Bathing for Cairns

[littlelily7]

I have read a lot about the infrequency of bathing cairns. How often can you bathe them? It has been a little over 2 weeks for Sonny, and he is getting the doggie smell. I don't want to irritate his skin because I hear they are sensitive. I have tried spraying doggie deo on him, but he runs all over the house. It barely gets rid of the smell anyway. What are my options? Should I just try to give him a bath?

Thanks for any advice!

[toomanypaws]

I'll be interested to hear what others do. I've had dogs all of my life that all got weekly baths and now I have 3 cairns and am told it's best not to bathe them. This is what I do which may not be the right way. The "girls" have a wading pool in the backyard which they frequently jump in. This seems to keep them from getting smelly and I just towel them dry and spray them w/ their cologne. There are times that they do get a bath and I use a mild baby shampoo. Other times, I "damp mop" them w/ a baby wipe or damp washcloth. My 2 young ones just love to run in the yard and stay pretty clean, BUT my 3 yr old is my hunter! She recently killed a snake and before I could get to her, she rolled on it At that point, anything I've ever read about overbathing went up in smoke as I rushed Kiara to the bath tub.

You probably wouldn't be interested in the cologne I use on my girls, too girly. I do have a male lab that I spray w/ Bio-Groom cologne and he always smells wonderful. This is the best smell I have found that lasts. I've even had people comment how good he smells. My cairn girls smell good too but their smell is very feminine compared to the Bio-Groom spray.

[Scully'sMom]

Toomanypaws, I'd be interested in the girlie smell. Not for ME of course!

[kayharley]

I bathe them when needed. I know it's not a good thing but whenever Madison finds our neighbors cat pooh and rolls in it, she's in the bath ASAP. Those bath wipes just won't cut it.

[MikeC]

I'm lazy, so Duffy goes to the groomers every six weeks. She told me that if he should get funky in between groomings, to wash him with an oatmeal shampoo and use barely warm water. We've only had to do this once. We have a doggie cologne for him that has a light baby powder scent. Oh, and after he has been for a walk, we wipe his paws with babywipes. That's not too neurotic, is it?

MikeC

[Scully'sMom]

That's not too neurotic, is it? 

Nope, that's loving parents!

[bradl]

Bad parents here I guess.

Barley (10 years) - four baths (walked through an oil slick, rolled on a dead seagull, explosive diarrhea X2). Haggis (9 years) - three baths. We do wash his 'undercarriage' using a rinseless spray-on 'show' shampoo from time to time, particularly when his coat around the plumbing gets a bit (OK, a lot) unkempt. Echo (3 years) - no baths. Stella (5 months) - no baths.

They all smell great to me (usually like earth/clean dirt).

[CarCarDawn]

Hi! Riley is now 18 months and he gets a bath about every 6-8 weeks. I brush him frequently and he doesn't really need a bath unless he gets into something - - he never smells bad!!! I use a hypo-allergenic shampoo on him when he does roll in something but other than that - - it's 6-8 weeks between groomings!

[CallisMom]

Calli has had a few baths - she "discovered" all of the poison ivy around the yard, we've had a couple of mud baths that plain old water could not penetrate, one kennel stay (need I say more?) . . . for the most part though - if she gets really dirty (we have a weekend "farm" with a big STINKY pond that she likes to swim in and a lot of red clay that she likes to roll in) a water only bath in the laundry tub usually works out great. I do NOT like stinky dog smell but she didn't have that if I brushed her well.

She had been itching terribly for the past month - I was about to take her to the vet - she was biting until she bled with scabs on her underside, chewing and licking her paws . . . and then she rolled in the mud during a huge downpour. She got a bath with the doggypoo soap bar - her skin went from pink to a nice opaque and her irritations went away and her itching has stopped. So whatever was driving her nuts - washed off. And to think that I wasn't going to give her a bath because I was afaid it was going to irritate her even more . . . It actually is what helped her, who knew?

[toomanypaws]

Scully's mom,

The cologne I use on my girls is called Pooch Puppy Conditioning Eau De Parfum. My friend owns a boutique and this sells for $42.00 but I paid $21.00. I know that's sounds pricy but all my girls need is one little squirt and it last a long time. It's a 34 oz bottle and I've had it for months and maybe have used 5 ounces.

This is funny, I had freshened up my girls and I must have gotten the Pooch Puppy smell on me from holding either Hannah or Abbey as I put them in the crate to run and pick up my dd from school. I actually had a mom ask me what I was wearing because it smelled so good. You should have seen her face when I told her it must be the dog's cologne.

[Mama Kim]

Piper gets a bath about every 2 months, unless she's been playing with her friend, Darby, in the wet mulch. I use a waterless shampoo in between to freshen her up a bit and baby wipes on the feet if they're dirty.

[Scully'sMom]

Scully's only had two baths and that was because she had the diarrhea problem and was in mud. She gets groomed every 8 weeks.

[Eliz222]

Scout gets a bath about every 3 to 6 months. It depends on how "smelly" she gets! She will ALWAYS get a bath when she goes behind our neighbor's yard and rolls into something that smells like poop! I don't know what it is, but it looks like wet mud and it smells terrible! This doesn't happen very often, but last year she rolled in it 3 times in one week!

Finch, the puppy, has gotten just one bath so far. She doesn't smell and most likely won't get one until she does.

When you say that your dog gets "groomed", do they get a bath then? I wonder what groomers use to wash the dogs?