Bathing your dog

Want to take on the job yourself to save a few dollars? Here are some things you need to know and do before you put water on that dog!

Groomers do this thing called ‘pre-bathing’. Some of the steps that are done are: clipping the hair in between the pads, cleaning their ears, lifting the tail and shaving around that ‘private’ area. But what if you don’t have clippers? You can still give your dog a bath! The only thing that you can do to pre-bathe your dog is brush them thoroughly. The most important thing you need to have is a good dog grooming brush or slicker and a stainless steel grooming comb. The slicker I preferred to use was the Frank's Universal Soft Slicker Brush. My other favorite grooming tool was the Oster stainless steelcomb.

Begin by brushing your dog with the slicker brush. Most of these brushes are designed with fine wire that has a bit of a bend at the end. These brushes are meant to get down to the undercoat and pull out that dead hair. Be careful to not brush too hard or you will scratch the skin. Brush until you think you are done. The amount of time will depend on the type of hair your dog has. How do you know if you are done? Take that grooming comb and try to get through the coat. If the comb slides through like a hot knife in butter, then you may be done brushing. If your comb hits resistance then you are not done! Pick up the slicker brush again and repeat these steps of brushing then use the comb.

What is the big deal with all this? As a dog loses hair it becomes part of the dogs coat but is ‘stuck’ in the coat. If you do not get this dead hair out several things can happen. One, your dogs skin will not receive enough air flow and the hair around it begins to intertwine creating a matted mess. Second, if the dogs hair has not been brushed sufficiently and you get the hair wet you will not be able to get to the skin in that area and the hair will never be dried. This can cause the dog’s skin to become susceptible to infection. Think about having a band-aid on your finger and having that finger get wet, what happens to your skin? It becomes ‘water-logged’ and begins to turn white and prune up. The same type of thing happens when there is not good air flow on the skin of a dog and their hair is wet.

Once the dog is completely brushed and combed out, you are ready for the bath. If you are doing this outside with a hose use an attachment that creates a ‘shower’. When you are wetting the dog down you need to put the shower attachment right onto the dog’s hair and begin to saturate it. Use your free hand to massage the water in. If you spray the dog from far away you may not get the coat wet all the way to the skin. Lots of dogs have hair that repels water and this is why you need to get right down into the coat. Use special care when working around the head. Be careful to not get water in their ears, eyes and nose.

Using special dog shampoo (not your shampoo), begin with a moderate amount of soap in your hand and begin to work it into the dogs coat. Make lots of soapy lather from head to toe. Once the dog has been completely lathered up, it is time to rinse. As before, place the shower head nozzle right onto the dogs coat and rinse from top to bottom. Working with your free hand to be sure that the soap is rinsed out completely, you should hear ‘squeaky’ noises from the coat and no more suds should appear. It is very important that you get all the soap off the coat. Failure to do this will cause the coat attract dirt faster and the residue on the coat will irritate the dogs skin. When the dog has been completely rinsed off use a towel and towel dry the hair. You may get soaking wet while you bathe your dog so wear clothing that you don’t mind getting wet! When you are all done, tell your dog how ‘pretty’ they look! I bet you get lots of kisses!

Tweet This Post