Bath Conditioning
To piggy back off my last post I figured I can take some time to talk about what it takes to get a dog that is comfortable being bathed. So often you hear stories about dogs who fight their owners when they’re being bathed, honestly that isn’t how it should be. It is sooo important to get your dog used to being handled and manipulated for a bath, you want to make this a fun experience for both you and your dog. Theres nothing I love more then getting my dogs in the tub and really going in and checking them over!
Growing up my dogs used to HATE bathes, they were stressful for everyone involved because we never took the time to condition them. We would just tie them out to the deck or the fence and hose them down with chilly water and call it a day. Then during the winter it was 3 times the battle to do it in a bath tub! When I brought Aston home I vowed to myself that I would not fight her to get her in the tub. Instead I made bath time a super fun for us!
Starting With a Puppy
When I bring my puppies home we normally do a small bath within the first couple days, normally that bath isnt the most fun but it needs to be done. What I do is I fill the bath tub with a couple inches of water and sprinkle higher value treats on top of the water and let them scurry around in the water for them and then I will also add some peanut butter to the wall for their next treat. All while that is going on I use a puppy shampoo that I super dilute in a dilution bottle and will spray them down, starting from the butt and working forward adding more snacks as needed. Once they’re fully covered I will use a second bottle that I have plain water in, and rinse them that way. It’s not the “best” way to do it, but I’ve found it works for me and my dogs!
Then after that point I will fill the tub and let them just play in the water! Does it make a mess? It sure does but it shows the dogs that there is nothing to be afraid of when it comes to the tub. After a week or so of them playing just in the water I turn the water on very lightly and let it trickle in the tub just to get them used to the water running (at this point I normally don’t have any water pooled in the tub), petting them on their sides, touching their feet, ears, tails and faces. Daily I will increase the flow of water, backing off if needed. After a week or so of doing that I will turn the shower head on and have it pointed just at the wall, we do the same thing, lots of pets and snacks. Normally I only need to this for a day or two.
Next we will start taking the shower head down and letting them play in the water stream, I will point it at their feet and legs, slowly moving up their body, petting their sides. I do this until they are ready for their next bath. At that point it’s just the game! They’re used to it!
I condition the dryer pretty similarly, I first start with a fan blowing at the kennel for a couple days or so, then I’ll introduce the dryer slowly, just having it turned on at a distance blowing air, slowly touching the puppy. moving it closer until were drying. Never feel bad about needing to take a step back, always feel the need to take breaks, let them air dry or kennel dry. It takes time but it is so worth it!
Starting with an Adult
Starting with adults is always a bit more tricky! But with time you can hopefully achieve some good results! With Bjorn he HATED baths when we first adopted him, he would death roll and show his teeth. It was not a good time at all! Luckily he is food motivated so now he will literally ask for a bath! What I did was implicated the rule that if you want to eat you’re going to have to work for it. So he got to eat all his meals in the bathroom, I started in the doorway and gradually moved the bowl closer to the tub every day.
Once we got to the edge of the tub we had to get over the battle of hopping in the tub. I used super high value treats and encouraged him to hop over, if he didn’t get to eat at that moment, but he would try again a few minutes later. I did this for a couple weeks if I’m being totally honest it wasn’t easy! Now adding water was the next big challenge, we went back to eating outside of the tub with the water running. He also got to hang out in the bathroom anytime I showered. And yes I did bring treato’s into the shower with me and anytime he would poke his head in (because yes I was singing his name) he would get snacks. This conditioned him to he noise and smells of the water. Eventually after enough convincing I was able to get him into the tub while I had the faucet on. That is a big difference I’ve found with adult dogs and puppies, they seem to better with out the water sitting in the tub. So then I went back to my process of having the water run while feeding treats and giving some pets with my hands wet.
Then it at that point it was honestly pretty much the same process as what I did with my puppies. I just take a little bit more time and honestly reward very heavily with high value treats or their meals only come at this time. It for sure takes some time to get to that point and never feel bad about taking some steps back or having it take 6+ months to get to that point. Always try and stop before you feel like you’ve pushed too hard, try to not force anything to happen too soon!
