Savannah is No Match for the Bissell

When we decided to get a dog, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Neither my husband or I had ever owned a dog growing up, and our friends with dogs were all telling us, “Don’t do it!”

But we had 3 children who wanted a dog more than anything in the entire world, they are old enough to help care for it, and I am home most days so we finally broke down and agreed to “look into it” — which of course means we came home with a dog within a week!

We really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but we ended up adopting a dog that was about 3 years old and already house trained so we thought we were golden. And we were . . . for the first few weeks. She was so well behaved, never barked, never piddled in the house, stayed off the furniture and out of the upstairs, and was basically the sweetest, most lovable little white-and-caramel puffball you’ve ever met.

Then, suddenly, she decided to start piddling and pooping in the living room. No matter how many times we sprayed and cleaned, she kept going back to “her spot.” We can only assume that she was marking her territory because we moved her crate out of that room and into my office.

We’ve invested in all the sprays, followed all the suggestions from my Facebook friends (that equals professional advice, right?) and tried all the typical methods of reproach and encouragement, but nothing short of blocking off that section of our house succeeded in stopping this blatant display of canine dominance.

With the area blocked off, things were going much better in the doggie doodie department.

And then . . .

We had a get-together at our home. And we moved the barricades aside so our guests could flow unhindered from room to room.

Unfortunately that also meant that Savannah, our beloved territorial canine friend, had free reign of the house.

She looks innocent enough, right? Don’t be fooled.

It wasn’t long before one of the kids came running into the kitchen yelling “Savannah pooped in the living room!!!!”

Enter the Bissell SpotBot® Pet Deep Cleaner.

You see, a few weeks before, the fine folks at Bissell reached out to me and invited me to try out their SpotBot® Pet Deep Cleaner. They suggested that with the kids tracking in snow and slush and guests spilling red wine or hot cocoa, our carpets and upholstered furniture were bound to be hit with some unwanted holiday spills causing nasty spots and stains — which is all true — but all I saw was the PET in the title.

My husband had been using our heavy, cumbersome wet vac almost daily. This little SpotBot sounded like the perfect solution for cleaning up these frequent piddles and puddles that we were beginning to accept as the realities of dog ownership.

We’ve had it for about a month, and we’ve needed to use it several times. I asked my husband, who is the resident doggie doodie cleaner upper (and also the Handyguy with strong opinions about the design and usability of appliances large and small) to give me his take on our new Bissell SpotBot.

It works well. I like it. It’s easy to operate. You just need to figure out which solution you need to use for the job. The unit uses a couple different detergents. For typical pet or non pet stains, you just need to add the Bissell 2x Pet Stain and Odor Formula and water to the tank and let the machine do the work. For set-in stains, you can add some Bissell Oxygen boost to the mix. The machine has clearly marked measuring lines so it is easy to add the necessary detergent.

The hose/wand feature works well for cleaning steps. A *lot* easier then trying to haul a full size steam cleaner up the stairs. You can set the unit on each step while you are cleaning the one above it. Very handy.

In some areas, I determined that the carpet was so dirty that the SpotBot left a circle mark of clean carpet. In this case, I will have to steam clean the entire carpet.

The SpotBot easily removed dirt and other unknown marks on our basement rug… stains that were set in for months. Unfortunately we have not had any luck removing a set int stain from a rotten watermelon that leaked onto the dining room carpet. Who would have thought? (In the SpotBot’s defense, we have tried EVERYTHING and nothing will get rid of that stain.)

When a cycle is finished on the unit, it will beep until you turn it off. Kind of annoying, but probably a safety feature.

Also, the unit stores well on a shelf or closet (we have it on the floor of laundry closet).

So there you have it. The Handyguy’s seal of approval. He is not easy to please and not given to much praise, so when he gives his seal of approval, you can count on it.

And as we all know, when the Handyguy is happy, so is the Housewife!

You can find the Bissell SpotBot on Amazon.com and also at Walmart. This is a sponsored post but all opinions and doggie puddles are mine.

meet Jo-Lynne Shane

Jo-Lynne Shane has written 3349 posts on this blog.

I'm a wife, mom, writer, Christ follower, aspiring runner, avid style watcher, recovering foodie, hopeless coffee addict and connector of people. My husband says I have two speeds -- stop and go. I talk too fast and I over-think everything. When I'm not online, you will mostly likely find me curled up with my Kindle and a glass of wine. And I'll never turn down a pedicure.