How often do you bathe your dogs?

[BamaTanya]

We use the once-a-month flea medicine on the back of the neck. Would bathing a dog hinder its effectiveness?

 

We have these precious lab mix puppies (5 mos old). The have a nasty habit of digging in the yard and rolling in the red clay they uncover. They could use a bath every day! They're tracking dirt and sand in!

 

I'm not really upset. I dodge the holes in the back yard. I just wonder how often they really need a bath.

 

tia

[Parrothead]

Our vet said not to bathe Baxter very often. He doesn't get a bath unless he rolls in something hideous, which he has a bad habit of doing if he gets loose.

[Mom2GirlsTX]

My vet has always said that once a week was about the most you want to do it unless they have rolled in something nasty! With that said, my newest Boxer goes into our swimming pool about 8 times a day and she doesn't have any fleas on her. We do use the once a month on her and I make sure she doesn't get in the pool for at least 4 days after application. I need to put back up the child safety fence, we don't need it for the kids, but the dog is a different story :glare:

[JudoMom]

Normally? Once every few months or so.

 

Right now? I don't want to talk about it. They picked up a nasty case of fleas when we boarded them at the end of May. They've never had fleas before and we've never boarded them in warm weather so it didn't even occur to us to put flea repellent stuff on them.

 

Sigh. Let's just say I've probably spent more time bathing them in the past 2 weeks than I have my boys.

 

Anyone want a couple of flea-bitten vermin? They're cute :D.

[Michelle T]

we only bathed her when she got really stinky. I don't think it's good for dogs to get too many baths, maybe you can use wet wipes to clean your pooch off when he gets too filthy.

Michelle T

[chaik76]

The effectiveness of flea/tick medicine does decrease when bathing an animal. My vet suggested not bathing until at least 24 hours after dosing the dog, at that point the effectiveness decreases somewhere around 3% (for Advantix) each time you bathe them.

Because dogs produce most of the oils they need to hydrate their skin and bathing can cause dry skin we rarely bathe our dog. Not in the winter at all, and only once or twice in the summer if she is truly muddy or dirty. Typically, if she is muddy, we'll let her dry and then brush the mud out of her coat (we have a golden retriever, to give you an idea of how much hair she has). I've found that brushing her at least twice daily has dramatically cut down on the amount of times we need to bathe her. Hope this is helpful!:D

[TravelingChris]

We bathe our white miniature poodle every week or two. It helps him stay white and helps with his allergies. He is allergic to the kind of grass we have here and to wheat so we feed him on lamb and rice.

[unsinkable]

This is weird...but my Lab loved to shower with me. He would have taken a shower with me everyday. He also rolled in any body of water he found.

 

I'm w/the others who said baths if stinky.

[Mogster]

For what it's worth -- We always give our 2 Irish Setters (ages 5 and 2) a bath about every 2 weeks in the summer and about every 3 weeks in the winter. If we wait much longer than that they start to have that dog smell. We use human shampoo and conditioner (Aussie works great). We use baby shampoo for the face and snout. We also use Frontline once a month in the spring/summer to keep the fleas away. We have never had a flea or a skin problem and sometimes we go 2 months between Frontline applications. I have also heard that Irish Setters are famous for getting that dry flaky skin on their back -- so far we have never seen it and their coats look shiny and clean.

[LauraGB]

We bathe our golden ever 4-5 weeks, or, of course, like everyone else, if she rolls in something nasty. Don't know about the flea meds, though.

[Georgie]

You can always just rinse them and dry them. No soap, maybe a little conditioner if their coat needs it. it is the shampoo that is hard on their skin, not necessarily the water. If they have floppy ears be sure to wipe out their ears with gauze or a wash cloth. If they hold too much water/dirt, they could get an infection. In which case your vet would probably recommend an ear solution.

 

The actual shampoo bath could be once a month before the flea/tick treatment.

[Academy of Jedi Arts]

If you are using Frontline- don't bathe the dog until a week after you have applied the stuff- that's what our vet said.

 

We bathe our dogs once a month, before we put on the new dose of stuff. Our Corgi is highly allergic to fleas. The Beagle can go two months without the flea stuff, but he gets dirtier than the Corgi.

[VaKim]

Not unless they absolutely need it (which has been quite often here lately since the skunks have been out). Ours roll in mud too, and we just wait until it dries and brush it out of them and "beat" the dust out of them every day. My big curly lab mix has extremely dry skin and fur, and baths just make it worse.

[TammyinTN]

Ella Bella gets a bath once a month and is treated with Frontline once a month...the shampoo said it doesn't wash off flea treatment.

[Kris]

We do brush them regularly -- they are long-haired dogs and look pretty mangy if they don't get brushed. But dogs get a bath at least once a year when they go to the groomer to get clipped for the summer.

 

My grandmother treats her dogs like children -- including cooking for them -- and bathes them so often, I don't think they ever have time to dry off! They are little, tiny Yorkies and they STINK!

[Karenciavo]

Every 6-8 weeks our Golden goes to Petsmart and gets a bath, nail trim and hair cut. We only bath him more if he has gotten into something.

[mommylawyer]

Not often enough. That's one of DH's household responsibilities (I do kids, not dogs - but we only have a Shih Tzu, so it's not a BIG responsibility).

[Faithr]

Are some dogs smellier than others? Our 4.5 month old Sheltie gets a powerful doggie odor if I don't bathe her once every two weeks. But I don't recall having this problem with our golden/spitz mix or our beagle/german shepherd mix. Or is it because she's a puppy still? We got the other dogs from the pound when they were over a year old. This is our first purebred.

[Georgie]

I think it depends on the dog itself, rather than the breed. I've known dogs of the same breed that have a strong vs. softer smell. Some dogs have an oiler vs. drier coat. One trick I have heard of is that if you have a wet dog, use a drier sheet on it and it is supposed to help with the dog smell. Sometimes the type of food can also cause a smell. Long coats can also hold on to odors. That's why we rinse our dogs every so often and use a conditioner to help w/tangles. We shampoo once a month

[kristavws]

Both of my dogs HATE to have a bath, which makes it quite the chore. Consequently, we only bathe them when we can smell them!

 

Krista