We tend to think one of two ways about bathing a dog. Some peo­ple think dogs don’t need to be bathed more than once a year or so, while oth­ers believe in bathing their dog every month.

While bathing is ben­e­fi­cial, it can cause prob­lems if it is done too frequently.

Dogs have nat­ural oils in their skin and fur, just like humans do. Wash­ing too often will cause dry­ing, leav­ing your dog at risk of scratch­ing and devel­op­ing sores. Keep in mind that there are some ben­e­fits to hav­ing nat­ural oils present. For one, they pro­vide pro­tec­tion from skin bacteria.

Make bathing a dog fun for you and your pet, but take care. There are cer­tain things you must watch.

1. Pro­tect your dog’s ears. If water and soap enter the ear canal, an infec­tion can develop. This can be tem­po­rary but it can also cause seri­ous dam­age. Infec­tions can harm the ear drum and lead to deaf­ness. There are famil­iar signs that your dog might have an ear infec­tion. He will shake his head and you will see a con­stant dis­charge from the ears.

To ensure this doesn’t hap­pen, gen­tly plug your dog’s ears with cot­ton balls. Do not force them into the ear canal. Sim­ply place them securely at the ear entrance to block water from enter­ing. When the bath is over, be sure to dry the inside of the ears as some mois­ture is likely to gain access. Use a cloth over your fin­ger. If you choose to use a cot­ton swab, be extremely care­ful not to enter too deeply into the canal or you could punc­ture the ear drum.

2. Use a proper dog sham­poo as they are for­mu­lated specif­i­cally to pro­tect your dog’s skin and fur. Human soaps can be too harsh and irri­tat­ing. As well, there is the chance your dog will be aller­gic to the scents that are added to human products.

3. Fre­quency of bathing will depend on your par­tic­u­lar dog’s breed. Longer haired dogs will require more fre­quent wash­ing than short haired breeds. If you have a Spaniel or other hairy dog, sched­ule the baths to once every two months. Other breeds can go 6–8 months. How­ever, if your dog spends a lot of time out­side, he is likely to become dirty faster. Reg­u­late your baths accordingly.

It’s impor­tant to start your dog off right with the bathing rou­tine. Be patient and com­pas­sion­ate. Once you scare your dog, it will be more dif­fi­cult bathing him in the future. Try to make it fun. Dogs love hav­ing water sprin­kled on them, and run­ning into rivers and lakes.

Set up your bath out­side when pos­si­ble and encour­age him to run through it. Use a toy to dis­tract him from the water. When his energy has sub­sided, begin the bath. You might want to put him on a leash so he can’t run away.

Be sure to col­lect all the equip­ment first: soap, con­di­tioner, towel and some sort of bowl to pour water over him. Water run­ning out of the hose might be too cold, how­ever water in the bath will have warmed to a com­fort­able temperature.

Show your dog that bathing is some­thing to enjoy and he will look for­ward to your next ses­sion with excitement.

Tagged as: Bathing, Baths, Beneficial, Breed Dogs, Cotton Balls, Dog Ears, Dog Shampoo, Dogs, Dogs Training, Ear Canal, Ear Drum, Ear Infection, Fur, Haired Dogs, Natural Oils, People, Scents, Series, Signs, Skin Bacteria, Soap, Soaps, Spaniel, Training, Two Ways