Someone told me several years ago about attending a lecture on Dermatology at the Western States Veterinary Conference. The speaker started off by saying, “I’ll bet you that most of you don’t know how to bath a dog.” Everyone laughed, but he then piped in, “Seriously, I’ll bet you that at least 90% of you are doing it wrong!” Most people bath their dogs in warm water. This, he said is for owner’s comfort, not the dogs. I was surprised to find myself among the 90% who discovered that some of the bathing techniques we used were actually causing dandruff and other coat issues. Certain breeds tend to have sensitive skin and some individuals of any breed have problems that could be reduced with these very practical tips. Following are his rules for bathing a dog: 1. Always bath and rinse in tepid water. 2. Use a PH balanced DOG shampoo. NEVER use human shampoo. 3. Wet the dog thoroughly. 4. Dilute the shampoo before putting it on your dog. (I have a bottle I put some shampoo in with water and shake it up to mix it). 5. Start at the head of the dog, and using ONLY your fingertips, NEVER the fingernails, gently massage the dog WITH the grain of the hair. NEVER rub against the grain of the hair. 6. Once the entire dog is properly bathed, rinse in tepid water. (I know from my earlier days of bathing my Dobermans in warm water causes their skin to be flaky.) 7. Rinse again. (If all the soap is not rinsed off, this will also cause the skin to be flaky.) Other rules are: Don’t over bath, I recommend once a month if needed. When you do bath, use a conditioning spray afterwards. I use Bio-Groom Coat Polish, which provides a lustrous sheen on long or short coats without any oily or sticky residue. When petting or brushing your dog, don’t rub against the grain of the hair. This is especially important with the shorthaired breeds without any undercoat! Unless my dogs really need a bath, for the past few years I have used a product called Bio-Groom Waterless Bath No Rinse Shampoo. It works really well; I then use the Bio-Groom Coat Polish. Using these products as directed on the bottle my dogs look great, and their coat feels and smells fresh and clean. The theory on “bathing reactions” is; people use warm water to wet the dog. This opens the pores. They then put shampoo on the dog, full strength, irritating the skin. The person then “scrubs” the dog against the grain of the hair, using the fingernails to get the dog “good and clean!” This further irritates the skin. They rinse the dog, again with warm water, shoving the shampoo into the open, irritated hair follicles. They don’t rinse thoroughly enough, and once the warm water stops running, and the dog starts to dry, the pores close. Now, you have irritated hair follicles that become infected, leading to folliculitis (the little zits you get the day after bathing.) The owner then thinks the dog is allergic to the shampoo and has to go to the vet to get hydroxizine and prednisone to make the bumps/pustules go away. At the end of that lecture, the person that attended this lecture told me the room was DEAD QUIET, and that up until that point she really didn’t know how to bathe dogs. This is the way I have bathed my dogs since being taught these principles some years back, I never have any problems and Dobermans are prone to skin and coat problems. Bio-Groom Coat Polish and Waterless Bath No Rinse Shampoo and a variety of “dog shampoos” are available at www.rbdee.com. Dee Robison dee@rbdee.com www.rbdee.com