# Shower & Shave



## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

How often do you groom your working dog? Bath time for me is about 4 times a year per dog. I am finding it easier to use a groomer and let them stand over the dog for 3 hours!!! Average cost $50.00.


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## Julie Ann Alvarez (Aug 4, 2007)

I will give Havok his yearly bath soon. Last spring he went to the dog wash 3x's in about 2 months because it was so muddy but this season the breakup doesn't seem as bad. They have elevated tubs. It runs about $ 20. to wash your own dog and all of the hair and mess stays there.

I bought some of the dry clean spray as well- just spray him down and rub his fur with a towel. I do brush him several times a week with a rake. 

I do the bulldogs more frequently. I have one of our bathrooms set up with a long handle sprayer. We do them almost monthly in the spring/summer (not so much when it is frozen outside). They spend a great deal of time in the house and have to be cleaner.

I clip all of their nails about every 3 weeks.


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## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

I'll hose mine off if they have been swimming in the lake or ocean, or are really muddy, but I really don't bathe them with shampoo unless they've rolled in something disgusting. I do usually bathe new dogs first thing either in a medicated or flea shampoo or in a mild shampoo that will make them smell nice. I cannot stand that 'kennel smell.' :-& If I don't feel like doing it myself, I pay the groomer $18 to do it, which is a lot easier than doing it myself, cleaning up the mess, and getting the dog dry.

I do nails once every 2 weeks.


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## Chris Michalek (Feb 13, 2008)

they only bath they get is going to the river or unless there is a stink emergency and they need to be hosed down asap. The Mali has had ONE real bath since he's been living here and that was in the first week when he discovered how humans pee.


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## Craig Wood (Dec 9, 2008)

Do you cut your Bouvs short when it is hot? Large chunks are harder to hide in a trimmed beard!!!!!!!


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

I groom every 6 weeks or so. When I get a client's dog in for grooming and I have my equipment out I might as well... Usually it's a quick bath, nail trim and doggie cologne.


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## Amy Swaby (Jul 16, 2008)

LOL sorry guys with 4 indoor dogs they get baths MONTHLY no way I could live with them if i waited once a year.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

If it gets really bad, I hose them off outside - thought long and hard about the carwash the day the Grim found a huge mud puddle.


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## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

I usually end up getting the bath......LOL

About every 3 months. More often if needed. I use a good clean straw that is not dusty and it is kept in a waterproof shed....I mix with shavings so they actually do not get very smelly unless they find something dead to roll in while out playing....and around my place I can tell "which dead" they found....LOL


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## Anna Kasho (Jan 16, 2008)

A perk of working in a grooming shop is that I get to wash my own dogs for free, on my own time, and use all their equipment (LOVE the power dryer) 

There were times when I bathed one dog weekly, when he kept getting into gross stuff not fit to bring into the house - mud, poop, pond muck, etc. Inka gets a bath every 2-3 weeks in the hot weather, because for whatever reason, when she goes too long without and smells like a dog, the little black biting flies eat her alive. The other dogs don't attract those flies the way she does... Cyko gets a shampoo bath maybe every 3-4 months, most times I just rinse him with water - he's the most sensitive to chemicals and if I use anything that strips the oil out of his skin/coat, he can scratch himself raw. I have two shampoos that he does well with, and that's that. Average bath time I think is about 4-6 weeks for the other dogs, I like them to be clean and it helps keep the fleas in check. They don't have any issues with it. 

My cats get bathed weekly, because they live indoors only and half of my family is allergic. It makes a huge difference.

I have never shaved any of my dogs/cats for any reason. I pick low maintenance wash-and-wear breeds.


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## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

Amy Swaby said:


> LOL sorry guys with 4 indoor dogs they get baths MONTHLY no way I could live with them if i waited once a year.


I have four indoor dogs, too. Usually it's 3, but I have an 8 month old 'foster' right now as well.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

12 yr old JRT get bathed 1-2 times a yr unless he's gotten into something. Coat stripped 2-3 times a yr. Brushed almost daily. (inside dog) Nails done 2 times a month.
Used to get bathed after every hunting trips. Fleas and ticks can be found in the ground all yr long and a warm little dog can trigger them pretty easily. 

5 1/2 yr old GSD got one bath in......05 I think. Nails done weekly cause he grips the helper like a cat. 
2 yr old GSD has yet to expierience it. Nails done only 3-4 times in his 2 yrs. They stay pretty short.
Both GSDs are outside and both get thourghly brushed 3-4 times a week in the summer. 
All nails get the Dremel. 
I brush regularly and don't believe baths for a dog are needed unless absolutely necessary. 

Wife says she wished I took care of the inside of my dog car as well as I do the dogs.  
Bought new in 05. Washed once in 06. She refuses to ride in it. Even got a bit pissed when I offerd her a mask to keep the hair out of her mouth. Wimmins! :roll: :-D :-D :-D :-D :wink:
I dop keep her car nice and purdy!


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## Jennifer Coulter (Sep 18, 2007)

In the winter my dog doesn't shed really, or get dirty so I might brush him once every three weeks?

I have to trim his nails often in the winter as they do not get worn when on snow all the time.

In the spring, summer....I brush A LOT more often. Love when the cottonwoods bud and this happens (super sticky, but smells great), burrs are fun too....









I maybe bath the dog once a year (he swims in the river though)...he doesn't stink, but admittadly he likes to get dirty...


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## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

My male Bouv has never been groomed, who could do it!? My female gets it done about 4x per year and in the summer short cut. Unless the Borders are matted, never groomed!


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## Gillian Schuler (Apr 12, 2008)

After 5 months snow and icy weather, the warm weather is here so I'm coming out the old fur daily. One of them is nuts, he loves to eat the hair I pull out so I walk through the woods, dragging the rake comb through his coat and letting it float away with the wind.

Bathing is something I don'd do unless they've been rolling on a dead fish (gee is that penetrant) or something worse than pee that the humans leave around.

Bathing doesn't really help on a regular basis, it dries the coat out and the normal doggy odour is there the next day again. My dogs live inside mostly but I don't think my house smells doggy.

Guests who come once and never again aren't welcome (figure that one out!)


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## Meena Moitra (Jul 11, 2008)

My Airedales don't really work...
They live inside currently, but even when they spent more hours w/outside access, I have them groomed every few weeks. Not so much to get them sweet smelling (my now deceased hound maybe had a bath a year, maybe not that much.) But for other reasons. The handling by someone else, the sound of the dryer. They get their butts squeezed and the male needs it a lot. Their nails get trimmed and their feet shaved. Last summer the female had a horrid time w/fleas, so oatmeal baths came into play. Combed weekly and I strip them myself 3-4 times a year.
My groomer is a funky 4-H mom who is also a vet tech and she charges me next to nothing.


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