Bathing a dog

First, if your dog has many knots or mats and can't be brushed or combed easily, I recommend that you take your dog to a professional groomer instead of bathing it yourself. Baths tend to make knots tighter and mats worse.

For all dogs who can be brushed and combed, here's Bathing a Dog 101...

To give a dog a bath there are a few things I do to make it a good clean bath and to control a dog who really doesn't want to be in the bath.

1. If the dog is big enough to get in the tub on its own, ask the dog to get in the tub.
If that doesn't work, lead him to the tub on a leash and ask him to get in the tub.
If that doesn't work, just help him into the tub.
If your dog wants to get out of the tub then you'll exhaust yourself trying to bathe him/her and also trying to prevent him/her from getting out of the tub or away from you within in the tub.
Here's a tip, buy a suction cup with a metal ring on it and attach a groomer's loop to it and put it around the dog's neck.
You can get the suction cup at petedge.com, if you can't find it anywhere else. It costs about $2. Attach a groomer's loop to the suction cup. You can get this at petedge.com too. I recommend a nylon web groomer's loop with a quick release but any will do.

2. Now that the dog is in the tub and either staying on his own or tethered to the tub, you can get him wet. I recommend a spray nozzle. If you have a hand held shower head you're set. A sprayer is important because it's important to rinse out the shampoo. Leftover shampoo on a dog can be itchy and that leads to scratching which can lead to unhappy dogs and worse, it could lead to infection.

If you don't have a hand held shower head, I recommend Rinse Ace sprayers. They are reasonably priced and work rather well. Another nice thing about the Rinse Ace sprayers is that they have a button that you press when you want the spray, otherwise the water doesn't come out. This is good when you want to put the hose down and just scrub your dog clean. You don't have to worry about getting water everywhere or about reaching the water controls and turning the water off after you've already got the temperature right. And Rinse Ace also makes custom sprayers with different length hose if you request it. There are 3 models.
- The Indoor/Outdoor Pet Sprayer attaches to the sink faucet and then I use it in the tub. This also works well if you want to bathe your dog in the kitchen sink and need a sprayer there. As described, it can also be attached to an outdoor hose spigot.
- The Pet Shower Deluxe comes with a piece that you install between your shower head and the pipe coming out of the wall. I can do it in 2 minutes in anyone's home, usually without any tools. This piece allows you to attach and detach the sprayer anytime you want.
- The Pet Shower Deluxe Plus offers 2 more features - you turn the sprayface to switch between gentle spray, pulsating spray, and concentrated spray. And there is also a lever for controlling the flow of water from less to more.

3. Shampoo. Use dog shampoo because their PH is different than ours. There is a huge selection out there. If your dog has any skin issues or allergies look for something that might help or ask a vet for special shampoo. If you're afraid of getting water in your dog's ears, put cotton balls in them.
Drizzle shampoo all over the dog to get some on all parts of the body, butt, belly, chest, legs, paws, ears, and tail. Lather up the whole dog and pay special attention to the feet, toes, butt, privates, inner thighs, armpits because these are the dirtiest parts. Lather the top of the dog's head and pull lather forward to face or use a wash clothe to wash face and keep shampoo out of eyes. (I use Nature's Specialties Coconut Clean for a really dirty dog. It cleans well, leaves a nice smelling dog, and it also conditions the coat.)
If you dog has folds be sure to wash, rinse, and dry in the folds.
If your dog has eye gook you can use either a flea comb, a small face comb, or a toothbrush to gently comb the gook out of the dog's hair. Be careful not to scratch an eye with a comb or brush.

4. Dry the dog with towel. Wrap dog tightly in a towel and let sit a bit to soak up water. Use a force air dryer or a blow dryer with a warm setting. If you don't have either one and your dryer just has hot air be careful not to burn the dog's skin. Petedge sells a dryer with a blow dryere for pets with cold, warm, and hot settings. Alternatively, the smallest force air dryer is the Metro Air Force Quick Draw and it sells for about $100.
Brush and comb your dog's coat while drying it. (Nature's Specialties Quicker Slicker is a great detangling spray, if you need it.) If you're not sure what kind of brush you should be using, see another blog entry about Brushing Your Dog.

5. If you put cotton balls in the ears, remove the cotton balls. If you have the type of dog that grows hair in the ear canals, lightly sprinkle on an ear powder like R-7 Step 1 Ear Powder to easily grip the hairs and pluck them out. Clean dog's ears with cotton balls and an ear cleaner like R-7 Step 2 Ear Cleaner. If your dog's ears are beautifully light pink in color and don't smell you don't have to clean them with ear cleaner at all. If dogs ears are filled with dark brown or blackish discharge, they need a vet's attention. If the skin is swollen or cracked, they need a vet's attention. If there is lots of yellowish discharge, they need a vet's attention. If the ears smell, they need a vet's attention.