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I think sometimes (not always) people don't notice or have a less sensitive nose than mine because people tell me oh they never wash them because their dogs never smell, and when i am around their dogs they do smell like wet dog or anal glad-y.

 

I understand the concept of nose blindness, as the ad for a stinky (the product, not just the odor LOL) odor eliminator calls it, but other people are always telling me how great Bodhi smells and asking if I've just bathed him. As a therapy dog people are always smushing their faces into his coat and telling me this.

 

And I honestly can't remember the last time he's had anything more than a rinse off with clear water. It's quite literally been years since any shampoo has touched him.

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As a therapy dog people are always smushing their faces into his coat and telling me this.

 

Your therapy dog program doesn't have a "pre visit wash" requirement?

 

I haven't done therapy visits in a number of years, but we were always asked to bathe the dogs within 12 hours of a visit to reduce dander, saliva residue and environmental stuff before bringing them into a health care facility.

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Hello! I have a 12 week old border collie that is masked and the rest of her body is white which is turning out to be ticked allover. She has a longer coat and I was wondering what anyone else uses to make her coat nice and shiny. When we do bath her she is washed with Burt's bees dogs shampoo. I'm looking for something natural that I can use that won't make her greasy haven't looked into anything on the internet and knew how many of bc parents are on her and thought maybe you'd have recommendations on something or if I should just leave her alone lol. I don't want to use anything all the time because I don't want to ruin the oil balance her coat already produces. Thank you in advance for any advice.

 

 

Hi there!

 

She sounds striking - you are welcome to post cute puppy pictures here, of course. :)

 

At 12 weeks, her coat isn't anywhere close to her adult coat, so I'd say just leave it alone. If she gets dirty, just brush her off unless it's something stinky. I have two 13 week olds and one has a somewhat-shiny smooth coat and the other has a rather fuzzy, soft smooth coat. The adult coat won't come in for several more months.

 

So, my advise is just leave her alone! Border collies don't need a lot of grooming unless they are shedding or get into something nasty. My guys only get bathed for their spring shed and again late in the fall, and they'll get brushed out if they get muddy and need some tidying up. My two pups each got a bath when I brought them home at 8 weeks, but only because they were each a little stinky. :P I have not tried to bathe them since and I only brush them occasionally with a soft rubber brush so that they know what brushing is. Unless they actually smell, I don't see a need for much bathing.

 

My two cents' anyhow! :D

 

As for shampoo, I just use whatever sounds nice and follow with a bit of conditioner for shine. I bathe so seldom that I don't make a big deal about it.

 

Hope this helps!

 

~ Gloria

 

 

 

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Your therapy dog program doesn't have a "pre visit wash" requirement?

 

No.

 

Some do, some don't. Mine states that "Your pet must be groomed and tidy -- pay special attention that nails are trimmed and smooth." My dog is groomed, tidy and has no offensive odor. If I had a stinky hound I'd bathe him, but I have a nice, clean border collie. ;)

 

Some pet therapy organizations have ridiculous and/or onerous requirements. One group bans raw feeding, one requires the dogs' bandanas to be hanging in a certain way, others won't let members visit with people who belong to other therapy organizations. One I'd belonged to let their liability insurance lapse for 3 1/2 years without informing their membership(!).

 

I was careful when I switched organizations for the third time in 9 years that the one I joined suited me while maintaining integrity in their program. I'm responsible enough to know if and when my dog needs to be bathed. I often make several visits a week; this week we're making 6. If I had to bathe my dog 12 hours prior to each visit I'd be bathing him every damn day. I'm more interested in the overall integrity of the organization than I am in stupid, prohibitive regulations that restrict conscientious volunteers from sharing their dogs. :)

 

ETA: I would absolutely honor a facility's request for a dog to be bathed prior to making a visit. That's why I don't participate in one of the local group visits to the local hospital's cancer unit. I understand their reasoning but it doesn't work for me, so I visit their hospice instead.

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No.

 

Some do, some don't. Mine states that "Your pet must be groomed and tidy -- pay special attention that nails are trimmed and smooth." My dog is groomed, tidy and has no offensive odor. If I had a stinky hound I'd bathe him, but I have a nice, clean border collie. ;)

 

Some pet therapy organizations have ridiculous and/or onerous requirements. One group bans raw feeding, one requires the dogs' bandanas to be hanging in a certain way, others won't let members visit with people who belong to other therapy organizations. One I'd belonged to let their liability insurance lapse for 3 1/2 years without informing their membership(!).

 

I was careful when I switched organizations for the third time in 9 years that the one I joined suited me while remaining integrity in their program. I'm responsible enough to know if and when my dog needs to be bathed. I often make several visits a week; this week we're making 6. If I had to bathe my dog 12 hours prior to each visit I'd be bathing him every damn day. I'm more interested in the overall integrity of the organization than I am in stupid, prohibitive regulations that restrict conscientious volunteers from sharing their dogs. :)

 

ETA: I would absolutely honor a facility's request for a dog to be bathes prior to making a visit. That's why I don't participate in on of the local group visits to the local hospital's cancer unit. I understand their reasoning but it doesn't work for me, so I visit their hospice instead.

Both Celt and Megan had their certification, and we would visit the rehab facility once a month on the only night they had therapy dog visits, plus we occasionally visited elsewhere. We tended to the rehab because for some inexplicable reason, Celt could get freaked out by white-haired senior women - I *think* it may have had to do with something they used on their hair because it was only women with brilliant white hair. He'd look at them and get growly and fearful. So the rehab was great for us because he could visit without having to interact with older senior women with bright white hair! Megan, on the other hand, is an attention hound and was good with anyone and everyone.

 

The organization that we worked with did not require pre-visit bathing but just what Roxanne mentioned - neat grooming. But I felt uncomfortable after a while as, compared to most of the canine visitors, our dogs lived and worked on a farm, and so were exposed to high levels of "natural dirt and bacteria". I began to wonder if we should visit without bathing, and I was adverse to bathing my dogs if I could avoid it. My dilemma was solved when I needed to take on another responsibility that happened on the same evenings as the therapy dogs were allowed to visit, and so I let their certification lapse as we no longer were able to schedule visits.

 

I never realized there was so much variation in different organizations' requirements.

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I have a question. Does frequent grooming cause the dogs to develop that doggy odor?

 

I notice that odor when I take care of dogs that are groomed regularly. And then they get groomed again because they have that doggy odor. I am just wondering if the grooming causes their skin to smell bad because all of the their natural oils keep getting washed away. I really notice that odor with all the little, long haired dogs I take care of that have to be bathed and shaved often.

 

I never bathe my dogs. Never have. And they don't smell. I think I would notice it because I notice it right away when I walk into a house where the dogs smell bad. My dogs do smell kind of wet when they have been out in the rain.

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I have a question. Does frequent grooming cause the dogs to develop that doggy odor?

 

I notice that odor when I take care of dogs that are groomed regularly. And then they get groomed again because they have that doggy odor. I am just wondering if the grooming causes their skin to smell bad because all of the their natural oils keep getting washed away. I really notice that odor with all the little, long haired dogs I take care of that have to be bathed and shaved often.

 

I never bathe my dogs. Never have. And they don't smell. I think I would notice it because I notice it right away when I walk into a house where the dogs smell bad. My dogs do smell kind of wet when they have been out in the rain.

 

It could, in theory. Regular gentle washing and brushing should not affect healthy skin any more than regular washing of your own skin would. If you wash a lot with harsh soaps you could cause skin irritation and excessive discharge which would make a dog have more odor.

 

But no, I don't think regular bathing with regular mild shampoo would bother the dogs skin, and unless you actively did something to change the skin its very unlikely that an occasionally washed dog would smell more than a never washed dog. There's nothing magical in sebum that would keep odor away.

 

I think some coat types develop odor more than others (dogs like sporting dogs with oily skin vs. our Border Collies) or because of ear or anal glad discharge.

 

My dogs hind end smells after a month or so. It smells like musty towels and a little like anal glad. I even had the vet check and see if his glad had an issue and it doesn't seem too. He is neutered, and he has massive thick undercoat in his rear legs and base of his tail. Its wet here and we get damp a lot, and even though I towel him dry he still gets that old musty towel smell.

 

Sometimes his head smells a little doggy. Not gross like some dogs but a little doggy.

 

So a monthly bath it is.

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Creiglowlady that is one heck of a cute puppy. I love a ticked coat. You can send her to me if you like! :wub:

 

I have almost never fully bathed my border collies, although hosing the dust off in the summer is fairly frequent if they have been outside a lot. My two small dogs require regular bathing and thorough grooming and clipper-ing, but the border collies have typically had a shampoo bath once a year, if that.

 

I did bathe Jes more often when he and I were doing a lot of Freestyle performances, but often it didn't actually mean shampoo, just a rinse and thorough brushing.

 

My experience with every BC I have had is that they have teflon coats. I remember marveling at how my first border collie would come home thoroughly muddy and all I had to do was leave her outside long enough for her coat to dry and she'd come into the house clean.

 

(That dog also would not allow me to pick burs from her extremely bushy tail. She did it herself. She would lie on the porch and tug them all out with her teeth and leave them in a very neat little pile on the porch, with surprisingly little hair attached. She did a better job of it than I would have done.

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  • 3 months later...

To you non-bathers:

 

See how fast you turn if your dog rolls in raccoon crap! This actually is an emergency because raccoon crap is a hazardous material for humans and dogs. If you should have this unfortunate event grab the nearest dog shampoo you can get your hands on and don any safety equipment you have. Oh and don't let go of the dog because he may rub the poo into your carpet. And don't worry about shiny.

 

Not that I know about this personally. MY dog would never do such a gross thing. No. Really. I mean it. :ph34r:

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My dogs get bathed every other week because I'm such a mean dog mom. Totally kidding but that's what they would tell you. But seriously, they get bathed every other week due to my and my husband's allergies. I also have a professionalish blow dryer. We bathe them, take their butts outside and blow dry them. That doesn't apply to Scotland because he's terrified of the blow dryer. However, since he isnt even 8 months, he air dries outside rather quickly since he doesn't have his adult cost yet. And one other thing, after we blow dry them outside, they go right back I'm because of course, the first thing they want to do is roll and plant their bodies in the grass.

 

My rainbow bridge not only got bathed once every few months. If there was ever dirt on him, we waited til he fries and brushed him off. He never smelled or anything. As he got up there in age, bathing and professional grooming became more common.

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I like to use my dog as an air freshener. ;) I would like some recommendations for a dog shampoo that smells really good. Most of what I have smelled in the pet stores doesn't have much fragrance.

Tropiclean is really good and easy on their skin.

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I like to use my dog as an air freshener. ;) I would like some recommendations for a dog shampoo that smells really good. Most of what I have smelled in the pet stores doesn't have much fragrance.

Just keep in mind that your dog has an extremely sensitive nose. Anything with a lot of fragrance will probably be overwhelming to them.

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Just keep in mind that your dog has an extremely sensitive nose. Anything with a lot of fragrance will probably be overwhelming to them.

 

^^ This.

 

I'm extremely sensitive to synthetic fragrances. Even small amounts literally make me sick. But my dogs object to fragrances that are subtle enough to barely register for me. Bodhi, especially. If I use anything on him that has a fragrance he's rolling on carpet or grass for hours trying to get it off. He can't stand them.

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