How do you deal with wet, muddy dogs?

We have a collie and she is up at the stables all day with hubby. She has a whale of a time trundling around and getting as filthy and full of straw/haylege as she can. She gets especially muddy on the days she gets to work sheep.

We have spare stables now so, an hour before home time, she gets chucked into 'her' stable which has an inch or so of sawdust in it - that gets the worst off her. When she gets to the house she has her feet wiped off in the kitchen (quarry tiled floor) and then goes in her cage/bed in the living room which has an extra layer of towels to soak up the damp (we then take those out at bed time so she's not sleeping on damp things). Her bed is right next to the radiator so she's dry in half an hour or so.

I have a good stash of old towels that are just dog towels - she's happy to stand in the kitchen while we give her a rub down when needed and then she goes straight to her bed.
 
Patchworkpony said:
Great idea, I really like it but would the dog be warm enough on cold winter nights?
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I think so. They're out running around and keeping warm when outside, and then inside they'll warm up faster if they haven't got lots of extra wet hair to deal with. Do they sleep outdoors at night? If so, then I'd maybe get a heat lamp or some other source of heating anyway.
 
We used to put hounds into a spare whelping kennel when they came in from hunting covered in mud completely filled with about four feet depth of clean barley straw. They would clean themselves and their pals by rubing in the straw and licking each other and come out clean as a whistle. Dogs do not like to be dirty. Not sure how you remove the doggy smell though!:(
 
blackcob said:
The sibes are almost self-cleaning, at their worst they get scrubbed with a towel but mud seems to dry up and drop off them within minutes.

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Ditto, most of the time, my Finnish Lapphunds doesn't get that wet and muddy, so that I feel that I have to do something about it, because the little there is, disappears so quickly by itself. If I feel for it, I use fleece towels to dry them.

If we've walked where they might have gotten road salt on the paws + belly, they might get a quick rinse in the shower first, and then a quick rub with fleece towels.
 
My yorkie doesn't really get muddy on walks. But my springer goes on the same walks and gets plastered from head to toe! So when we get in, I just leave my yorkie, but tell the springer "in the bath" and she bounds up the stairs into the bath! She doesn't mind it, as she gets a warm shower. I'm such a soft touch! She goes bonkers once she's out though and my yorkie yaps for England about the whole thing. I couldn't let my springer just dry off naturally or my house would look like a mud hut.
 
Hose them off in the garden (I have a side access so don't have to go through the house) then dry them with a chamois leather type towel.
 
This depends on the 'type of dirty' for us! My yellow lab comes to the yard with me every morning and due to his love of anything muddy (I swear its his colour) he spends alot of time under the hosepipe or asked to jump into a water trough before he is allowed into my car. Thankfully it is usually only 'clean mud', if you get my drift, although there are often times when he insists on jumping into ditches where he is hosed off and has to stay in the kitchen until he dries completely to stop the smell. If it is 'everyday mud' when we get home he is towelled dry and allowed straight into the living room (we gave up a long time ago /with a cream carpet and have admitted we need wooden flooring as soon as we can afford it)

If he has been out shooting, he gets a warm bath - he's still only 2 and is still learning the word 'steady' so goes into all sorts of under-growth with all guns blazing and ends up covered in cuts from brambles so the warm bath is more to get his cuts clean than anything else. He will then either choose to sleep in front of the fire in the living room or the kitchen (which 9/10 he actually prefers after shooting)

I love to see mud on my dog personally - means he is a happy little soul and I have given up making excuses for the state of the house... It's in the process of renovation anyway and I work on the theory that if people moan about a bit of mud or a slightly doggy smell in our house I don't want them in said house anyway. The dogs happiness comes first not visitors.
 
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We use waterproof coats in really wet weather, otherwise labs take ages to dry. We dry the undercarriage with old towels and they have Ruff and Tumble double layered towelling coats with wide belly straps if they swim or get really wet. I then lie another towel on top of their beds. Even though their beds are waterproof it keeps them dryer and dries the legs.
 
I recently bought a doggy overall for my boxer and I only have to hose off paws (and occasionally flannel face!), it is brilliant. Got it from zoo plus. I also have the equafleece 's . I have a paw plunger thingy but it's easier to hose off. Little dog refused to wear her overall unfortunately so she gets a hose down and fleece on to dry off :)
 
And a blaster is an absolutely brilliant bit of kit for not only drying wet dogs but also literally blasting mud and dirt out of a dog's coat. Not all dogs like the feel or sound of the machine though.
 
Quick question - how do you all deal with the all pervading smell of wet dog OR even dry dog smell. I know I'll be shot down for saying this but while I love, love, love the smell of horses a really heavy dog smell turns my stomach at times.
 
Mine gets hosed down outside. He's not a fan, but has learned that it's over faster if he doesn't make a fuss. We come through the garden gate from the field, and he creeps over to stand by the hose, looking suicidal. Once clean, he goes in the conservatory and dries himself off on an old sleeping bag - I have two, so there is always a dry one and one in the wash.
I am considering getting him overalls - as he is a setter without much coat and I feel HORRIBLY guilty about making him shiver with the hose.
 
Auslander said:
Mine gets hosed down outside. He's not a fan, but has learned that it's over faster if he doesn't make a fuss. We come through the garden gate from the field, and he creeps over to stand by the hose, looking suicidal. Once clean, he goes in the conservatory and dries himself off on an old sleeping bag - I have two, so there is always a dry one and one in the wash.
I am considering getting him overalls - as he is a setter without much coat and I feel HORRIBLY guilty about making him shiver with the hose.
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They can get dead tail from cold hosing. Best to use warm water in a bucket.
 
Patchworkpony said:
How do you deal with wet, muddy dogs in the house in winter? Has anyone used a paw plunger? They look as if they could do a good job with muddy paws.
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We tie the dog to a tie ring and cold hose off then put her on the chain by her kennel till she dries off enough then let her in. If majorly bad we dry her paws if body dry or we stop her in the vestibule and shut her in there then let her through to the rest of the house
 
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Patchworkpony said:
Quick question - how do you all deal with the all pervading smell of wet dog OR even dry dog smell. I know I'll be shot down for saying this but while I love, love, love the smell of horses a really heavy dog smell turns my stomach at times.
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I had heard about that wet dogs smelled a lot, when I bought my first dog, a Norwegian Buhund, about 25 years ago. But when she got wet from rain, she didn't smell wet dog, and even when she had had a bath with shampoo, she still didn't smell much wet dog. It came like a little shock, the first time I did meet a wet dog of another breed, which really smelled wet dog.

Fortunately for me, Finnish Lapphunds are the same as Buhunds, and doesn't smell much.
 
Towel rubbed then indoors to finish drying in the warm. Lucky enough to be on sandy soils, so any dry sand shed indoors just gets hoovered up. I cannot imagine what I would do if we were on clay, probably have an outdoor shower for the dogs!
When I had a working sheepdog, he would be put in a kennel with a deep straw bed until he was dry before being allowed indoors.
 
If really muddy all over, I've always put them in the downstairs shower,in winter, then rough towel dried, before they can go into large kitchen/diner which had vinyl flooring. In summer (warm, dry weather) it is hose outside and let them run around til dry before allowing into house. Little ones get put in sink for a quick wash and towel dried before they can run off and go crazy all round the house drying themselves on whatever they can!! :o
 
FinnishLapphund said:
I had heard about that wet dogs smelled a lot, when I bought my first dog, a Norwegian Buhund, about 25 years ago. But when she got wet from rain, she didn't smell wet dog, and even when she had had a bath with shampoo, she still didn't smell much wet dog. It came like a little shock, the first time I did meet a wet dog of another breed, which really smelled wet dog.

Fortunately for me, Finnish Lapphunds are the same as Buhunds, and doesn't smell much.
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It can be a shock. I met two lovely wet spaniels the other day up on Dartmoor and after stroking them I couldn't get the terrible smell off my hands, even with washing. Makes you think. However I spoke to a professional dog groomer who said clipped dogs don't smell so bad when wet and this pair badly needed a good groom or a clip.
 
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