Hot water tends to set stains. Never put a stained fabric in the dryer. If you pretreated a stain, check it when you remove the fabric from the washer. Then, if it's still there, you can try to remove it another way. Stains don't work that way.
Patience can mean repeating a treatment over and over again.
You don't have to spend four continuous hours, said Brady, but you might have to treat the stain for a couple of minutes every half-hour or so to work it out. Blotting up a stain takes patience. Suppose you spill something on the carpet. A good way to get that out is to blot up as much as you can with paper towels, then attack the remaining spot by wetting it and blotting it again, and then wetting it and blotting it again. . .and again. If life were fair, there would be a single product or process that works with all stains.