Bathing your pet dog is extremely important to maintain hygiene and to prevent skin infections. Accumulation of dirt on the coat leads to an unpleasant smell from your pet dog hence they need regular bathing. Bathing can reduce skin itching, bad skin/hair odour, dandruff and discharges of the skin.
Few tips to bathe your pet dog:
1. Choose an appropriate bathing area: You can give a bath to your dog outdoors or indoor based on what suits the dog best. A large wash bucket or any vessel in which your dog can stand comfortably.
2. Check the water temperature: lukewarm water is ideal for a dog bath. Too cold or hot water may make the dog uncomfortable.
3. Brush the coat before bathing: Carefully brush your dog’s coat before bathing to avoid any tangles or knots during bathing. Heavily coated long haired should be clipped short by a groomer to ½ to 1 inch of hair including faces, ears, area around the anus and skin in between the toes
4. Drench completely in water: Drench your dog’s coat, starting from the chest and neck area down the back and sides and towards the tail. Avoid soaking the head area as dog’ heads are quite sensitive; you can clean the head gently by using a wet soft cloth.
5. Shampoo and work up lather: use shampoo that is gentle on the skin. Lather your dog starting from the chest and moving to the other body parts. Again, avoid the eyes and mouth areas.
6. Give a good massage: Gently massage your dog starting from the chest regions to the shoulder area down to the sides back, front legs, hind legs and lastly the tail.
7. Rinse the shampoo completely: After shampooing and massaging your dog. Wash out the shampoo gently with your fingers and ensure that you rinse completely including the under coat.
8. Dry thoroughly: After bath the dog should be allowed to have a good body shake to remove the excess water from its skin. Next wrap a towel over the back and start rubbing over the coat in the direction of the fur from front to back, until both the outer and inner layers are completely dry.
9. Brush the coat again: Give your dog one more session of coat brushing to get rid of any knots or tangles.
Dog should be bathed at least weekly to prevent skin infection and to decrease body itching, dandruff and skin odour.
Veterinary Hospital Kohima
