In How to Bathe a Dog That Hates Baths, I shared the ways I go about cleaning my anti-bath taking dog, Murphy. Now I’m going to share some ways that I’ve found to keep him smelling fresh afterwards.
No Rolling in Stinky Stuff!
Okay, this is more tongue-in-cheek than serious. Obviously, once clean who isn’t a little more vigilant about making sure pup doesn’t go rolling amuck once more? (Or rolling in muck, as the case may be.)
Deodorants
They’re not just for people anymore!
Actually, I didn’t even know they made them for pets until a kennel owner shared her secret. When we lived in Jacksonville and would go on vacation, we’d leave Murph at Mandarin Animal Care (known to him as “The Farm”). He’d always come home smelling fresh. Did Marilyn, the owner, bathe the dogs before sending them home? If so, what was her secret for wrangling Murph? I had to know, so I asked the next time I went to pick him up.
“Oh, no, I don’t wash them,” she laughed. Then she pulled out a canister and sprayed a little on Murphy before brushing it through his coat. “It’s just this.”
That was my first experience with spray on deodorant for dogs. Some are just deodorants, but unlike those for humans, some not only deodorize, but also clean and condition their coats too. An example would be the Fresh ‘N Clean Daily Grooming Spray. Simple and easy to use: spray on, wipe off and voila! A clean, fresh smelling pup! (Hmmm…another weapon to add to my how-to-get-Murph-clean arsenal.)
Colognes and Perfumes
For Christmas, Murphy’s girlfriend, Sophie, gave him the cutest little bag from Fruits & Passion. It’s a brown nylon zip up bag with a vinyl smiling dog face coming out of one end and a tail out of the other. Inside was a two ounce bottle of shampoo, a 17 ounce bottle of deodorizing spray, a rubber ball, and a sample of HOTdog Eau de toilette cologne. (“Specially designed for a dog’s sensitive sense of smell.”)
Huh?
Like the deodorant experience described above, I had no idea such things existed. (The sample looked just like ones I got when I bought some perfume for Christmas: in a little vial tucked in a card. So cute!) Nila, Sophie’s mom, had told me about this company and their wonderful-smelling product previously, but I’d forgotten. But she was right. It smelled delicious! (It’s a combination of fruit, fig leaves, and cedar.) Even better, Murph seemed to like me dabbing it on him.
So, getting him clean may be the hard part, but getting him to smell clean? A cinch! (Now that I know about all of these products.)
Related Articles: