Home Care With A Wet Dog

If you have a wet dog, this blog is for you. If your dog has access to a pool or body of water and takes advantage, then want then wants in the house, welcome to my life.

We live on a river and we are fenced on three sides. In the spring, fall and winter, our dog Lola is tied up on a line with a pulley and that restricts her from going on the ice. Letting her run free in the summer just seems like the right thing to do. She explores for ages and take a dip when she feels too hot. I really can’t fault her for that. The implications though, are less than desirable.

This is not the first time we have had this problem. When we lived in our last house, our former dog Sammy used to take a dip in the pool and then in the river when we moved here, whenever she felt like it. We were constantly sitting on wet chairs or experiencing wet spots on our beds. I wanted to try and prevent this as much as possible with our new dog Lola.

Here are a few ideas that have helped me along the way:

Towel At The Door

This is an easy one. Even though it is not very attractive looking, we keep a towel at the door. When she is really wet or dirty we give her a good rub-down before she comes in.

Wet Dogs Off The Furniture

When we got our puppy last year, one of the important things to me is that she would not be allowed on the furniture. We have been pretty successful in this regard, even though there is some resistance from the younger members of the family in enforcing this. But she does not typically get on the furniture (on her own). If your dog gets on the furniture, I would suggest covering the important pieces and restricting access as much as possible

No Wet Dogs on Beds

This is where I need to take my own advice. Unfortunately Lola does not really see beds as furniture. My daughter has started keeping an old blanket on top of her bed as she was tired of constantly changing her sheets. My son is the smart one, he just keeps his door closed. Somehow our bedroom door will not stay shut so Lola just pushes is open and sleeps on our bed for a good portion of the day. While we do need to fix our door, I have chosen bedding with a busy pattern that hides the mess.

Dog Proof Flooring

Our hard wood flooring is not really dog proof. We have a mat at the back entry. We also have a wool, flat-weave area rug in our family room. From our back yard we enter through patio doors in the family room and walk over the area rug to get to the rest of the house. Needless to say this is a well used rug. It has been in place about eighteen months and it is holding up really well. The tile that we installed earlier this year is also fabulous for a wet dog.

Short Cut

Depending on the dog, the length and type of hair makes a big difference. Our dog Lola has hair. She certainly dries off much more quickly when she is cut short. It is our fault when she gets too long and drags lots of water into the house.

Dog Shower

My fried Kathleen has it all figured out. She took out her laundry tub and put in a dog shower. This thing is beautiful and works so well to keep the lovely Ivy nice and clean and sweet smelling.

I hope these few hints have helped you with your wet dog problem. It is definitely a work in progress at this end. But we love our dogs so much that it’s all worth it. Don’t you think?

Always

Leslie