On Baths: How to Bathe a Dog and Why Cinnamon got a Bath

I, Cinnamon, have lucked out. While Francesca has had numerous baths because she likes to get dirty when she’s playing, I haven’t had to go near the dreaded bathtub.

Here’s how I do it:
1. I don’t roll in stuff at the dog park
2. I avoid mud.
3. I don’t play rough with other dogs.
4. I make sure Francesca is much dirtier than I am so she is the one who gets the bath!

But my luck ran out this week when my owner noticed that my skin was getting flaky. I guess you’d say I have dandruff. She thought, since I had not had a bath in many months, that a good scrubbing would help my skin.

 

Here I am, still wet, waiting to go outside and run around.
You can see my fur is shinier now.
You can also see that I am giving my owner the Stink Eye!

So I heard the water running and thought about making my escape. But my owner put the leash on me and, after that, I just calmly walked into the bathroom and jumped into the tub. No need to struggle… it just gets me frustrated.

So here’s the right way to bathe a dog (I looked it up on the Internet):

1.     Brush your dog first to get the loose stuff out and remove any matted hair (that’s for long haired dogs).

2.     Either put cotton balls in your dogs ears to keep the water out or make sure you don’t get your dog’s head wet.

3.     Prepare the bath with warm water. Not hot water. Not cold water.

4.     Use dog shampoo, scrub your dog’s skin and fur (my favorite part) and rinse it out well, really well.

5.     Give your dog a treat afterwards for enduring the bath.

6.     Short haired dogs can be towel dried or air dried on a warm day in the sun. Long haired dogs can benefit from a hair dryer unless it scares them too much.

So I had my bath and got towel dried. I then ran around the yard like crazy which helped me air dry. I spent the rest of the day lazing in the sun.

So did it get rid of my dandruff? I think it might have. I still see some, but I feel better and my fur is much shinier!

Love, Clean Cinnamon