My dog stinks!

[CANOPY SAM]

Peroxide, Dawn dish soap, and baking soda, huh? I'm gonna throw in the towel here and ask at what ratio do you mix these items? I've gotta do something different!

I had the dog jump in the bathtub yesterday after I made that last post, and I very thoroughly washed him with dog shampoo, canine cyclohexine shampoo, cyclohexine conditioner, and rinsed him very, very thoroughly. Spent at least an hour brushing him, and drying him, and when we were all done he smelled awesome!

Then last night, while watching the 10:00 pm news, he jumps up to snuggle with me, and I notice he smells nearly the same as he did before I bathed him! He hadn't gone swimming again. He hadn't rolled in anything. The sweaty hot dog/slight swamp butt smell just crept back in!

I'm gonna wait a little while to try this other dog bath concoction. Again, I think bathing them too often gets kinda tough on their skin, and takes away too many of their natural oils. But I will give this peroxide bath a try.

So how does one go about applying the peroxide, dish soap, and baking soda? Do you mix it up before putting it on the dog, or do you just dump a bit of each on em' and just work it into the fur?

[Ufatz]

Ya know, something just does not sound right here. My Abigail Jane is in the lake whenever she wishes (and she wishes a lot!) and she does not smell that bad. I've never had one that smells as bad as yours apparently does except when they ran into a skunk or rolled in a waaaaay upstream sockeye.

I'm tending to believe your pal might have a skin problem of some kind but I would think the vet would pick up on that.

Either you are a sissy with over-active olfactory glands or the dog has a skin or digestive problem of some kind.

Call me goofy......but?

[CANOPY SAM]

Either you are a sissy with over-active olfactory glands or the dog has a skin or digestive problem of some kind.

Call me goofy......but?

Ha ha ha!!! That made me laugh Ufatz! Wish I could say that was it, but then it would have to be all of us. Except for my youngest son...who doesn't notice when HE smells like a festering swamp!

I honestly don't think it's a skin problem. Or even a digestive problem for that matter. He's healthy as a horse, perhaps a little itchy, but nothing out of the ordinary for a dog. No dandruff, no nasty, runny stools. Just a very happy, smelly dog!

But I am thinking what the recent vet visit revealed may very well be true. If he did roll in something say a week ago, then repeatedly swam in the river and dried off, it makes sense that some of this smell would've been pretty well affixed to his coat and/or skin.

He's not intensely bad smelling. In fact, after "sniffing" him over quite carefully, I did notice that much of the smell is actually coming from his lower legs and feet, which admittedly I didn't spend a lot of time scrubbing. I focused most of yesterday's bath on his upper body, backside, neck, chest, head, etc., and sort of overlooked the thin hair areas on his legs.

My wife also noticed that the sofa has some dog smell attached to it, so this may be adding somewhat to the overall "smell" he emits when he jumps up to cuddle with us.

In a few days I'm going to give the Dawn/peroxide/baking soda treatment a try, and see where that goes. No worries. He's just a super loveable dog, even if he smells a little funky! We won't love him any less. My wife has put up with my foul smells for 25 years, and she still "kinda" loves me! Ha ha ha!!!!

[monstermoose78]

Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 baths to get the smell out

[Ufatz]

Well, I KNOW the peroxide and soap etc. etc. mixture does a good job so that may do the trick, even if you have to do it a couple times.

If you think a skunked dog stinks try dealing with one that has rolled in a couple rotten sockeyes on a warm day!

But only a skunk can hit you with stuff that is SO potent it will actually make your gag and retch.

You know how I know that.

[CANOPY SAM]

Oh my goodness, yes! We've honestly been SO lucky he hasn't run into a skunk yet! It's really nothing short of a miracle he hasn't gotten sprayed. We live in the country, along a river, and he roams willy nilly whenever he wants to. I'm sure the day will come when he barks at the back door, and when I go to let him in I'll get met by the wall of intense stench. I've even seen skunks wandering on our property and he hasn't bumped into them!

That being said, it brings us back to my previous question. Is there any particular "recipe" to follow when applying the peroxide/Dawn dishsoap/baking soda shampoo? Is it critical that I use Dawn dish soap, or will any dish soap work? As a chemist I always try to nail down a specific formula, or minimally a procedure for how to do things. Any suggestions?

I'm sure the day will come when I really need this recipe to get the skunk stink off him!

[123fish]

The formula is... One quart peroxide, one half cup baking soda, and two table spoons Dawn. Mix the ingredients all together thoroughly in a bucket and Do Not cut with water. Thoroughly lather your smelly best friend keeping it out of their eyes and let it on for five to ten minutes and then rinse. If your dog still stinks after this you have a serious problem. Good luck and keep us posted.

[123fish]

Dawn is the way to go.

[jmd1]

If nothing else you know his glands are clean. Glad it was nothing more than a quick dip and roll.

[MNpurple]

I've been having problems the last 3 nights with raccoons in my bird feeders and tearing up landscaping. I've been letting my dog out to chase them away every night around 10 as I think its illegal to shoot a coon right now. I did the same routine last night...........no coon, dog came back with a direct hit of skunk to the face. I will confirm the peroxide, soda and dishsoap does a fine job!

[Ufatz]

Be aware that an adult boar coon can do extensive damage to your dog IF the dog catches it. And several coons could be a serious problem for any dog. Then too, the dog could become fixated on coons and be sniffin' them up when you want it to find something else.

There are some other remedies for coons but sometimes it seems nothing works. Try a rattle can, large can with dozen marbles or small rocks: hang it with a long piece of heavy mono back to your door or window. Coon shows up, you jerk the string a few times! Scares hell out of them.

Pop them in the butt with a BB gun.

We bring most easily accessible feeders in just at sunset and after a few nights of no easy pickin's they tend to move on to other areas.

Just be cautious about letting the dog chase them.

[123fish]

I should add that should your dog get sprayed, roll in something or whatever the quicker you do the peroxide bath the more effective it is.

[Dave S]

I'm sure the day will come when he barks at the back door

When I first read this I thought you were referring to the skunks back door . I had a lab that would do a face plant right up the skunks WAAZOO and take a direct hit. Happened a few times before he got wise. This was before I even heard of the Skunk kit recipe so he got to swim in the sloughs before he got back in the vehicle.

[CANOPY SAM]

So to finally report back on the peroxide bath. My wife just couldn't stand him anymore. She scrubbed down the leather sofa (because that really smelled like dog too), and firmly stated that something had to be done about the dog! I mentioned the suggestions I'd been given on this forum, so we went out and purchased the previously recommended ingredients. I did turn this back around on her a little bit though. I told her that our dog, Bones, is her dog too, and as such she needed to also participate in giving him a bath! She somewhat reluctantly agreed.

The great thing about having my ladies work with Bones is that he'll literally do anything for them. He's SUCH a ladies man!

So my wife asks Bones, "Do you wanna take a bath?" He honestly ran into the bathroom and jumped into the tub! We pre-mixed the peroxide, baking soda, and Dawn dishsoap in a medium sized mixing bowl, and once we had the dog thoroughly wetted down we worked this concoction into every hair on his body. We paid special attention to washing his feet and legs as this seemed to be what smelled the most on him. I suppose we worked in the soap mix for about 10 minutes, then carefully rinsed him off with clean, warm water.

And you know what? Wah Lah! We had a Yellow Lab!!!! No, not really. We dried him off, brushed him for an hour or two, and his swamp butt smell was completely gone!

This is such an amazing blessing for our family. As I've previously stated several times, Bones is a super affectionate dog, and he really loves to snuggle with us on the sofa, or wherever we're lounging around. So having him clean, and not smelling like a pig is really important in our house.

Thanks for the recommendations guys! This peroxide bath mixture is something we'll turn to again in the future. I plan on taking my two sons, my future son-in-law, and our dog to NoDak bird hunting in October, and you can bet your bottom dollar I'll have at least two peroxide baths in tow for this trip.

Anyone having the same issues with their dog should definitely give this mixture a try. Bones does seem a little more itchy this morning then normal, but I'd imagine that dish soap may have removed some, or perhaps most of his natural skin oils, so it may take a little while to get that back again.

None-the-less, thanks for all the great suggestions everyone! I can always count on great advice for dog care at this forum!

[MNHunter65]

Glad it worked out. If it will remove the smell of a skunk, you know it's good. I always have these ingredients on hand just in case and it has come in handy more than once!

[Ufatz]

We used to do this to my little brother all the time.

[123fish]

Glad that worked out for you canopy. With my dog being sprayed six times I certainly had some experience giving those baths and the results they produced. It works for sure.