I pretreat the area first with a pet stain remover. You can buy it in the pet area of Walmart. I also use the Bissell Pet Stain and Odor Remover cleaner. It is in a dark red bottle. It does remove the stains and makes your carpet smell nice and fresh. I think the heater in this cleaner helps a lot. My carpets are beige and this cleaner took out all of my old pet stains. It also works well on tracked in mud and even made the high traffic areas look like new. It is a very good cleaner and is easy to use.