The Ordeal of Bathing Dogs

Shani

This morning was bath day for our two dogs, Nikki and Shani. For these two, bathing is an ordeal. They would rather do anything else in life than get a bath. Now it's not as if they dislike water. Give them a wide open beach with gentle surf, a bay, bayou, lake, river, stream, creek, pool, or even a mud puddle and these are two happy dogs. But just try coaxing them into having a bath. Bathtubs are out. Showers are out. So we have to resort to a bucket of soapy water and then drag the dogs, one at a time, onto the back patio for a much needed shampoo and rinse. They'll do just about anything to keep that first drop of soapy water off their fur, which is just fine with a little dirt, thank you very much. But since they primarily want to be inside dogs, a bath now and then is a must.

So we started with 96 lb Shani, who for some uncanny reason, knows when she's about to get a bath. Today we had to half push, half drag her out the sliding glass door and onto the patio. Once she gets soaped down she resigns herself to the ordeal and cooperates with no problem. When she's fully shampooed, rinsed, shakes off, is dried with a towel and then given her after-bath-treat, then she's a happy camper. Of course, in 2 to 3 months time we'll go through this all over again.


Nikki

Nikki, now at 41 lbs, is easier to handle. Today I just bodily picked her up and carried her out the door. Of course, I'll pay for that later with an aching back, but at the moment it seemed like the best solution, as there's no way to coax her out the door. We've tried that method too many times and it never works. Nik has short fur, so it takes only minutes to get her cleaned and dried. Then she heads straight for the kitchen to wait for her treat. The treat today was half a slice of turkey-ham.

My Mom has two Basset Hounds, Lulu and Daisy, who love getting a bath. They jump willingly into her downstairs bathtub and enjoy their bath. She used to bathe them one at a time, but they both wanted to be first. So now she just lets them both get in the tub at the same time. Of course, they get an after-bath-treat too. After that, they run up and down the long hallway like crazy dogs.

My sister-in-law, who has four small dogs, a Shih Tzu, a Chihuahua, a Yorkie and a Chorkie (a Chihuahua-Yorkie mix), just puts all her dogs in a plastic tub on her condo patio and bathes them as a group. She says the dogs sulk for about an hour or two, because they're offended that she would do such a thing to them.  Then, once again, they're all happy and much nicer smelling dogs.

One time I took Shani in for a bath. After charging me $42 it turns out they tranquilized her in order to give her a bath. I was furious and have never subjected any of my dogs again to that kind of experience. So maybe Shani does have a reason for not wanting to get a bath?

Anyway, after the bath and a nap, our dogs usually sniff each other to check out the new smells. They seem to like being clean, after the fact. Also, I think our dogs take great satisfaction in knowing that we get a bath at the same time as they do, because after all is said and done, we're as soaked as the dogs and have to change into dry clothes afterwards. As I've already said, bathing the dogs is an ordeal, but we'll do it all over again in a couple months or so.