Baths - How Often?

[Karen P]

How often do you bath your doodle? Does your doodle let you use the hair dryer? I live in Indiana and it is very cold right now. I cannot use the hair dryer on Chewie. It takes forever for him to air/towel dry and I was looking for any suggestions. Thanks !!

[Camilla and Darwin]

Darwin was initially scared of the hair dryer. I slowly built up to blow drying him by starting it on a low setting and giving him tasty treats as I blow dried his paws. I spoke to him calmly and progressively moved it over more and more of his body and he eventually calmed down. Now I can blow dry him on full blast and he is fine with it. I think it's just a scary thing initially and they need to be slowly introduced.

[Karen P]

Thanks - I will get out the Turkey Jerky and try that. I will try it more slowly. Last time it ended in a battle of wills and unfortunately I was not the winner !!! Great idea to do a little bit each time.

[Lee Seidman]

We bathe Lexi at least every two weeks, sometimes more often because having a white coat shows a lot more when she gets into the dirt. We shower her, she has learned to walk on her own into the shower, soaps up and lets us towel dry. We purchased an AIR FORCE brand of blow dryer from petedge.com on the sugestion of our groomer. It is much more powerful then a hand held blower and dries her i n half the time. She does not like the blower very much but has learned to accept it. It blows warm air, not too

hot like a hair blower. Cost was $121.00 but well worth it.

[Karen P]

Thanks for the information. I will have to check out that dryer. Anything that works faster at getting something not so enjoyable done quicker would be worth it !

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

We have Guinness bathed at the groomers every 3 - 4 weeks. They groom her every other time. I've often wondered if that is too often...I don't want to dry out her skin. The groomer says it's fine, but that's her business.

[Lee Seidman]

Living in Florida the dogs are in the water quite often. We have not had any problems with Lexi having dry skin, Our friends Golden is in her pool daily and said she has never had a problem. I tend to believe that when they are dirty they need a bath, lol

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Sounds right to me....I think I need to worry a little less.

[Karen P]

That's my worry I do not want to irritate Chewie's skin, but I also want to make sure that it is done enough for him to tolerate it without too much fight !!

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

I have gone round and round about this with all the conficting info for the first 6 months of our doodles life and have heard information that defends frequent (once a week) and also that defends very infrequent (2 x a YEAR!) bathing. Our doodle has been bathed at least once a week since we got him at 8 weeks old because he was either playing in mud, snow, streams, pools, ocean, sand, red clay dirt, or dusty leaves and grass clippings. We have him sleep with us and he is allowed on furniture, so I want to know he is clean. As for his skin, he has been in freezing blizzard weather, to balmy sunny HOT weather and his skin is fine. His coat is thin enough that I can assess his skin easliy and he is brushed almost every night so I would know if there was a problem.
I do use very good DOG shampoos and a conditioner, also have a very good brush so as not to irritate his skin. I know there are members on here that use anything from baby shampoo to Suave Coconut Shampoo and bath more or less often than I do, and have had no problems, so you have to find out what works for your dog and climate.

As for "too often"? Murphy was swimming all summer everyday, sometimes 2-3 times a day, and had to be rinsed or bathed at least everyother day to get the salt water or chlorine off him, so I'm sure THAT would be considered TOO OFTEN, but again, no harm done to his skin and leaving the salt water or chlorine on him would have been more damaging to his skin I'd think. I had also discussed this with 2 vets and they saw no harm in freq. bathing.

As for blow drying. Murphy doesn't LIKE it, but he will tolerate it. I also started out slowly, low and warm setting, did a short session and get him to the damp stage and then let him go. He gets treats. I go to the smallest bathroom and close the door so he can't get too crazy on me and that seems to help him feel safe. Otherwise he runs around like he's got a lit firecracker up his butt when he's all wet and he's like that till he dries a little. Rather not have him sliding accross tile floors and running all over the couches and beds when he's wet, than subject him to 20 min. of a harmless blowdrying.

Hope that helps.

[Karen P]

Thanks for the information. I was thinking that once every couple weeks is good during the winter when he is not out getting filthy (just snowy). I am also glad to know that I am not the only fighting the blow dryer battle.

[Kyoko]

I washed Charlie the other day. To dry her quickly, I put myself and her in the ex-pen right next to the heat register, and cranked up the heat. Heat was blowing from there, and I used hair dryer along with it. It's cold in Pittburgh, too and this worked out nice.

[Karen P]

Thanks for the information !!