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Washing my dog
Horus
Los AngelesRegistered User regular
Los AngelesRegistered User regular
So I have a new dog and its bath time but I am scared I can get her sick. What should I have ready for? What should I get? I only have shower head and I bought some cheap oatmeal based dog shampoo.
I looked at some sites and youtube videos but it seems to cater to professional dog grooming.
Basically how can I shower my dog without causing harm? I am bit scared about this.
I looked at some sites and youtube videos but it seems to cater to professional dog grooming.
Basically how can I shower my dog without causing harm? I am bit scared about this.
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!
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Horus on
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Also, pictures are needed.
I tend to just make them come into the tub with me at the end of a bath. There's already warm water, I'm already all wet (which invariably happens while trying to wash dogs that don't love doggy baths). I have a cup to pour water on top of them for the areas that don't already get soaked. I put a little soap on them and rub it in and tell them what a good little woofy they are, and then I rinse them out by telling them to sit and then using the cup to pour more water on them (rinse out takes substantially longer, the longer the fur is). While they still don't love bath time, they suffer through it much better being in the tub with you as opposed to you being outside and trying to push them into sit position, or attempting to wash them in the kitchen sink (which is too bad, because the kitchen sink attachment is perfect for rinsing out woofies)
"That's not a big puddle, that's flood overflow from a storm drain...and possibly sewage line, yuck...well looks like we both get a bath."
If there isn't you're probably safe to to wash the whole dog. Do the same thing whenever you switch soap.
My dog had a really bad allergic reaction to a supposedly gentle oatmeal shampoo that basically turned her body pink. We had to take her to the vet to get antihistamine shots.
And i've seen other dogs break out in hives all over from another shampoo.
It might cause them to want to roll around in the dirt afterwards, but you can't really stop that. Dogs are tough creatures, they can survive being bathed.
He's also severely allergic to basically the entire world (beef, chicken, pork, corn, lamb, grass, weeds, black ants, houseflies, cats and people), and many shampoos/soaps will send him into an itching fit. We've found that hypoallergenic shampoos work fine, but are expensive. What also works is the environmentally-friendly dishwashing soap from costco, and it's lightyears cheaper. Soap is soap.
Also, since this seems like a good place to ask. I recently inherited a chocolate lab form a coworker and this dog reeks, worst smelling dog ever. He has had skin problems, but is much better now, but that smell...
Any tips? Special shampoo? Or is it just something I have to live with?
roland, pick up an oatmeal based shampoo, though you don't want to wash a lab too often since it strips teh oil from their coats.
trader joes has a really good dog shampoo, and we used to use the pne from target
though you might want to start supplementing his food with fish oil
It's the easiest way to wash mine, and he's generally pretty cool with it, it just takes three towels to dry him off and I usually have to clean the bathroom after because it smells like wet dog
My parents have pugs, and they just bathe them in a work sink in the basement. It's got a flat bottom on it with enough texture for the dogs to stand, and a hose attachment on the faucet to actually soak the dogs down. They may not enjoy it, but they tolerate it reasonably well. Since my parents can stand and wash them, it's much easier for them too (compared with a bathtub). If you're doing it in a bathtub, maybe look for a shower head that has a hose. You'll be able to rinse the shampoo out much better since you'll be moving the head around the dog, rather then trying to convince the dog to move.
the rash was probably due to your cursed house
You post from that house, right? From now on I will blame any forum downtime on your house.
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Be sure to look up your dogs breed for any particular washing instructions. If they are a mixed breed look them all up and then go with the instructions for the breed whose coat is most like your mixed breed dog.
For example, I have a couple of mini-dachshund/pekingese pups and neither breed has any special bathing care considerations. I give them baths when they get stinky; sometimes that's often and sometimes it's more than a month in between baths.
I also have a german shepherd mix, what he's mixed with I don't know (husky I think), but it's immaterial because his coat is a german shepherd coat. German shepherds have a very special coat and bathing can fuck it up big time. Sources suggest bathing a GSD no more than once every six weeks. So we stick to that, even if he gets stinky.
-edit-
Oh, also I do the shower with swim trunks thing for all the dogs. The pups used to get bathed in the sink but they outgrew that. I hold them in my lap while I sit on the floor of the walk-in shower and use a hose shower head. I do the same with the big dog only I stand in the shower with him (he really hates it).
though bicons have hair and not fur right?
I took the safe route from the beginning: Stripped down to underwear, made sure shampoo (no-tear puppy shampoo) and towel were at hand, ran the tub spigot and got down to business. She seemed to be afraid more of the spigot than she was of the water itself, honestly. I kept one hand kind of around her so that I could stop her if she made a move to run, and scrubbed/rinsed with the other. I didn't have a big cup handy to rinse with, so it took a little longer than it might have needed to.
Anyway, that's a method that worked for me - go ahead and hop in there with your pup, speak some calm, kind words, and try and get it over with as quickly as possible! She seemed to be okay with the shampoo, too - not itchy or anything afterwards.