Most times it really does not seem like five dogs is a lot of dogs.
There are two times when it does seem like a lot of dogs. One is when someone comes to the door-the noise is deafening, we have worked on it and they settle pretty quickly but it does sound like a kennel when someone knocks on the door.
The second time five dogs seems like way too many dogs is on grooming days!
Some days I wonder why I bother. Saturday I got all five dogs washed and fluffed and pretty, ummm, they smelled GOOD and looked so pretty. It took most of the day but how worth it to have five fresh smelling, pretty doggies.
I had barely finished grooming all the dogs and left to go clean myself up when I heard Cricket outside. Someone had let her out moments after I finished grooming her-I raced to let her in but too late.....Cricket had been rolling and having a great time in the dirt. She is good with her rolling technique, she takes her time and gets the dirt all the way down to her skin. She looks like a little pig pen from the Charlie Brown comics, her color changes to brown and when she walks there is a little cloud of dirt that follows her. THANKS CRICKET! Yep, I was glad I went to the trouble of getting her pretty.
Poor Skyler has a tail that does not work-it was broken some time before I got him so it has no feeling and he can not move it. He can not wag his tail to tell people he is happy an he can not move his tail out of the way when he goes poo- poor guy! Anyway, I got him very pretty but later that day I kept smelling something and thought maybe it was just Skyler developing a little smell associated with him being older, so I put some nice moisturising spray on him. As the day went on the smell got worse so I looked and ughghggh, you guessed it poor Skyler must have had diarrhea and was caked all over with poo everywhere-poor guy he got his second bath of the day.
Lizzie rolled in some type of poo when I went to the agility yard to practice, and Breeze played with her egg ball which she obsesses over and drools so bad that the ball and her legs and face get covered in drool that mixed with the dirt in the back yard makes a nice mud drool to cover her front legs and face with.
Hours worth of work and I did not even get to enjoy it 24 hours ;-). How is that right? Chloe the sheltie is the only dog that still looks pretty and freshly groomed, good girl Chloe. The dogs were very proud of themselves-and anyone who stops by will wonder when I will break down and give the dogs a bath because they sure would not believe I had just done it!.
DOG SHAMPOO RECIPE:
I have been making my dog shampoo. I like to use a nice shampoo because we have a few dogs with sensitive skin and I like to wash pretty frequently and the dogs cuddle with us all day so I like to know we use something without too many freaky ingredients. I am not a vet ;-), and not a groomer but I did notice pretty much all the recipes I was finding had some pretty similar ingredients so I felt it must be pretty standard and my dogs skin has done very well with the shampoo so use your judgement but this is what I like. You can alter the recipe so it suits what you like.
I got an old big dish soap bottle and cleaned it out to put my shampoo in when I was finished making it.
2 cups of dish soap, I used seventh generation-I wanted something very gentle and without a lot of ingredients, you could use Ivory
2 cups distilled water-the water does not have to be boiled or distilled but several recipes said it would make it more luxurious so what the heck it makes sense without the minerals it would probably lather better?
2 cups apple cider vinegar-this alters the ph so it is correct for the dogs
1/2 cup glycerin-this makes it really nice, you can purchase this on line or I got it at a natural health food store, some pharmacies may carry it.
OPTIONAL:
*You can steep a few chamomile tea bags in the water before adding the water.
*you could add about 1/4 cup of aloe vera
*add a few drops of Lavender essential oils, or some other scent.
*Add a cap full of tea tree oil
*for dogs with allergies or itchy skin you can add one cup of Colloidal oatmeal (you can buy the oatmeal or make it by putting uncooked oats into a grinder or blender and blending so it is the consistency of flour-add a tablespoon of your oats to a cup of warm water and mix if the mixture looks like milky water it is ready, if the oats fall to the bottom you need to grind/blend it a little longer ;-))
If you have a dog with allergies-especially if you added a bunch of ingredients-you might want to do a small test patch and make sure it does not bother your dog and make sure to rinse the shampoo off your dog really well.
7 comments:
You make your own shampoo!!! I would never have thought about that. Cool stuff. I'd have to find some coconut mango oils, because I like my dogs to smell like jamaica.
I just finished my 1 1/2 hours spa for Eva. LOL!
Eva has some skin issue lately, yeast attack this time. So, she needs a good 20 minutes of scrub and soaked with medical shampoo. After a thorough rinse of, I sponge some diluted apple cider vinegar on those affected area. When all these are done, I spend some time on wiping dry, next is the blow dry section and at last, there is the brushing time. All these take me at least one and a half hours to two hours every three day. Gosh!!! I feel tired whenever I think about it.
I love your shampoo recipe and it sounds and smells so good. Will try it out soon. Thanks for sharing.
Sara, Ummm Jamaican smelling dogs sound nice, although usually the smell does not last near long enough
Priscilla, my shelties were having issues with their skin but funny just like you I started doing a bath pretty frequently, and I started what I saw on a grooming deshedding video--I started combing the dogs with a rake or a slicker brush then a comb to get all the undercoat out I can while they have the soap and conditioner soaking on them. It is amazing because I have never been able to get out as much of the undercoat before. I leave the soap on while I am combing then I do the conditioner and comb them again-leaving the conditioner on for a good while, then do the high velosity drier, so they get nice and dry-and I get out the rest of the loose undercoat Chloes hair is so thick it used to take all day to dry her and I wonder if that was the problem with her skin or having too much undercoat left so the air was not getting to her skin caused the problem. Either way glad all our shelties are looking good, and my thoughts are with you having to do your spa routinue so often! These doggies know how to keep us busy ;-).
oh, I'm way too lazy to make shampoo!
Wow, never even thought of making my own shampoo.
This might sound weird, but since his tail doesn't word could they clip it? Give him an Aussie nub?
I wish I knew then what I knew now I would def. have asked about cropping Skylers tail, people misread his mood it gets poop stuck to it and it has no feeling. He is getting to be an old guy so it seems late to do that now but if I had a young pup with a tail with no sensation ....and he is a big sheltie so he would look a bit more like an aussie I do often kick myself for not knowing
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