Do you know when your dog is dirty? Seriously

I have always wondered this but could never ask the owners themselves b/c I would obviously offend them. You ever pet a dog and get that black film on your fingers b/c they're so dirty? Yet the owners let the dog in the house to sit on everything and think nothing of it.

Sometimes I think "maybe they're about to give the dog a bath" and give them a break because people get busy, but when you come over and their dog is always in the same condition ...that's just foul.

I find more homes with dogs who need baths than not (esp if the dog is med-large ...not so much in toy breeds). Do people who do this know their dog is disgusting? It grosses the crap out of me. Give your dog baths!!!!!!!!!!!!!

None of my dogs have ever had that ...let alone one that makes your fingers turn black AND then let them inside of the home AND do nothing about it. It's different to me if your dog stays outside and/or is a working dog.

Sorry if I offended you, but I just don't understand.
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Barney just got a bath (yay!!) on Sunday and he is so soft and fluffy right now. We don't give him baths very often because of his skin itchies, as well as he's a prissy dog and doesn't go outside much so he doesn't get 'dirty dirty' like muddy or anything. He just gets 'lack of bath' dirty after a while. We start saying 'Barney needs a bath' about a month before he actually gets one! But yeah, if he was actually dirty, like left a mark of dirt on you, he'd definitely get a bath more often!
haha, we start saying it several weeks before it happens as well. I guess we're hoping one of us will own up to the task. :lol:

When we went to a dog show the other week, I was so excited to see sheepdogs, but the dogs that weren't showing that were in their RVs were... ughhhhhh. I'd be embarrassed to let anyone touch my dog esp. when you bring it out to show off which is what happened. I could not travel with something that dirty.

Then again, most people couldn't live in my home. Half of them give me the eye roll when i tell them to take their shoes off before entering. 8) I guess in colder states, it's more common because every time I take a poll ...it's not common down here. Yet when they enter my mom's house, who is Korean, most automatically do it. Maybe I should die my hair black.
sheep dogs really shouldn't need to bathed too often. Most people will bathe their whites more often than they will bath the whole dog.

If you brush them, and they have the proper coat I have heard some say once a year for the grey parts.
While I've heard that the several years I've been on this forum... a dog should be washed when they're dirty. Dirty = when they're dirty. :lol: I brush my dog properly but that does not take the film away. From what I notice, I have to bathe our dogs more here than I did in a cold state. In AK, a brush through and the dirt came out sorta speak ...but in hotter states, they just stink more due to the heat and NO amount of brushing with whatever sprays will get rid of it after a point. I can't imagine seeing a clean OES with a decent length of hair ...who was exercised properly going with only 1 bath a year here in TX.
I think it may depend on the dog. my dogs really never get "doggy". now Morgan gets filty - but it dries off and brushes out.
Marley is a lady and I bath her for fun :)

My husbands Irish setter needs a bath once a month!!!
Barney can get pretty ripe, but I think some of that has to do with chewing on himself and his mouth making him smell more. We still only give him a bath maybe 3-4 times a year, though. Although if we acted when we started smelling him, it should probably be more like 5-6.
This is a pet peeve of mine too. Major one!!
The worst are the bassets. They are hounds and have an oilier coat. They just plain smell houndy, even when they are NOT technically "dirty".

We go to basset events, and I always bathe Simon before. If not that day, at least he gets a bath within that week sometime. And the slime dried on the basset ear leathers - gross!!! I always am washing Simon's, and he just loves it. He groans and grunts in sheer bliss. :lol:

The way some of the people take their bassets to a public event - eww.

Simon comes with to a lot of shows (like he will be coming with this weekend) and he gets a bath too. No stinky hound on the trip or in the motel. :D

Also, I see it all as a dog trainer - trust me! :evil:
Ha! That is the same way it is with Edgar. About three weeks of smelling him ripe and complaining about it before it gets done. Edgar has never left a black dirty mark on your hand. Though when it gets near time to bath him you can feel a film left on your hand. To me it feels like oils with a fine layer of dust mixed in. I don't like it. Hence the bath. But trying to keep him clean while living in a construction zone is a nightmare at the moment.

As for taking your shoes off... I used to think it really weird when I married Lee and he wanted us to do that. Now I am very used to it and automatically do it when I go to someone else's house. Except right now we wear our shoes in the house because of it being such a disaster. Once our house gets fixed back up then the no shoe rule will go back into effect.
I have never petted a dog and gotten a black hand (unless you count when helping them in/out of the car after a romp thru the wet muddy park!) Wow. That would be one dirty dog!!!

I think they like being clean much like we do. We don't bathe Baloo (or our other dogs in the past) tons and tons. Just when they need it. You can tell when that is. They always seem to act happier when they are done and all cleaned up.

taking shoes off in house... growing up my mom didn't care. I have always had people take shoes off when coming in. Well, when lots of company is here I don't say anything (I hosted a coffee last month & didn't bother with it) but all our friends know and take shoes off. My kids do it without thinking now. I always ask when I go to someones house "would you like me to take my shoes off?" right when i step in their door.
my two need to be bathed pretty often. We were bathing every week for the longest time, and now we try for every 2, but often don't get that far. I think it has alot to do with having 2 puppies (even 14 month old puppies). They are constantly wrestling; slamming each other into the ground, and whatever is on the ground gets pulverized into thier coats. At the dog park today, "whatever" happened to be some other dog's poop. So, its bath night. Again.

Also; I find my guys come home from Doggie Day care really smelly. So I think your dog's daily activities really will make a difference how long you can go between baths. And I personally cannot stand a smelly dog, or a dog who's fur feels icky.
My OES don't stink unless they've actually come in contact with something that stinks (like stepped in poo, for example). I'd have to disagree that a dog in a warmer climate would be more likely to get dirty and smelly because you don't have all that crappy wetness in the spring that we get in the midwest, not to mention all the crappy wetness that we get in the winter. If there's one thing that makes a clean dog dirty fast, it's mud and dampness. I'd love warmer weather year 'round. My dogs play hard all the time and slobber all over each other but never smell, though. The last bath Clyde had was when we clipped him down about 5 months ago and he smells fine. He came home from day care a few weeks ago with all of his whites turned gray from mud and it just brushed right out when it dried. Perfect. :)

My dogs are all outside right now running around tackling each other in the rain. They'll come in dirty but it'll brush out of Clyde and Owen and it'll fall off of Bear overnight. The only stink we ever get is when Bear's face gets a little moldy from getting and staying wet. Then, it's time for a muzzle clip down.
Bally gets dusty, that's his main problem. He loves to take dust baths like a cat and wrestles in everything he can find. Because of the drought in our area, the ground is really dry (plus we have a few construction sites near by atm) so there's always a fine layer of dirt across our grass now which Bally takes pleasure rolling in. Thankfully, brushing gets most of that out but the baths have been fairly frequent so far.
I'm with ya' Jo. The dirtiest dogs I've come across are the breeds that don't require regular grooming, so their owners think that means they don't EVER require a bath. The worst I've come across are black labs......

Laurie and Oscar, the freshly groomed sheepie
Jo,

I know exactly what youre talking about!! Panda gets a bath once a month for that reason....BEFORE she gets to the black dirty hand part...i have several friends that have yellow labs....they get pretty dirty....

panda had her bath yesterday...so at the groomer as i was dropping her off, in walks a lady with a HUGE black male labradoodle..he was super cute....i patted him on the behind and a whirl of dust came off of him...

the owner gave me a sheepish look and said...''yup, thats why we're here"
Darth Snuggle wrote:

Also; I find my guys come home from Doggie Day care really smelly. So I think your dog's daily activities really will make a difference how long you can go between baths. And I personally cannot stand a smelly dog, or a dog who's fur feels icky.


I second the doggie day care comment, I went to visit the daycare I worked at in college and after 5 minutes of petting those dogs I was filthy.

Marley smells in the summer pretty bad because she swims almost everyday. There is no use in bathing a dog who is just going to get dirty the next day!
Summer our labradoodle swims most days then rolls in the sand and maybe the grass,so she gets hosed every day and bathed maybe once a week.We keep her coat fairly short because she is just one of those dogs who loves swimming and rolling and getting dirty.
I laughed at the take your shoes off before coming inside.Living near the beach,there is always sand walked into our house(we have no carpets,just polished board floors and tiled kitchen etc),so I advise visitors who go to take their shoes off to leave them on for their own sakes.My hubby takes over the floors when he is on holidays and he washes the floor 3 times a day...his theory is,if its sandy wash it.I however wash the floors Mondays and Fridays.I have other things to do.
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