How to wash your dog – successfully!

When it’s time to wash the dog, it’s usually umbrellas and waterproofs at the ready! Washing your dog is vital to your dogs health and should be a regular occurrence in their daily life. Dirty, greasy skin can cause itchiness and other issues. If you can’t bathe Doggie regularly, you can’t get rid of loose, dead hair. It will then end up on your couch, floor or bed. So what do you do if Doggie needs a bath but hates the water?

You’re going to need patience, a plan and this list of tips and tricks to make it a whole lot easier!

Make the bathroom a nice place to be

You wouldn’t want to bathe in somewhere that was dank, dark and just generally frightening would you? Well neither would your pet! Where it’s easy for us humans – we can visit a company like Better Bathrooms and update our bathrooms with new taps, towel rails and suites! But making the “washing room” comfortable for your pooch isn’t as straight forward!

You can heal the bathroom phobia by forgetting about bathing for a while. Instead, invite Doggie in when you’re there, or call him so he follows you in, and then offer him a treat. Once he loses his fear if the bathroom, you can work on his fear of the bath itself.

Keep your dog away from water when he’s in the bathroom. Although that sounds like a contradiction, you want to make sure he trusts your reasons for inviting him in. Don’t let him think you tricked him. So, invite him in when you’re taking a bath, but not while you’re in the shower — you might end up splashing him, and all trust will be lost.

When he’s in the bath

Get your dog accustomed to water in a gentle way. For example, get a shower puff wet and let your dog smell it. Don’t add shampoo or anything with a smell in it — just plain water at first. Rub it once over your dog’s body, then let them smell it again. If they’re okay with it, wet the puff again and repeat. If they go crazy or get upset about it, stop and try again the next day.

Always let them smell the puff before you touch them with it — that way they’ll know there’s nothing scary about it. You might need to do this for several weeks until they no longer worry about it when you approach him.

Washing

Use a bucket instead of the tap or the shower head when you’re ready to try for a real bath. Some dogs are afraid of running water, so using a bucket will reduce the tension. To do this successfully, get two buckets and fill them with warm water, then add some pet soap. Dip the puff into this bucket, and run it over your dog a couple of times. Then use a small plastic bowl or cup to ladle clean water from the other bucket, and gently pour it over him to wash the soap away