Fact Or Fiction

[Leelaa17]

Ok, Have you ever heard that it isn't good to wash your dog too often? Well that's what I have always heard and I was wondering whether or not this is true? I heard that it dries out their skin or something?

I am also curious to know what other people have heard and whether or not it is true!

[Keira&Phoenix]

Yeah I have been told the same. I think it depends on the dog like with people, if their skin is sensitive, if it is oily or dry etc, what sort of shampoo you are using that sort of thing.

Edited May 16, 2011 by Keira&Phoenix

[persephone]

Yes.

Depending on your dog, its diet, where it spends most of its time,and general health ..

My dog gets bathed maybe a couple times a year. he does spend a lot of time indoors ...has never had any sort of skin problem, ever ,has a shiny coat ,and the only smell is , of course, from his feet -as dirty sweaty feet do smell

[oakway]

Not true.

Look at all the long coated breeds that we show that are washed every few days and blow dried and then oiled.

Some are not oiled.

My own short coats are bathed every week usually in a hydrobath then shown the next day. If we are on a red soil ground or the dogs get dirty they are bathed after the show for the next days show.

A lot I believe has to do with using only good quality shampoo and conditioners.

[~Anne~]

It is fiction. Feel free to wash your dog as often as you like. As long as you use a good quality dog specific shampoo, you have nothing to worry about.

I wash my dogs weekly and have for years. Always have, always will, unless of course it affected an individual dog... which it hasn't.

[Dogsrawesome]

I wash mine 2 times a month mainly because i like him smelling good ;)

[corvus]

My mother washes one of her dogs every week because otherwise his skin gets itchy and his coat gets grimy. My dogs get washed maybe every 3 months or so. Usually because they are getting a bit stinky from playing in the swamp and so forth.

ETA the dog I grew up with almost never got washed, but she had a soft, gleaming coat. She swam in the lake regularly and played under the hose. No one ever shampooed her.

Edited May 16, 2011 by corvus

[Leelaa17]

Fair enough! Well I rarely wash my dogs - unless they have been rolling in mud, then I have to before they can come inside! But they have BEAUTIFUL shiny coats and their skin doesn't get irritated at all.

I can understand that if you were using a s**tty quality shampoo then that might not be good for their skin at all!

But... and this is going to sound really weird... i LOVE, and I mean LOOOOVVVEEEE the smell of my dogs (not after they've been washed, just whenever)... they smell doggy and whenever I smell them (or smell my car because it smells like them) I just breathe it in really deep because it reminds me of them and it makes me feel really happy./ I know that sounds bizarre but I LOVE the doggy smell... I do, however, also like the clean smell.

but I hate the wet dog smell. that's something I can't stand! lol

So its not bad if I DONT wash them all the time? They have never seemed to mind, and I swear, they can get SO dirty and then the next day they'll be clean again - its fricken amazing!!!!!! lol

[W Sibs]

Depend on the dog.

Charlie gets a bath whenever he starts to smell. But he gets groomed regularly and is on a diet that makes his coat looks shiny, his fur is soft and has no odor. I try to avoid bathing him as much as I can.

Emmy gets a bath when people start asking me if JS comes in cream/biscuit colour But she never smells. At the moment she is very very white! I try to brush her 1 or twice a week, but now that she is naked and her second coat is growing out, I don't brush her much at all... only she comes over and ask for it (usually when I'm grooming Charlie). Whenever she gets wet, she always smells like her conditioner

My 2 are indoor dogs but loves spending their time outside too. I do clean their paws all the time, though.

[Leelaa17]

Depend on the dog.

Charlie gets a bath whenever he starts to smell. But he gets groomed regularly and is on a diet that makes his coat looks shiny, his fur is soft and has no odor. I try to avoid bathing him as much as I can.

Emmy gets a bath when people start asking me if JS comes in cream/biscuit colour But she never smells. At the moment she is very very white! I try to brush her 1 or twice a week, but now that she is naked and her second coat is growing out, I don't brush her much at all... only she comes over and ask for it (usually when I'm grooming Charlie). Whenever she gets wet, she always smells like her conditioner

My 2 are indoor dogs but loves spending their time outside too. I do clean their paws all the time, though.

hahahahahahahaahaha.

I know I do love the conditioner smell but Max and Jenna make it excrutiatingly hard for me to shower/bath them.

[whiskedaway]

I don't wash my dogs often - neither have had a bath since the start of April. I want to give Halo a bath before her show on Saturday but I might just end up running a warm damp cloth over her again because she's a pain to bath. Being Spitz breeds, they don't need to be done often - dirt falls out of their coats and they stay smelling fairly decent. The only time I NEED to bath them is if they roll in possum piss or something disgusting. Plus I don't like to wash away the natural oils on their skin too often. Also bathing regularly can make their coats too soft, which isn't correct, hence why we use the warm damp cloth method before shows to make Halo look nice but still keep her coat texture (not that it matters so much at the moment as she still has puppy coat, but it will matter in months to come when she has all her adult coat).

[Bartok]

I dont wash mine either

They swim in the fresh water rivers in summer

[Shaar]

My crested gets bathed weekly (or fortnightly depending on how I think his skin looks) and moisturized or else he gets little bumps.

My Poodles if they had thier way would never get a bath... but you can't clip a dirty dog so they have no choice... every 6 weeks.

One of them actually tends to get flaky skin if she doesn't get bathed by about week 8.

[kasoo]

My sheltie gets a full wash and blowdry every 2-3 weeks. Sometimes she starts to smell so she gets a quick bum wash which does the trick.

[tdierikx]

My dogs don't smell, so they only get a bath if they start to look dirty... been about 2 years so far since their last proper bath... *grin*

T.

[Kirty]

I haven't washed my dogs for years. Not since my MIL sold her grooming trailer LOL! Poor Pia has never been bathed! They all smell clean and lovely though and have shiney coats.

[Maddy]

During winter I don't wash the hounds much (mostly because of how cold it gets here, even inside with the heat pump on) but in summer, they usually get washed a fair bit.

If it weren't for the flies, I'd be able to stretch out washes to maybe a couple over summer but because of the fly repellents we use on the dogs, they pick up heaps more dirt and they look filthy within a week.

I usually use either Aloveen or Malaseb. Malaseb usually for the first wash after winter and the last wash of summer to get the fungal levels down before a winter of wearing the polar fleece jammies for extended periods of time (the jammies are great but they don't breathe as well as natural fibres).

[Guest Panzer Attack!]

I wash Tucker probably 3 times a year and people always comment (ALWAYS) on how smooth his coat is and how 'lucky' I am to be a dog groomer. Uhhh no LOL he is the neglected child!

I've had the puppy for not even two months and he's about to cop bath #3. He gets brushed every day or two, and he is ALWAYS dirty . We took him and Barkly down to the beach at St Kilda today (horrendous weather but he had a marvelous time... I think it's the first time he's ever beached so didn't realise it's not meant to be so crap!) and now he smells all salty and gross... and he didn't even go in the water, just wrestled with some seaweed.

Personally I have seen some dogs get washed every week thru salons and their skin does get irritated, and obviously if your dog has sensitive skin to begin with, generally it's not a great idea to irritate it further, but there are exceptions to every circumstance and I certainly wouldn't berate someone washing their dog every few days or whatever if it works for them. At work I recommended against doing it too often or washing them in a non-sensitive skin shampoo unless they were certain that the dog would not react, but only because it's always the groomer's fault if a dog reacts to anything whatsoever (including if they drink the soapy water as it's being rinsed off them and vomit in the car on the way home!).

E x

[Teebs]

At gets done when it heats up and he starts to lose his fur, he gets the itches... besides that.. ummm? It has been less than a year since i did them, because i did them at work and i havent been there a year... before that? God only knows how long it was!

When Atlas was doing Delta he had to be done every week, i was using good shampoo but his coat turned to crap and he was itchy all the time, since i left and stopped washing him he looks good

[Christina]

My poodles get bathed every 2 weeks most of the time. They are in short coat in the summer & long coat in the winter. The oldest is 9, no skin problems & I use human shampoo & conditioner sometimes, often pantene but others too. I have never used any kind of flea/chemical type wash on them. When I have owned short coated dogs I didn't wash them as often. Depends on the dog.