Dirty Doodle - Light hair versus dark hair

[Lori, Quincy & Frankie]

I am discovering that having a chocolate doodle does have at least one advantage (one that I preferred to ignore, actually).  You can't see mud, dirt or grime quite the way you can on a light haired dood like our new guy Frankie!  

Tonight was the ultimate.  Frankie  came back from their antics up the hill with a mud encrusted muzzle from his adventures with Quincy up the hill.  Took quite a bit of wet towel washing to get him decent.  Turned out that Quincy, although not quite as muddy, had a bit of mud hidden in his chin hairs as well. We didn't necessarily realize that just by looking at him.  I certainly suspected it after looking at blonde Frankie, but it was not confirmed until I stuck Chocolate Quincy's face into the water/face wash bowl) 

IS IT BETTER TO KNOW (LIGHT HAIRED) , OR NOT TO KNOW,(CHOCOLATE/BLACK)  JUST HOW MUDDDY YOU DOOD IS??

OR   just wait for the bedclothes, carpet or floor to let you know!  

[Amy and Annabelle]

I have a light girl. Since she sleeps with me, I like knowing.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Jack is my first light colored dog; all previous dogs were black. It was a little shocking to me to learn that dogs can get grass stains, lol. 

[Wendy and Myla]

Me too!  I was absolutely stunned when I first saw Myla with grass stained knees!!!!! 

[Wendy and Myla]

That's funny!  Our first doodle Zak was black and if my floor was dirty, I blamed DH for walking in the house with his shoes on!  Now that we have Myla, DH is not getting yelled at quite as much! 

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

LOL so true.  Finn lost his footing and slid through a mud patch last year and got up looking half chocolate and half white. Right down the middle...geez... I discovered it's not easy to wash a lot of mud out of a doodle coat.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Better NOT to know is my motto and why I did not want a light colored doodle.  Ned is apricot, so sort of in the middle, but Clancy was cream (has darkened to apricot).  Luckily for me, if I let them dry, most of the yuck falls off. Our foster is white - dirty face all of the time!

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

I've been saying this for years whenever there are posts about black dogs not getting adopted. Black dogs = less baths.   I think that the not knowing is sort of a "how dirty are they really" answer.  The other day I came home from the gym and I wasn't greeted at the door like normal.  I said where are the girls?  Mike said "they are in their room" in sort of a disgusted voice.  I asked what they did, and he said "Your daughter was digging". (keep in mind this is right after all the snow finally melted and it had rained  so the ground was pretty soft.)  So, I said "My Daughter huh, which one?"  He replied "Oh I think you will be able to tell."  So I go to their room and AnnaBelle's face is just brown.  I had intended to give them baths that day anyway so at least I was in the mood.  I decided that we would save the conversation about why were they able to dig in the first place because we have a No dogs outside without someone watching them rule!  So, I decided that since Lucy is the harder one to bathe because there is more of her and her coat is thicker that I would do her first.  Well, as soon as I turned the water on and it hit her feet it was totally obvious that AnnaBelle had been falsely accused of being the one digging ... Lucy's paws/feet were caked in mud and her face was filthy ... but she didn't even look like she had been involved.  So, in this case I was glad she got sent to her room along with AnnaBelle rather than jumping up on the sofa or bed.

I do agree though that with AnnaBelle it does seem like given a little time the dirt does seem to just come off.  the grass stained feet are a trip as well.  Every time we cut the grass she comes in with green feet.  

The good news with Frankie is that he should be fairly easy to bathe since his coat is shorter.

[Erin]

How do you get the grass stains out?

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

I use Tropiclean Oatmeal shampoo and it takes the stains out with regular bathing.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

This is funny as I judge just how dirty Murphy (my apricot doodle) is by how dirty Bella is, ( my white-white doodle). If she is grey, he must be dirty too. Sure enough, what comes off him is sometimes worse but his color doesn't show it, it's more of a roughness to his coat that I feel with him to tell he's dirty.  I can see why people say they can go 6-8 weeks between baths, if they have darker coated dogs.  With these guys, I have always bathed at least every 2 weeks and sometimes more. 

[Joyce (Casey & Cody's mom)]

How funny! Casey (my light wheat colored doodle) LOVES mud puddles. After a rain, he will come inside with mud up to his knees. Cody (my black doodle) is never as dirty as Casey. Naturally, with his color, you can't tell just by looking, but we take them to a facility that rents tubs to bathe dogs. They will be side by side and Casey sheds at least twice the amount of mud and dirt as Cody.

[Lori, Quincy & Frankie]

I wish we had a dog wash nearby-I love our groomers but it's pricey and now there are TWO!  With Quincy I went more by stinky than dirty.  LOL!  Now I have a new meter with fair haired Frankie:  dirty and stinky!