiping it with a damp cloth. However, you’ll have to wash your hammock occasionally, regardless of the source material. Whenever you’re cleaning extensively, you should always follow the instructions on the cleaning label to the letter.
When cleaning a pet hammock, the best factor to consider is the material used in manufacturing the hammock. If the material is waterproof or machine washable, the hammock should also be. Nevertheless, the hammock should have instructions for washing.
What Is a Pets Hammock?
If you’ve ever gone hammock camping, you may recall hammocks as those bed-like fabrics that suspend from two vertical structures to give a comfortable surface for resting. The idea for a pet hammock was inspired by that, but they’re not the same.
A pet hammock is mostly used in a car. Instead of hanging between two trees or vertical structures, it hangs between your car’s seats, creating a comfortable surface for your dogs. In addition to the comfort advantage, a pet hammock also ensures that your pet doesn’t introduce unwanted dirt to your seats.
When talking about pet hammocks, it usually refers to the ones installed in cars. However, it’s important to note that you can take certain pets, dogs for example, on hammock camping, where they enjoy resting or even napping in a regular hammock.
Despite the numerous advantages of a pet hammock, there’s one part that people don’t like: cleaning. If you didn’t consider the ease of cleaning and maintenance before getting your hammock, cleaning it would be one of the things you’ll hate the most about caring for your pet.
You won’t want to hate anything about your pets. To help you keep this goal feasible, I’ll show you how to clean an active pet’s hammock to avoid frustration while washing and drying them.
Are Dog Hammocks Machine Washable?
Everything would be a lot easier if you could simply wash your dog hammock in a washing machine. Washing anything manually can be a hassle, and if you’ve ever seen how dirty pet hammocks get, you’ll never wish to wash them with your clean hands.
Fortunately, you can wash most dog hammocks in a washing machine. Since most manufacturers don’t expect you to be willing to wash a dog’s pee off the hammock, they design it to be naturally washable with external help from machines.
However, you should always try to confirm if it’s possible to wash the specific dog hammock you bought with a washing machine. Manufacturers create hammocks from many different materials, and some even use fabrics that aren’t machine-washable to cut costs.
To determine if your dog’s hammock is machine-washable, you can find the washing label that’s always attached to the inside of the seat cover. There, you’ll learn the best temperatures to wash the hammock, and if it’s even possible to wash it using a machine.
If you can’t find any washing guide around the hammock, you can determine it yourself. The best way to determine if you can wash a hammock using a washing machine is by reviewing the material used in creating the hammock. If the material is machine-washable, then that answers your question.
When washing a dog hammock in a washing machine, you should avoid washing it with either cold or hot water. Coldwater doesn’t do a good job of removing stains, while hot water will shrink the hammock, reducing its quality.
Also, it’s never okay to dry your pet hammock in a dryer. While it can tolerate a machine wash, you must always dry it with air on a flat surface.
How Do You Clean an Active Pets Hammock?
Before attempting to clean your dog’s hammock, it’s crucial to look for the washing instructions to avoid any damage to the hammock. These instructions are usually hidden on a label in the material. Since the hammock is usually pretty large, you may have to do some searching.
The instructions will determine if you should attempt washing the hammock in a washing machine. Typically, there should also be drying instructions, but that’s always a warning for you to always dry the material in the air.
Regardless of how you choose to clean your pet’s hammock, there are some necessary steps you need to follow. Here are some tips that will help you clean your active pet’s hammock effectively.
- Shake first.
The care instructions say a lot about how you’re expected to clean the hammock. One thing it doesn’t usually say, however, is that it’s very difficult for your washing machine to rid the hammock of the hair from your pets’ fur.
If you fail to remove these fur hair before washing, it will either stick to the dog hammock or accumulate as unwanted debris inside your washing machine.
- Pretreat tough stains if necessary.
Before washing your pet’s hammock, it’s crucial to watch out for stubborn stains for presoak or pretreatment if necessary. The stains tend to stick stubbornly after a machine washes without any special pretreatment.
- Wash at the proper temperature.
The label on your pet’s hammock should carry a temperature guide for washing the material. Whether you’re washing using a machine or by hand, you should try to wash the hammock at the correct temperature stipulations to remove all the stains.
If you wash it at a higher temperature than normal, the hammock will start to shrink. Washing it in extremely cold temperatures will make it difficult to remove tough stains, necessitating a balance.
When you shake the hammock to remove all residual hair before washing, pretreat tough stains, and wash at the required temperature, you should have a clean pet hammock at all times.
One more thing to note, however, is that you should follow the cleaning instructions to the letter, even if it goes against the recommendations here.
