Rule #213: Remove signs of pets (and ideally the pets too)
Buyers love dogs. They just don't want to buy yours.
For the length of a campaign, every sign of a pet needs to leave the property — the gear, the hair, the smell, the damage and, on open days, the animal itself. Not because buyers are heartless, but because a stranger's pet is a question mark, and buyers pay less for question marks. Your labrador is family; to a buyer he's a depreciation schedule with ears.
Do buyers really mind pets at an open home?
Roughly seven in ten Australian households keep a pet — Animal Medicines Australia's ownership surveys put it at 69% — so the objection writes itself: most buyers have pets too, surely it's fine? It isn't, and the reason is precise. A pet owner loves their own animal and knows its history. Yours is an unknown: they can't tell surface fluff from soaked-in odour, or a scratched door from chewed frames behind the fresh paint.
And pet evidence does something worse than announce an animal. It hands the buyer a search warrant. The moment someone spots a dog bed by the door, they stop browsing and start inspecting — lifting rug corners, sniffing carpet, running a finger along the skirting. A styled home invites imagination. Evidence invites an audit.
The Pet Trace Sweep
Five traces. Work through them in order, a week before photos.
The gear. Bowls, beds, the litter setup, leads on hooks, the scratching post, the crate in the laundry, every rubber chicken in the yard. Box it all; the car boot or a mate's garage is its home until settlement.
The hair. Book a professional steam clean for carpets — a few hundred dollars for a whole home and worth every cent. Lint-roll the sofa, the curtains' bottom third, and vacuum along every skirting board where fluff drifts and settles.
The smell. You can't detect it; you live in it. Run the Borrowed Nose Test from Rule #210 — a friend who hasn't visited in months walks in cold and reports. Treat what they find at the source, never with fragrance.
The damage. Scratched door bottoms get a light sand and touch-up. Chewed skirting gets filled. Torn flyscreens get re-meshed. Lawn burn patches get seed and water two weeks out — grass forgives faster than buyers do.
The open day itself. Pets, bedding and bowls travel together — to a family member, or doggy daycare for the Saturday. Fish are the exception: aquariums stay, cleaned until the glass disappears. Nobody ever discounted a home over a calm tank.
Field note, spring campaign: the litter tray was spotless. The hallway still announced it before we reached the kitchen.
Field note: a buyer knelt to check under the rug within ninety seconds of walking in. There was a dog bed by the front door.
Field note: the vendor's cockatiel greeted every group with "HELLO". Memorable — though not in the way the agent hoped.
What if the pet can't go anywhere?
Living there with a dog until settlement is normal life, and it's workable as a routine: gear travels to the car every open morning, bedding gets washed weekly through the campaign, the yard gets patrolled daily rather than in a Friday panic, and daycare gets booked for inspection days the moment the campaign calendar exists. The sweep isn't a lie about your life. It's staging the version of the home the next owner is buying — the one where their own dog gets to leave the evidence.
Your dog will forgive the day trips. Your sale price will thank him.
FAQ
Should pets be home during an open house? No. Take the animal, its bedding and bowls off-site for every inspection. Even friendly pets distract buyers, trigger allergies and shorten visits — and visible pet gear prompts buyers to hunt for wear, odour and damage instead of imagining their own life in the home.
◀ Previous: Rule #212 — Clean all windows: more light equals better impressions | ▶ Next: Rule #214 — Define each room's purpose clearly — no "junk" rooms
This article is part of the Goldpac Stylist Guide — 265 home staging rules from Sydney's styling team.
Selling with a full house — kids, dog, the lot? A Goldpac pre-sale consult maps what hides, what moves and what stays. And the swept-and-styled versions live in our Real Results.