Bob got a bath yesterday and was groomed out tonight on the deck...the weather was wonderful. While I was at it I realized how far I have come.

When he was younger, I over-groomed him. I was constantly fussing with his coat and spending all kinds of dough on this product and that product and then finally one day, I was like...stop the madness!

His coat is one that he doesn't need much maintenance. He doesn't carry much undercoat so it's basically like horse mane/tail or human hair...or at least my hair.

The last time he had a bath was at least a month ago, and it only took me about 45 minutes to groom him out...and the dog has coat that drags on the ground from the part on his back, so it's like 9 inches long.

I now use the Mane and Tail shampoo, NO conditioner and the only other product I have been using is glycerin mixed with water as a coat finisher after he is parted. That's it! And it's been about a year and a half since I started this.

I use to have a special process of curing his coat, or at least that was what was in my mind. Condition after shampoo, more conditioner, static stuff...all that jazz and spent a good fortune doing so. Now, lol, nothing at all and his coat looks better than it has EVER without bathing him often or using all those products.

So, I guess my question is, what is your grooming routine? I don't think we have a lot of coated dog peoples here...but thought I'd ask anyways--for nothing other than sheer entertainment value or perhaps finding out if there are any other recently converted cheap skates out there like me.

Not to be stupid, but, my Bob gets a bath once a month wether he needs it or not...

quote:

Originally posted by CJK:
Not to be stupid, but, my Bob gets a bath once a month wether he needs it or not...

Not to be rude, but I've seen his picture and that's a hair "fail."

quote:

Originally posted by TerrierX:

quote:

Originally posted by CJK:
Not to be stupid, but, my Bob gets a bath once a month wether he needs it or not...

Not to be rude, but I've seen his picture and that's a hair "fail."

LOL...how right you are!!! I HATE his hair and I wish he would cut it all off. Lord knows it needs a miracle to salvage it.

Do you encourage him to just go bald? You should if you don't.

There's nothing more pathetic, to me, than watching a man trying to save the lasts of his hair. Just shave it already! Geeze, bald is beautiful.

OMG..you don't even know!! I have tried and tried to get him to cut that shit off. Even my parents make fun of him.

I have tried (without success) to make him understand that his hair is NOT attractive.

The only thing I can think of is he is going through some sort of mid life crisis.

Now, in his defense...I did color it back to it's normal color (which is very dark), but he just doesn't seem to get it.

He's like a brillo pad on stilts....LOL

So, no, you didn't offend me at all. Because I completely agree with you.

He is going bald and he is in complete denial.

He just doesn't see it. And to be honest...it's embarrassing..

Oh...and bald is NOT an issue...he has ears like an elephant...He has a really large head and ears to match.....

When we have a really large wind? His ears whistle.

I'm sorry if you think I am f*king with you, but I"m really not. I am being totally honest.

I just read the first post about bathing and grooming, then I read CK's post and thought wow didn't know she had an animal named Bob, then it hit me as I read further she is talking about Bob, LMAO

Then I read the part about his ears and them whistling. OMG I am laughing so hard I can barely type. CK you crack me up...

Okay so the bathing thing. Yes I raise my hand cheapskate here!!! I actually use my shampoo and conditioner on my dogs! It is Suave coconut! Tinkerbell has funny hair, you would think it is soft but it is not really until after I wash her, that and she is white for about an hour after bath, then a dull grey as she goes right for the nearest sand pit to roll!

Now Sable is my fun dog to bath. She is the largest dog we have at near 100 lbs. It is easier to bathe her then it is the 5 small dogs. I say "Sable you want a bath" and she heads right for the tub and climbs in. She stays there for wash and rinse and even will stay there until I tell her to get out to be dried and then if I don't pay close attention she will climb right back in!!!

Scruffy is the reason I started to use the people shampoo. One day he really stunk, I had to get him into the tub. I had no dog shampoo so I used my shampoo and I have to use conditioner as his hair is really rough, brittle and icky!

I give them all a bath once a month at least two days before it is time for them to get their flea meds. Genius gets a bath for three days in a row before his flea meds because he has allergys and his skin stinks badly! I have used an oatmeal shampoo on him in hopes it would help his skin, it did nothing I expected and it did NOT help the stink of his skin! So with him, he gets a dawn dish soap bath the first day. and then a Pert Plus bath each day for the next two days. The dish soap kills the fleas and removes greaseness from his fur. The Pert helps the smell and makes his fur softer. I don't use conditioner on him. After this he is good to go for at least 3 weeks, but then the fleas are getting him again and his skin starts reacting to the fleas again and he stinks again and we just hope that the last week before his flea meds hurrys up!

That is my bath story!

I have two dogs. One is long coated but she only weighs about 4 lbs to she is a piece of cake. Just put her in the kitchen sink and I also just use human shampoo. No conditioner. Then I just scrub her vigorously with a towel to dry her as much as possible and she's good to go!

Now my other dog is a whole different story. He is 160 lbs. We have a doggie wash in my town especially for washing dogs. Problem is the bathing table is stainless steel and it is about 4 feet off the ground. There is a ramp to walk your dog up onto the table, but my dog refuses to walk up it. Probably because it's also stainless steel and is no doubt slippery.

Last time we used the doggie wash it took 4 full grown men to get him up on that table...so needless to say we never tried that again.

So what we did was install a dual outlet hose in our back yard. It has two nozzles kind of like a kitchen sink so that we have both hot and cold water. It's WONDERFUL! So no more ice cold baths. Now on this dog, we use a medicated shampoo (I think it's called Chlorhexiderm) because he is prone to hot spots in the summer. We DO use a conditioner on him but he has a relatively short coat so it's easy to rinse out. Then we just let him stay outside and shake off all the excess water. Of course that takes more than an hour before he is allowed back inside. Then we use a curry comb on him (like they use on horses) to get all the loose hair off of him.

quote:

Originally posted by CJK:
Oh...and bald is NOT an issue...he has ears like an elephant...He has a really large head and ears to match.....

So does my grandpa!! He has had a comb over ever since I can remember and in pictures before I was born it was the same. Now at 88 it is still the same! Big ears and a big head! LOL

What flea meds to you use Mya?

quote:

Originally posted by VonLahrheimGSP's:

quote:

Originally posted by CJK:
Oh...and bald is NOT an issue...he has ears like an elephant...He has a really large head and ears to match.....

So does my grandpa!! He has had a comb over ever since I can remember and in pictures before I was born it was the same. Now at 88 it is still the same! Big ears and a big head! LOL

Well, you know some men look GREAT bald. Personally, I think it's very sexy. But some just look awful bald and unfortunately Bob happens to be one of them..

I just started to use something new on my dogs. But I have used blue Dawn in the past during the summer. Although I treat for fleas with frontline I have used the Dawn as an extra precaution. Plus it is a degreaser.

Okay, I'll draw the line at dish soap. Wouldn't use it on myself, won't use it on the kids...in an emergency crappage of the pantaloons, perhaps, but in that case, I'd probably grab my own stuff first.

To each their own...

I also don't have greasy skin and short coats.

quote:

Originally posted by CJK:
What flea meds to you use Mya?

I was using the advantage, but right now I am giving the Frontline a shot, it is suppose to be water proof. I am not at all happy with it. In April we bought a 3 month supply for each dog, that is 3 tubes each for 6 dogs! Yup! And a 3 month supply for each cat, another 15 tubes there. Needless to say we are talking hundreds of dollars on Flea crap!

The first month I expect to see fleas after that application as it had been really dry here so the fleas were out of control. But I thought for sure the flea meds the second month along with wet weather would in fact bring relief for at least 2 to 3 weeks, with only having to deal with a few fleas in that last week waiting for re application. But scruffy is barking at his ass, sooooo I can assume there is either some fleas there or he is now in the habit of barking at farts! LMAO

Seriously though Scruffy really barks at fleas and growls on some occasions. I will judge it fully in the 3rd month as between the meds on the dogs, baths before application and treating the yard and house for three months along with the summer rains, I should not have a problem until winter again.

I liked advantage but it would wash off when the animals were caught out in the rain!

The blue Dawn dish soap is awesome stuff for killing fleas, ticks and other nasty's. But also, it works great if you get grease on your hands when working on a car.

Other great uses are a 3 year olds hair after they find the babies diaper rash cream, most marker designs on skin and anything else a toddler can find to get on them!

I also use it to wash my hands all the time! Some hand soaps dry my skin out but the dawn doesn't.

Just saying!!!

quote:

Originally posted by myakkacity:

quote:

Originally posted by CJK:
What flea meds to you use Mya?

I was using the advantage, but right now I am giving the Frontline a shot, it is suppose to be water proof. I am not at all happy with it. In April we bought a 3 month supply for each dog, that is 3 tubes each for 6 dogs! Yup! And a 3 month supply for each cat, another 15 tubes there. Needless to say we are talking hundreds of dollars on Flea crap!

The first month I expect to see fleas after that application as it had been really dry here so the fleas were out of control. But I thought for sure the flea meds the second month along with wet weather would in fact bring relief for at least 2 to 3 weeks, with only having to deal with a few fleas in that last week waiting for re application. But scruffy is barking at his ass, sooooo I can assume there is either some fleas there or he is now in the habit of barking at farts! LMAO

Seriously though Scruffy really barks at fleas and growls on some occasions. I will judge it fully in the 3rd month as between the meds on the dogs, baths before application and treating the yard and house for three months along with the summer rains, I should not have a problem until winter again.

I liked advantage but it would wash off when the animals were caught out in the rain!

A couple of suggestions that will cut down on the cost of the Frontline. To begin with use Frontline PLUS because it also kills the flea eggs where regular frontline does not.

Buy the largest size of Frontline Plus you can for DOGS (89-132 lbs), then dose it down. The formula is the same for dogs as it is for cats..you don't have to buy the individual doses. That is done for convenience and (of course) because it makes more money for the company.

.1 ml per pound and use a tuberculin syringe. For example, BB weighs 4 lbs so she gets .4 ml...then I put the rest of the vial on Rocky. I take the entire amount and put it in a very small container and then cover what I don't use with syran wrap. A small baby food jar works well also.

My dogs get treated starting May 1st. I do not dose the cats AT ALL unless I find a flea on one of them.

The dogs also get Program so they are treated internally and externally, so it is very rare that one of the cats get a few fleas, but it does and has happened. When it does, I also use the dog Frontline Plus on them as well, and dose it according to their weight.

I have discussed this with my vet and he totally agrees with my method (just in case there is anyone out there that wants to argue the point ) . There are some flea meds that you can't do that with (I think Advantage is one of them), but Frontline Plus is one of them that you can and it can save you HUNDREDS of dollars if you live in an area like Florida.

I will add that we have never had a dog with fleas. We used to only treat our dogs with Frontline Plus before we would go visit my MIL because fleas were bad there. We never had a case of fleas where we lived. Now that we live where my MIL lives we did start to use Frontline this spring. I didn't use Dawn on my dogs all the time, but did every once in a while. They use it on wildlife when needed to cut grease. Perfectly safe.
CJK I know of many people that cut doses of Frontline by their vets recommendation.