However, giving your dog a bath requires respecting a certain method and preparations that will help transform this moment, which is a little painful for your doggie, into a real moment of complicity. The ideal is to accustom your dog as soon as possible to the bathing ritual and especially to the drying that follows, especially if you practice it with a hair dryer.
When to bathe your dog?
As a general rule, dogs should only be bathed when they are really dirty, when they begin to give off an offensive odor or if, during a walk, they have rolled themselves in something that smells particularly bad.Alas, droppings, manure, dung and various excrement tend to attract them irresistibly like magnets!
The bath can also take place if you notice that his hair is very tangled and that brushing becomes ineffective or if his skin is itchy. Dogs should not be bathed too often so as not to alter the protective sebum layer of their epidermis. A maximum bathing frequency every month or even every 2 or 3 months is generally more than enough.
Warning!
If you have just applied an anti-parasitic product to your dog's skin, you will need to wait one to two days for the product to be absorbed on the surface of your dog's skin before giving a bath for your dog. Similarly, if you have just given your dog a bath, it is best to wait a few days before applying the antiparasitic product, the time that the sebum, necessary for the proper distribution of the product, is reconstituted.
What do I need?
The easiest way is to use your own bathtub or, failing that, your shower tray. There are also tubs - similar to small swimming pools for children - specially designed to bathe your companion and sold in pet stores. It is still necessary to have a garden or, failing that, a balcony to install the bin.
If you have a very small bathroom and/or a large dog, be aware that there are “dog washes” in certain cities. These are washing stations where owners can come and wash their dog themselves for a fairly small fee. The washing station provides large bathtubs as well as spaces for brushing, mowing, cutting the animal's claws and of course drying it. The advantage? No need to completely clean the bathroom after Médor's visit!
Outside the bathtub, you will also need a brush to untangle your companion's hair before bathing him.Once the hairs are wet, the knots tighten and become almost impossible to undo. So remember to brush your dog meticulously before washing. Take advantage of this moment to inspect your dog from every angle and check for the absence of small wounds, various sizes, parasites, etc.
If your pooch is not a fan of the toilet and an ace of escape, it will be recommended to tie him up so that he does not hurt himself. Ideally, pass him a collar that you attach to the side wall using a small hook fixed in the wall or mounted on a suction cup. So that it does not slip, equip the bathtub or the shower tray with a non-slip mat or, failing that, an old towel which, once wet, will do the trick.
Obviously bring a specific shampoo for dogs. Ban the use of shampoo for human beings, including baby shampoo, which is not suitable for the nature of their fragile skin.There are also detangling products to apply after shampooing, to be reserved for dogs with long hair and if brushing has not made it possible to overcome all the knots.
Finally, plan plenty of clean terry towels for drying. You can use, if your dog is not afraid of it, a hair dryer to speed up the process. There are even more powerful dog-specific hair dryers to dry doggies in a jiffy.
Giving your dog a bath: how to do it?
1 - Place your dog in the empty bathtub or the bottom of the shower then, once calm, wet your dog with lukewarm water (between 28 and 35°C maximum) using the hand shower. Make sure the water gets well under the outer coat all the way to the dog's skin. Wet the dog's whole body, taking care that the water does not run into his eyes or ears. You can even protect them by inserting a small piece of sterile gauze while you wash.
Check the water temperature
before thoroughly wetting the dog's coat.
2 - Once the coat is very wet, apply a few dabs of shampoo to the entire length of the dog then emulsify the product, remembering to rub the belly, the underside of the tail, the chest well. Massage your pooch while talking to him and finish by cleaning his paws. Take a dab of shampoo if necessary and massage the paws without forgetting the interstices between his fingers.
Apply a little shampoo adapted to the nature of his skin
then emulsify the shampoo.
3 - Then proceed to rinsing, still using the warm water spray head. Rinse thoroughly until there is absolutely no shampoo left and the rinse water becomes perfectly clear. Again, watch out for your eyes and ears! Rinsing is a crucial step. If it is incomplete, leftover shampoo will dull the coat and irritate your pet's skin. If you use a detangling treatment, apply the product after shampooing followed by thorough rinsing then rinse again for a very long time to eliminate the slightest product residue on your companion's skin.
Rinse your dog, paying attention to his eyes.
4 - The washing phase is over, move on to drying. After letting your dog snort, apply a towel to your pet's back and rub it gently. Replace the towel with another, dry until the animal no longer feels the need to shake itself.
Let your dog snort
then wipe it off!
You can complete this summary drying by drying with a hair dryer if your pet is not afraid of it. Indeed, this device, harmless for us, is very noisy and all the more for the ultra-developed hearing of our dear doggies. It can therefore be particularly frightening if the animal has not been used to it since its earliest childhood. If he is afraid of it, do not insist and let him dry in a warm place, inside if it is cold outside. If he tolerates the hair dryer, take care not to burn your companion's skin. Set it to a moderate temperature and run the hair dryer a respectable distance from his coat and keep moving the hair dryer.
5 - End this moment with a reward: a treat or a game will make your pooch, now clean as a whistle, forget the "dirty quarter of an hour" he has just spent!