How often can you bathe a doodle?

[Julie & Wrigley]

I live in San Diego and we take our 9 month old Labradoodle to the beach quite often. He gets so sandy that I have no choice but to hose him off. I don't use soap more than once per week, but is that even too much? How often can you wash them without upsetting their skin? Anyone have any tricks for getting sand of out hair?!

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

Id recommended washing him every 4 - 6 WEEKS at the most. Cooper gets bathed every 4-6 MONTHS (6 if she has been swimming alot). Shes chocolate so hides the dirt, i can only imagine how frustrating it must be to have a white dog - that the reason I got chocolate! A quick rise with just water more often is totally fine, but using shampoo (make sure its doggy shampoo) will dry out skin and fur. 

 

I work in a pet store and get so many people in thinking their dog has a food allergy because they are dry and flakey and itchy - turns out they are bathing the dog too often - they come back a month later, say they havent bathed their dog and hes totally better! Some people bathe their dog every day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

http://www.petmd.com/dog/grooming/evr_dg_shampoo_for_dogs  here is a link explaining why you should use doggy shampoo not human shampoo

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

My Daisy gets a bath when she need it - when it's muddy out and after day care she gets one every Friday - the mud makes her itchy and she picks the mud off of her with her teeth. Mind you, we use non sudsing, high quality pet shampoo and conditioner. Her skin is not dry and itchy at all.

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

lol i found a few old discussions about bathing

http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/doodlegrooming/forum/topics/how-m...

http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/doodlegrooming/forum/topics/bathi...

http://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/baths-how-often?id=2065244...

http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/doodlegrooming/forum/topics/how-o...

 

There are varied opinions - and i think it depends on the colour of your dog, they type of fur it has (shedding or not - fleece, wool, hair). i also think the quality of the shampoo and conditioner makes a huge difference. Same as with humans, some people need to wash their hair more often than others.

 

I say wash with shampoo when stinky, wash with just water when dirty

[The Caposselas]

We bathe Nale when she either smells like "dog" or her fur feels kind of stiff. It works out to be about once a month. We use a degrimmer shampoo and a whitener and follow up with a conditioner. We forgot the conditioner once and she started chewing at her legs/paws. So the key for us has turned out to be the conditioner and good rinsing.

I think the conditioner also helps brush out sand, dirt and tangles too. Hope this helps!! : )

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

I also live in San Diego...Point Loma.  I wash Gracie Doodle as needed.  If we go to the beach, she gets washed.  If we go to the mountains and she runs and goes in streams, she gets washed.  I use human shampoo...Pantene 2 in 1 (with conditioner in it).  I make up a bunch of squirt bottles of diluted shampoo.  Make it watery and it will spread on very nicely and not clump off or cause you to spend hours rinsing to get all the stuff off.  I keep a bottle at all the hoses for just feet (daily) and snouts.  In the summer Gracie gets into more dirty stuff and gets more baths plus she is in her wading pool a lot!  My neighbor taught me this technique.  She uses Pantene on her two Springer Spaniels.  After you use it your Doodle will smell soooo nice and the hair will be soft and easy to comb...at least Gracie's is.  Gracie Doodle has never had an itchy, hot spot or dry skin.  She has absolutely no skin issues whatsoever but then it could just be her make up or it could be the shampoo.  I have hardly ever used dog shampoo on her.  A few times when we take her to the Dog Beach Dog Wash after going to the beach we have forgotten her shampoo and had to use the dog stuff.  It is so much harder to comb her after she is dry and her hair feels dry and stiff instead of her soft silky feeling hair.  But, every Doodle is different and they have different hair and hereditary make up.

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

Oh, and something I forgot to say.  Our Doodles have hair not fur and so I think of treating their hair as I would mine!  Now there are some people who only bath their Doodles once a year...whether they need it or not.  People swear that the key is brushing and combing or blowing their hair with a cool dryer to get all the stuff out.  All I know, is that even just a hose down, you should see all the sand that is in our bed the next morning.  It really gets caught up in those webbed feet and also that is where mats hide...in between the toes!

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

They say as needed or no more than once a month or even a month and a half. The skin on ours is so sensitive. So we use a washcloth to wipe dirt off their legs and such when needed.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

I am wondering who "they" is?

My Vet said that is old school and that as long as you use "dog" shampoo to keep the PH balance right you bathe as needed.

Daisy has never been itchy or had skin issues.

[Leslie, Dexter & Kirby]

We bathe D&K about once a month.  They are actually due now!

 

When Dex goes to the beach, I hose him completely off when we get home.  I don't actually wash him with shampoo, but just hose him down.  He is all over our furniture and I want to get the sand off.

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

I too am famous for washing my dogs :"A LOT". They usually get a bath every 1-2 weeks, however when swimming or having gone to the beach it was more often. A trick I used for getting the sand out was to have a small plastic baby pool filled with water, at home and let him just lay down in that to get the sand off underneath him and under his arms and in the paws. No shampoo everytime because he was at the beach everyday for several months his first year. I do bath Bella with an Oatmeal (Tropiclean) soap-less dog shampoo as her skin was very itchy when she first got here, (AZ) but then again so was mine. I can bathe her just as frequently as needed if I use that shampoo on her. I do use a conditioner when I think of it, but if I use it or not they are fine. I have read many opinions about bathing, and the once a year, or even once a month doesn't work for our type of activities here and ours sleep in our bed, so clean they will be!!!

[Julie & Wrigley]

Thanks for the replies, hope everyone is having  a great weekend!!

[Ted Harvey Tyndale]

I almost never bathe my doodle! when i try to put him around water, he gets angry and bites my toes!