Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Pooches: On Bathing Our Pups at the Same Time

It seems like some of our most popular photos are when we become a bit invasive taking photos of the pups during their baths. (You may have seen this one, or remember this and this!)
For the past couple of years, we have gotten our routine down.
Including tossing both pups into the tub at the same time.
This is why we find it much easier:

Herd Mentality
We started out bathing both dogs separately.
And we always had so many bathtub-escapes.
One time we just decided to put them in together, and we found that they were less likely to try to escape.
Maybe it was Mr. B following Miss M's lead.
Maybe it was Miss M realizing all the good stuff was already happening here if Mr. B was with her.
Or maybe it was just too crowded in the tub to get good leverage to make the tub jump.
Since they were more likely to stay in the tub, we just kept putting them in together.

Assembly Line
With the two pups in the tub, we have an assembly-line system that seems to save so much time.
E gets in the tub with the pups and he washes their backsides.
I stay on the outside and I wash their faces and their fronts.
When they're done, we take them out and we each take an end to towel them dry. 
I clean their ears and E cleans the tub.
It really seems to work much more quickly, and there is a lot less separate bending down and getting back up.

The After-bath
The pups' favorite part of the bath is that at the end they know they get a handsome reward.
Something like a meaty bone. Or an apple. Or even coconut oil (they love it so much!).
It's easier if they are both released at the same time to get the handsome reward because if one of them gets to go earlier, they get excited. Which makes the other dog excited and more likely to make a tub jump.

It has just become easier for us to toss them both in at the same time.
Does anyone else wash multiple pups at the same time?

Also:
Training your dog to enjoy the bathtub
Where it began.
This happened

9 comments:

Sophie said...

Since we have Stone, whom just steps in the shower on his own, Sprocket now follows him right in. We used to have to carry him in before, he would hide as soon as he'd see a towel.

Two French Bulldogs said...

You guys are hilarious. I escaped once and mom couldn't catch me. She said HBO words
Lily (& Edward)

Unknown said...

Two French Bulldogs gets my nomination for best comment of the day. And no, I don't bathe my dogs together, but maybe I would if my husband helped out like this. I'm pretty much the sole dog bather in our household.

Melanie said...

Miss M's faces crack me up!

OG said...

LOVE the photo of the 2 of them in towels. And ditto on the HBO word comment!

Hannah@Eriesistibull said...

Oh, wow! I wish I could bathe them both at the same time. We've given up entirely on trying to bathe Tess -- the stress it puts on ALL PARTIES is just not worth it. We take Edison to a local self-serve dog wash that we love. We feel good supporting the local business. They were also so supportive of us when we brought home Edison and allowed us to bring a monster in for socialization.

Ms M and Mr B are the cutest in their hooded towels!!

Rachel @ My Two Pitties said...

This is so cute! I've never tried bathing my pups together. They don't try to escape but they really really hate it so I try to make it as quick as possible. They get big treats at the end too:)

PKBrandon said...

This is so cute and funny. I love reading your posts and I have learned so many helpful tips working with my own dogs and my fosters.

Unknown said...

We tried bathing our youngest ones separately, but Mr. M keeps jumping back in to play in the water. So we just bathe him first and let him stay in for the others.

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