How to give your dog a bath
Some people love bath time, some hate it. For some it is their time for tranquillity, placidity and imperturbability, for others it can be too hot; boring and it makes your soggy fingers shrivel up like little, uncooked, pale, cocktail sausages.
Well, dogs are just like humans; some dogs can have a whale of a time in the bath and are easy to get clean, whereas others can make it the hardest job of all. My friend’s dog, Captain Winters, used to love bath time. Sometimes he would run himself a little bath when he was on his own. Very clever dog was the Captain, god rest his soul.
So your dog is smelly, it is scratching a lot and you don’t want to go to the vets and pay some extortionate fees. Why not give-a-dog-a-bath? Here is my helpful (at least I hope it will be) guide to bathing your dog.
1. Preparation
Benjamin Franklin once said, ‘by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail’. Take heed of this wise advice because if you don’t think it through you could end up frantically chasing your soaking dog around your house as he slowly soaks everything you own.
Gather everything you will need at the beginning and set it down next to the bath for easy reach. Make sure you have it all including the towels, dog shampoo, dog conditioner (if needed), and a sponge.
Once you have everything ready, you should give your dog a quick brush which is a good way to check its skin and fur and relax it before the bath. If you do come across any pesky spots or ticks then you may want to go to a vet or remove it yourself.
2. Saturation and application
Get your dog in the bath and get it wet. Simple. This is the most fun part of cleaning your dog. Get its coat nice and wet and then apply your special dog shampoo. Make sure it won’t irritate its skin first by checking at your local pet shop or vets where you bought the cleansing aid.
Make sure you scrub your dog all over and don’t miss any bits. Make sure you massage shampoo into all of its creases or rolls
If your dog shampoo is marked “will not sting eyes” then you can use it on the head and face. Go on get stuck in, grab your trusty sponge and scrub that face clean. Make sure you don’t get shampoo in your dogs eyes though as this is not pleasant. How would you like it if someone twice the size of you squirted shampoo into your eyes? You wouldn’t like it at all would you?
Fleas are good hiders, like the Borrowers or needles in haystacks, so keep a keen eye out for them. They like to hide in your dog’s ears so make sure to keep them bad-boys clean. A word of warning though, dog breeds with big ears (Shih-tzu, Bloodhound, and etc. are prone to infections if their ears are wet inside. So if your dog has large floppy ears, be sure to only clean inside with a slightly damp cloth.
To finish this section rinse your dog well making sure you get rid of every last speck of shampoo. Then it is onto phase three.
3. Evaporation
Now you have to get that dog dry. Lay a towel over your dog’s back and rub it gently at first and then a bit rougher if you want to. Make sure you dry it thoroughly and always, I mean ALWAYS dry the inside of its ears well to avoid infection. I can guarantee that no matter how well you dry your pooch, they will still insist on shaking themselves dry and completely soaking you so be warned.
You can then lay the towel on the floor and use a hairdryer and a comb to dry your dog even more and to get their coat looking neat and tidy.
Some dogs are prone to ear infections, if your canine is then you should use 2 drops of a vet-supplied rinse that will help dry the ears.
Once they are clean and dry your job is done. Try and keep them clean for a while, so you didn’t just waste half an hour of your life. I hope this has been as useful to you as I had hoped, and I hope you enjoy giving your pooch a lovely good scrub-a-dub-dub!
Picture courtesy of Adria Richards
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