How to bathe your dog

There’s certainly no doubt that dogs love getting dirty. Although they’ll do their very best to clean themselves, licking their own coat or chewing their fur, but this more often than not fails to do a very good job of cleaning. It will be your responsibility to ensure that your dog is in a tip-top, clean state by bathing it, and although some dogs will not enjoy this experience at all, you’ll still need to commit the time to doing it. For new dog owners, how to best approach bathing and brushing can be a bit confusing; for this reason, in this article we offer some easy tips to get you started in better grooming for your dog.

How to bathe your dog

Grooming, besides being a good way to keep your dog looking great, is important to ensure that your pet doesn’t develop any health issues related to poor sanitation. After all, even the best pet insurance won’t stop your four-legged friend from becoming unhealthy without the right approach to bathing.

Dogs should be bathed, at the very minimum, once every three months, but many pet owners will find that they need to clean their dogs much more regularly than this (especially if they have skin problems).

Before you bathe your dog, you’ll first need to give it a thorough brushing to get rid of dead hair and mats. Then, you can place your dog into a tub or sink that already has about four inches worth of lukewarm water. From here you can get your pet completely wet (whether through a gentle hosing or a cup) and start gently working in the pet shampoo. You should be massaging the shampoo deeply from head to tail, making sure you take the time to cover every bit of their body. After they’re all clean, give them a rinse and a dry with a towel, and your pet is now super clean!

Bathing your puppy and choosing a shampoo

Puppies, being the lovable yet cheeky animals they are, may very well take bath time as an opportunity to play. With this in mind, ensure that you’re ready to prevent your puppy from leaping all over the place – and potentially nip you while they’re at it. To help focus their attention, you can incorporate a toy into the bath during wash time, which should at the very least help divert attention from chomping on your fingers.

In terms of shampoo, most formulas that are available for dogs should be suitable for your dog. Although the basic ingredients of human shampoo aren’t necessarily toxic, you should avoid using your personal shampoo supply on your pet as the fragrances might disagree with them in some way. If you want to be completely sure that the shampoo you’re using is fine for your pet, talking to your vet is a good way to be 100% sure.

There are different types of dog shampoos as well. For example there are flea and tick shampoos for dogs for flea treatment and also soothe their skin from itching after flea bites.

Protecting your dog’s eyes and ears

Although you might be tempted to get the bathing over as quickly as possible, making sure shampoo doesn’t get into the eye of your dog is important – after all, you probably don’t enjoy it much when it happens to you in the shower, right? To make this easier, you can use a spraying extension to control where the shampoo-laden water flows. This way, you will be able to confidently know that your dog’s poor eyes don’t get irritated or harmed (because that’s not fun for anyone).