Sooo...Aurora and Chewbacca decided to romp in the mud this afternoon and they were covered up to their bellies. They of course had to have baths, because they can't come into the house looking like little piglets. Long story short, I now have a clean wookie and I still have a dirty husky. She is terrified of the hose, will have nothing to do with a bucket of water and won't go near the tub. It's too much mud for her to clean from herself, so I will have to do something unfortunately. Any suggestions?

put a leash on her, hold it down with your foot and use the hose on her as gentle as you can and feed treats


i forgot... you should put on a bathing suite!

The fire department has hoses. How busy is yours?

Seriously, though, mine always goes stoic as long as I hold him lightly at the base of his throat. Otherwise, it's Man vs Nature warfare.

I was already wearing knee-high rubber boots, I'm still soaked. I had her tethered with a leash to a deck post so both hands would be free and I could try to calm her down, she was bucking like a wild bronco. I tried not to laugh, but really?

The fire department isn't a bad idea, but ours always responds with 85 pieces of equipment for every little thing so that might draw too much attention. How about the carwash?

What about a dog wash? I did that with chloe and it was so much easier to wash her. Most of the time though she cleans herself.

I would, but I live about 15 minutes past the middle of nowhere.

It's a 2-person job to bathe my boy, Storm, but I think hubby has it figured out - self wash tubs while giving him treats to calm him down. If I had something to tie a leash to in our backyard, that might also work. But the self wash tubs seem to work better for Storm. However, the tubs has to be open on both sides - it can't be a stall where one side of the tub is a wall.

Maybe start with baby steps. Take her to a self wash place and leash her up. If she's doing good with that, treat her. If you grab the hose (no water yet) and show it to her and put it up to her body and she still does ok, treat her. If at any point she starts to fidget, ease up and then try to get farther the next visit.

It took us almost a year with Storm to get to the point where we are - and hubby can bathe Storm by himself now. It's still a slight struggle, but at least it only takes one of us. And it took us almost a year because we don't bathe often during the winter months. And during the summer, it's at most a bath once a month (but we usually go 2 months before another bath in the summer).

What if you got one of those plastic kiddie pools and put it in the back yard and made a game of it? Maybe that'll help her get used to water?

I get in the bathtub with the intended victim ... I mean dog and I bathe them that way...with me wearing a bathing suit because I'd be soaked otherwise. We manage to keep it a 1 person job that way...whoever is not in the tub gets drying and cleaning duty.

Unfortunately, my husband is sleeping next to the bathroom that equipped for bathing ours dogs. If he wakes up ahead of schedule we may try tag team bathing her.

I managed to get two paws washed by dipping them in the bucket of water while holding her. She still needs the other two and her undercarriage cleaned and she is not going anywhere near that bucket. I have had an easier time bathing cats!

I plan to have a small pool for the dogs once it warms up and I hope that helps, she is very wary of water.

Demon&Dakota wrote:

I get in the bathtub with the intended victim ... I mean dog and I bathe them that way...with me wearing a bathing suit because I'd be soaked otherwise. We manage to keep it a 1 person job that way...whoever is not in the tub gets drying and cleaning duty.

EXACTLY!!! Except that I'm always in the one in the bathing suit and STILL have to clean up! He drys. Such hard work right? This is when we can't do it outside though. Like last night when we got home and Kody had puked all over himself (due to the blockage issue). Other than that we tie them to the gate in the yard and hose away. Mya loves water so it's hard to get her to stop trying to play and stand still. Kody just freezes in a panic

The BEST invention for husky bathing EVER is the rapid bath! Kya acts a fool when I try to bath her.

With the rapid bath, it literally takes me 5 minutes to get a good washing. Great thing about it is it is an all in one system and can be used with a hose or in the shower!

http://www.rapidbathing.com/

It is kind of expensive, but I got mine off of ebay for half price!

That's awesome! And I don't think $50 is that expensive. The only thing I wish it would do is let you use your shampoo of your choice.

One person holding the dog and feeding treats, the other doing the shampooing and rinsing.

cmanding wrote:

That's awesome! And I don't think $50 is that expensive. The only thing I wish it would do is let you use your shampoo of your choice.

We thought it was a bit pricey, but it was well worth it. We actually bought our refills at Walmart and they have a whitening/deodorizing oatmeal shampoo that smelled AMAZING.

and we figured out how to use our own shampoo. After you use one of the cartridges, you can get a injector (the needle kind) and using the tip that connects to the sprayer, you just pump your own shampoo and "refill" the cartridge. It worked pretty well The first time there was some leaking but we mastered it pretty quickly. lol

Tiff&Kya wrote:

cmanding wrote:

That's awesome! And I don't think $50 is that expensive. The only thing I wish it would do is let you use your shampoo of your choice.

We thought it was a bit pricey, but it was well worth it. We actually bought our refills at Walmart and they have a whitening/deodorizing oatmeal shampoo that smelled AMAZING.

and we figured out how to use our own shampoo. After you use one of the cartridges, you can get a injector (the needle kind) and using the tip that connects to the sprayer, you just pump your own shampoo and "refill" the cartridge. It worked pretty well The first time there was some leaking but we mastered it pretty quickly. lol

Sweet!

I plan making the bathub a completely enjoyable place to be (toys, treats) before I even try to bath my future husky puppy in there. I hate having to bathe Sura (although, shes slowly getting better) because she hates the water.

How often do you guys bath your dogs? I only bathe Sura when she needs it (is visibly dirty) I find her coat dried out when I bathed her anymore than that.

Nero my GSD I bathe about once a month. But Thor will get bathed like every 2 weeks depending on how tan/gray he gets or when we are going some where.
As a matter of fact today is bath day for him he is very very gray.

When I was reading about huskies I read, granted they don't get all muddy or dirty that twice a year was a normal amount for a husky since they keep themselves so clean.

But is that too little? Also, I got the furminator shampoo and in order for it to work properly you need to bathe at least once every 2 weeks, is that too much??

brady.law wrote:

When I was reading about huskies I read, granted they don't get all muddy or dirty that twice a year was a normal amount for a husky since they keep themselves so clean.

But is that too little? Also, I got the furminator shampoo and in order for it to work properly you need to bathe at least once every 2 weeks, is that too much??

It just depends on the dog. If you dog is disquisting, I would bathe him. Ours get groomed twice a year, and unless they REALLY need a bathe, the kiddie pool we have for them keeps them pretty clean.

I would be careful with bathing a lot, because you can strip the oils in their coats and skins.

Our poms we bath once a month, but the Huskies really keep themselves clean. Kya can come in the house FILTHY and after about an hour, she is completely clean again!

Ya that's what I was thinking. We have a pool with a beach entry so he's always getting in.



Last week... It was morning and freezing. Water was probably 30 degrees.

brady.law wrote:

Last week... It was morning and freezing. Water was probably 30 degrees.

Water is no longer water at 30 degrees...

Well dunno it was winter and it was really cold lol

When Bella gets EXCEPTIONALLY dirty/muddy like at the dog park - I just fill up the kiddy pool and let her splish/splash/dig at the water (I made the pool/tub into water games when she was a puppy because of her drive) and now when there is any amount of water in a dish/pool/tub she HAS to play in it so getting her into water is easy - it's getting her out/away from it that sucks.

With the weather getting warmer she can be in the pool more often here - and since she digs in the pool and splashes water all over herself she cleans up pretty nicely on her own. Then I just tie her to the Durango out front, give her something to chew on and brush her out while she's still wet.

I do not wash her with shampoo all that often, She's probably only been washed with shampoo twice since we got her.

I get in the bathtub with ours as well in shorts and a t-shirt but the bathroom and floor gets more of a washing then our little girl.

I also get in the bathtub with Anna and I do it the hard way I guess, we use a cup of water to rinse her off. I hold her in between my legs as tight as I can without hurting her while my boyfriend scrubs her from the outside and I try to help but holding her is a job all on its own. She used to scratch up my legs and arms to the point that sometimes I would bleed when I would give her a bath by myself, thankfully she has gotten a little better.

She seems to dislike bath time but if my boyfriend and I are taking a shower she thinks she needs one too after she jumps in she realizes its a big mistake and tries to get out. But since she is already wet I just give her a bath.

After she is wiped down, from the time I have to get the blow drying and dry her off she gets a case of the zoomies all over my bed and my furniture soaking everything in the apartment. So as you can see bath time is always interesting here.