Do you wash your dogs at home?

[Kassidy]

Do you wash your border collies at home? I brush Chloe a couple times a week, and bring her to the groomers to be washed and have her nails trimmed about once a month or when she gets dirty or smelly, whichever comes sooner. I would like to wash her more often, but groomer visits get pretty pricey. She will NOT let us bathe her at home, she won't get anywhere near the bath. Do you guys bathe your BCs at home?

[rushdoggie]

Yes, but not monthly...my Border Collie seldom smells so he gets a bath maybe 2 or 3 times a year and usually because we have company staying with us. If he gets muddy I just rinse him.

 

You can teach a dog to tolerate and accept being washed, break it down to small steps.

[GoodbyeHalcyonDays]

Caleb is just a family pet, so he gets bathed once a week at home. I'm a neat freak, so I like everything clean, including him. There's just something very nice about seeing all that clean white fur... He doesn't like it, and I know family doesn't like how dirty the bathtub gets after his baths, but he tolerates it. The issue isn't bathing him, but blow drying him-- that takes a good hour or so to get him completely dry.

 

I take him to the groomers once a month to get all of it done (a bath, nails cut, extra fur on his paw pads, pants, and such trimmed). I wish I could take him more, but in the city, it's about $60-100 for the whole thing.

[TEC]

4-5 baths/yr seem to handle it for me, along with numerous quick outdoor hose-offs to remove mud/debris/foul-smells. Creek and lake swimming is a big plus in warmer months.

 

I quit trimming claws -- Josie hates it. Exercise/work, sandy soil and her own paw self-maintenance have reduced the need for trimming.

 

My medium size city has several do-it-yourself grooming businesses. Big tubs at waist height, lots of warm water; they provide the shampoo, towels and grooming tables. For $15.00, I think it's a bargain. -- TEC

[Kassidy]

Yes, but not monthly...my Border Collie seldom smells so he gets a bath maybe 2 or 3 times a year and usually because we have company staying with us. If he gets muddy I just rinse him.

 

You can teach a dog to tolerate and accept being washed, break it down to small steps.

We will work on it. We don't always get her bathed every month, but she enjoys rolling in smelly stuff So sometimes its needed

[olivehill]

I do, but definitely not monthly. Only as needed which seems to be a couple of times per year on the high side. Most stuff brushes out if you let it dry first.

[Gideon's girl]

Micah will be 1 on 3/3/13 and had been bathed 3 times. The first time, he freaked out so bad that he bit me really hard, the next 2 were just to remind him that he learned that bathing doesn't cause death.

 

Gideon likes to roll in poo. He can go months without a bath and then get 3 in 3 days depending on whether or not he found something irresistable. Once he got three in one day, it was a bad day for all involved.

[Olivia]

Yep, I bathe mine at home. They have been taught what "bath time" means and they will gather in the bathroom and the first one (I always bathe them in the same order) will be waiting in the bath tub. They also know what "turn" mean when in the tub so when I'm done working on one side I simply say turn and they will turn around for me to work on the other side. They know they must stay in the tub until we are done, I don't hold them in, they stand willingly. Then I close the shower curtain and tell them to shake off. I also purchased a grooming force dryer which blows neutral air (doesn't have a heater in it) at a high speed so I can bathe and mostly dry all 3 border collies in less than an hour. The chihuahua gets washed in the kitchen sink since she is so little.

 

I bathe mine about 5 times a year. We usually just rinse off any mud or anything that gets on their coats or wait until it dries and it just falls off. I only bathe them when they start to really smell like pond funk or find something dead to roll in.

[Liz P]

Does a dip in the stock tank count as a bath?

 

My dogs don't get bathed often, maybe once a year with actual shampoo. Otherwise it's a quick hose off to get rid of mud.

 

Once a week bathing is excessive and will dry out a dog's skin and coat.

[G. Festerling]

We don't enjoy bathing.

Having said that, when it needs done, there is no way I will pay for it. Trimming nails, cutting tufts (trust me I would nit say this if I was showing dogs ) is also done by me. Few of my dogs need it as they are active and move around a lot but I will admit, on some I need to be more vigilant.

Not going near the bathing area? It has been tried and is not an option. As I said, they don't volunteer and neither do I. Yet it is not a struggle either.

[gcv-border]

I think my dogs average about one bath (with dog shampoo) per year. I do it myself. If they get dirty paws or another body part, that part is selectively hosed off - outside. Most mud will fall off once dried. Of course, when one rolls in fresh, slimy cow poo, I have to suck it up and bathe him/her.

 

I personally don't like the fluffy coats after a bath (although I do like the clean smell and soft coat). I prefer the coat to be slick and shiny which requires natural body oils IMHO. Bathing removes these oils.

 

Jovi

[RichardH]

I usually just rinse her off. She goes a little crazy on the forest walks and decides to find something new, exciting and repugnant to roll in or walks withers deep in mud. My poor, poor bathtub. I haven't had her long, but it looks like a quarterly grooming visit for nails and some actual soap might not be a bad idea - her mane is getting pretty grungy especially where her collar sits.

 

-Rich

[Flamincomet]

I fully bathe, brush and blow out my border collie once a week and it doesn't dry out his coat or skin. He is a service dog and needs to be kept clean and shedding to a minimum. I don't use cheap products on him either and he eats a raw diet so I'm sure that helps to keep his skin from getting itchy and dry. When I was grooming professionally there were many dogs that were on a two week grooming schedule, and some came in more often.

[Donald McCaig]

Dear Doggers,

 

If a dog is muddy I crate it until mud dries and falls off. If stinky, I shampoo and hose it off outside. No, they don't like it.

 

My wife Anne clips our sheepdogs and guard dogs so they're more comfortable in summer heat. One year she was too busy so first time ever Luke (aka Mr. Dog) went to the groomer. Well, the groomer did the whole 9 yards: bathe, clip and perfume.

 

Artistically, the groomer removed all his fur from head to most of tail, leaving fluffy head and pompom.

 

Luke had become Jean-Luc! He were mortified.When Jean-Luc went to the post, handlers giggled.

 

That fall, Jean-Luc removed a sheep's ear. Bit it clean off. For, as W.H. Auden wrote: "I and the public know what all schoolchildren learn,Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return."

 

Donald McCaig

[Sue R]

Except for Celt, once or twice as a pup perhaps, not one of these three dogs has ever had a real bath. Year round, if any get muddy (on a farm working cattle or just playing, there will be mud and manure), they get hosed off outside at the spigot. If someone rolls in something stinky, they get a spot shampoo only if I can't get the stink off with plain water. When they are hot, they jump in the stock tank and that takes off just about all the dirt.

 

If they are wet (the boys have a "shake" command but I have to blow in Megan's ear to get her to shake) enough, Ed likes to towel them off. I'm the bad cop with the hose, and he's the good cop with the towel.

 

Nails get done by me when they need trimming, and I clip the foot hair as needed to avoid ice balls in wintery conditions. They get combed out on occasion - feathers and tails when they get their nails trimmed, and whole body a few times during shedding season.

 

I am obviously not a neat freak but we do try to keep the dirt somewhat under control.

 

PS - Celt will get in the tub on command. Megan might but I've never asked her. Dan would need a lift from me because he's cautious about smooth surfaces.

[alligande]

I do it myself at home, maybe 3 or 4 times a year max. The summer is easy we have hot water outside, the winter a bit more of a challenge as the current occupant is rather scared of the tub, yes as a puppy I did all the right things, but as his confidence with swimming grew his fear of the bathtub grew...and as we don't do it often we have not worried about it. I have always just toweled the dogs off, and let nature do its thing... It's what I do to my own hair even in the middle of winter..

I am lucky he does not roll in stinky stuff, ignores dead things and locally our mud is not of the smelly variety which means we bring home a filthy collie and within a couple of hours he is back to shiny black and white again. We don't ask where the mud is

In the summer we will stop by a pond for a swim to remove mud. Or get the hose out to rinse of saltwater.

I have not clipped his nails since he was a puppy, they wear down naturally. And as for the feathers personally I like the natural flowing look, and not the neat trimmed look. I do trim his yeti feet about once a year so he does not slide on the hardwood floors.

As a breed I find they just don't smell, I noticed the 9 month flat coat that stayed with us had a slight funky smell and we won't talk about the smell of the previous house guest a 12 year old lab..,,,

[mum24dog]

Kye is now 7 and has never had a complete bath - well not since 8 months old when we got him. He has the teflon coat that BCs are supposed to have and doesn't need it. Rarely gets brushed either as he has a short coat.

 

If he isn't clean by the time we get home he stays in the conservatory until he is. Normally he isn't too dirty because he cools himself off in any available water.

 

If he has rolled in something really stinky he gets a spot wash with shampoo and hosepipe like Donald's dogs.

 

Fortunately he has never needed his nails clipped (other than dew claws) but I would do it myself if he did, or rather get my daughter to do it as he's her dog.

 

I agree with gcvborder -

 

I personally don't like the fluffy coats after a bath (although I do like the clean smell and soft coat). I prefer the coat to be slick and shiny which requires natural body oils IMHO. Bathing removes these oils.

 

I'm only aware of 1 BC owner (out of hundreds that I know) who has her dogs regularly groomed professionally, but her older dog is show bred with an impossibly excessive coat, the younger show/sport bred with a coat still longer than I would like but not too bad. We train on orange sand and her dogs carry the stain for days whereas Kye's feet are white again after a couple of hours.

 

The vast majority of BCs I know are either working/farm bred or not far removed from it. They also compete in agility, often in similar conditions to what they would meet if working (rain and mud), so it's an advantage still to have a practical coat that doesn't need much attention.

 

If any of my dogs had a greasy coat and/or scurfy skin I would be looking at their diet and general health.

[Kassidy]

I know I phrased it weird, but when I said once a month, I meant averaged. During the winter months when there is snow everywhere she may only get bathed once, or not at all. But during the rest of the year, it might be once a month, it might be once every three months, it might be 3 times a month, depending on how often she rolls in smelly/dead stuff. But about once a month on average.

[bcnewe2]

I must be a bad bathing Mum. I bath on rare occasion that it is a dire need, like something really stinky and it's the dead of winter so no swimming.

Otherwise I have them jump in the river or a pond, what ever is handy.

 

Raven is old she has stress seizures. One way to set them off for sure is put her in a bathtub. It's not the water it's the slippery surface. Tried a towel under her but same thing happened.

So it's been like 4 years since she had a bath in a tub. My son forgot why we didn't bathe her and tried, she ended up seizing for a long time. Totally freaked my son out. He'll never forget again.

 

But I can hose her off in the summer of help her swim a bit in a pond. this winter with her old lady furry toes I kept a bucket on the porch and would fill it with warm water dipping one foot in at a time to get mud out from between her toes.

 

Nope baths around here just don't happen unless they stink us out of the house.

[bcnewe2]

I forgot to mention I have some special spray, I think it's called Show sheen. It's for horses. Sometimes I use that when I brush them, which I'm known to do on an occasion...like they are full of matts and I notice them or you can see some bothering them.

Show Sheen smells great and allows me to brush them easily without tangling, even in their feathery bum area. BUt if I get that spray on my floors you slide around for days!

[Carson Crazies]

Most often my dogs will grind their faces in something nasty, and if we're not near a hose I just dump a bucket of water over their heads. Otherwise, they might get bathed with actual shampoo once, maybe twice per year. Pia is 21 months and she's been bathed exactly once.

 

The only exception is Ginger (who is not a border collie). She smells different than the border collies, and gets bathed monthly or every other. She also gets shaved down about every other month. She goes to the groomer if I'm having issues with my clippers, but otherwise I've been doing her myself for about 3 years now.

[5Bordercollies]

My 5 gets bathed whenever they start to smell, like dogs. Unfortunately three of them have long coats, so they get a little dirtier than mama dog who has a shorter coat. Xena is a nervous high strung dog who runs around the yard in endless circles so she gets extremely dirty. Also not being of very good breeding, she doesn't have that naturally repelling coat, but is a bit woolly so she gets clipped once to twice a summer so she can just be risnsed off whenever neccessary. They are all (except little Boo bear, 4 month old old Meg) is thunder phobic to a greater of lesser degree and when neccessary come in and sleep in my bedroom. Then I do need them to be at lteast passibly clean. Unless off course they tangle with a skunk!!! That is reason for a bath ASAP!!!` Not just a bath, but the dreaded Bicarb of soda and vinegar bath! They don't like baths, but that one takes the cake.

[arf2184]

I've never taken an animal to the groomers. I always do it myself. I've bathed hamsters, rats, rabbits, guinea pig, dogs, cats...even a few chinchillas (who are not supposed to get wet, but they were sticky). Sometimes you get bit or scratched in the process, but eventually they learn that it will be over soon and its best to just hold still, even the cats.

 

Meg gets bathed most often here. She gets a bath, brush, blow dry and rear trim every 3-6 weeks. Bear has short Teflon fur so he only gets bathed when he smells. In the winter, we bathe in the tub. In the summer, the hose works fine.

 

I dremel their nails as needed....about 3-4 times in the winter and maybe twice the rest of the year. As with most things, with practice and patience they learn to tolerate it.

[SS Cressa]

My kids have done both. But they don't normally go to groomers they go to a friends house to get groom.

 

They hate bathes but will kind of tolerate it. They do not enjoy it.

[Tommy Coyote]

My dogs don't get bathed. They never need it. If they are muddy the mud just dries up and falls off. They do get brushed once in a while.