The Perfect No-Water Remedy For Stinky Dogs
One of the great things about moving to my new house is that it has a wonderful backyard. I can just open the back door and let Hero out to frolic and roll around in the grass. He loves laying in the sun, and I love the ease of not having to walk him when my joints are particularly swollen and creaky. On the other hand, now that I have a backyard, my dog goes out and rolls around in the grass, and comes back in smelling all... outdoorsy.
FYI: Hero is very healthy, he just tends to turn into a loaf when he lays like this and becomes, as the kids say, an absolute unit.
I used to bathe Hero every one to six weeks. He didn't need super regular baths, but when he was dealing with severe allergies he'd need weekly baths with medicated shampoo to soothe his itchy skin. If not for the itchies, though, he could go six weeks without needing any soapy interventions. Even with trips to the park he didn't get too dirty - I'd just wait until he got stinky to clean him up.
Now that he's rolling in nature every day he works up a stink in a matter of days. I found a great place to take him for baths (because of my disability, bathing him myself at home is exhausting and often impossible) but taking him there every three or four days - or even once a week - was going to get time consuming and expensive. Especially because he wasn't dirty, he just smelled.
Turns out lots of other dog owners have the same issue, because there is a product to solve this exact problem: Waterless shampoo!
I can't believe I didn't know about this before. There are a ton of waterless dog shampoos on the market, but I went with Wahl No-Rinse Waterless Shampoo because I liked that it was a foam rather than a spray. Instead of just spraying your dog (I imagine this kind of like Febreezing the problem away) you squirt this foam onto your hands and massage it into their coat, then take a dry cloth and rub it all over them. Your dog is left smelling clean but also looking a bit cleaner as well. Hero also makes a really funny noise when you dry him with a towel, so that's an added bonus.
Hero is large for a Boston terrier, but he still doesn't have a lot of hair, so while I'm raving about how long this product lasts, your mileage may vary. However, if you have a short haired dog, man, this stuff lasts a long time. I've used it about four times and I have about 7/8 of the bottle left. And I'm not stingy with it either! I use maybe four pumps on his body, another four for his legs, and maybe two for his face/neck. Then I use a microfiber cloth to rub it all in (off?). Anyway, it takes barely any time, he doesn't mind it half as much as he minds a bath, and it takes all the stink away. Plus, the oatmeal formula eases itchiness. OH, and a bottle costs $6. Basically, I'm going to have a bottle of this stuff around for the rest of my dog owning years. I can't believe I've had a dog for 10 years without it.
