Baths --- How Often?

Some dog care “experts” say bathing more than once a month is bad for a dog’s skin. A few suggest a shampoo bath once a month and a water-only bath more often, if needed. I disagree.

Every dog is different. Gracie starts smelling a little “fragrant” about 10 days after getting a bath. If I didn’t bathe her, with shampoo, every other week (on average) she would smell offensive and so would my home.

Gracie's allowed everywhere in my house. Her favorite resting spots are the beds and couches. And I enjoy snuggling with her at least once a day. Bathing her once every seven to 14 days is necessary and does not harm her skin. It actually keeps her coat silky and promotes a healthier, more pleasant home environment for us and our visitors.

I use human shampoo on Gracie. For several years I used White Rain Kids’ shampoo. It made Gracie smell fantastic, left her coat soft and shiny, and never irritated her skin. Unfortunately, that shampoo is no longer available in my local stores! Lately I’ve used Pantene shampoo for dry/damaged hair and it’s worked well.

Bath time is always a big production because we have a deep, claw foot bathtub. I place a rubber-suction bathmat in the bottom of the tub to give Gracie sure footing. In order to get her into the tub comfortably I line the tub with her cushioned dog bed. I place a large, overturned laundry basket next to the tub for her to step up on. A little coaxing and a large crunchy biscuit get her into the tub.

I wet Gracie down and rinse her with a Rinse Ace Indoor/Outdoor Pet Sprayer. It's a hand-held shower head/8-foot hose that attaches to the bathroom sink faucet (a really handy device) and reaches to the tub. Click here to see a picture and learn more about it.

The first few times I bathed Gracie her I tried filling the tub up halfway so she could stand in the water. She didn’t like it at all so now I just give her showers in the tub.

As soon as I rinse Gracie off and shut the water, she knows it's time to start shaking. She gets a small crunchy treat each time she shakes herself off while I'm drying her. Our bathroom is small and a bit cramped so water gets all over the place during bath time. We’ve been meaning to re-do our bathroom for many years. When we do, a shower stall will be high priority to make bath time easier on everyone.

*** POST UPDATE: We finally re-did our bathroom and added a shower stall. Click here to see my June 22, 2010 post showing Gracie in the new shower stall!