Looking ahead to Spring....and dirt....

[Sandy]

I'm thinking ahead to warmer days and melting snow, and mud. Wondering - what will I do with Toby when he is muddy at the back door? We have a fenced yard, so he will be out wandering around, and I'm sure will drag in his fair share of dirt. The back patio door comes right into the kitchen area, and adjacent to that, the living room with beige carpet. I'm thinking of maybe getting a cheap indoor leash and hooking him onto it when he comes in dirty until he at least dries a bit. I don't know.....any thoughts? Maybe it's time to get that new Dyson vacuum.... :)

[Maya]

I live in the good old NW, near Seattle, where we have that problem A LOT. When we let Cassie into the back yard, even when it's not too wet, she'll come back dirty, because she likes to dig! I wish our back patio door led into the kitchen, so she could step onto hardwood floor first. Instead, she has to step on the carpet first (family room), and just a couple of feet to the left is where the hardwood floor starts. And of course, to make things more interesting, we do have a light colored carpet! I keep 2 towels by the door: one for Cassie to step on, and the other to wipe her paws, face, tummy with. I do it every single time she comes in from the backyard! I do it so often, I forget to be annoyed by it :-) Plus, sometimes the two towels alone are not enough - the mud/dirt gets in between her toes, so I have to bring a plastic tub with warm water to the door; I put her front legs in the tub, and wash her 'feet', then dry them, then I do the same with the hind legs. Like I said before - I do it so often, it doesn't bother me any more. Now that I am writing it here step by step, I am starting to think - wow, that's a lot of work! But I have to continue with that routine, because we are planning on installing a new carpet in the near future, so we want to have a good SOP by then :-). Actually, before Cassie joined our family, the plan was to rip the carpet and put new hardwood floor throughout, but after we got Cassie, some friends who have dogs have told us we'd regret it, as the hardwood floor would be ruined in no time. What to do, what to do??? But that's a whole different topic now, isn't it...

[Maya]

THANK YOU!!! My husband thinks wood is soooo much prettier, but I don't see that much of a difference. I'll look into the prices, hopefully laminate is cheaper, too!!!

[Tamara & Giada]

When Giada is really messy we let her in our bedroom door off the deck, and she knows to go directly in the shower to get "hosed down".

[2SCdoodles]

These are all great suggestions, and I have found them to be so helpful because I have the same problem x2 with two doodles. I have a paw monster, and then I saw these mitts/ gloves at Orvis. These work great. I am thinking that the idea of sticking paws in water and then wiping down with the mitts would work well.


http://www.orvis.com/store/productchoice.aspx?pf_id=17H4&dir_id...

[2SCdoodles]

I got mine off the sale rack at Orvis in Myrtle Beach, SC!
Did you like Charleston? We go there frequently!

[Sandy]

Those look awesome! Do they work well?

[Sandy]

Toby's black, and I've never seen him look dirty yet. :) But I'm sure in the Spring he will be suck up the mud.....