Why It’s Important to Bathe Your Dog

No matter if your dog loves hopping in the tub for a bath or if you have to lock the bathroom door and promise them treats, bathing your dog can be a challenge. However, it’s something that is an important part of your dog’s grooming regimen. Aside from scrubbing off the dirt after a roll on the ground, there are several other reasons that you’ll want to start running the water. Start running the water and read some of the benefits to bathing your dog.

Removing the Dirt and Odor

First and foremost, it’s important to bathe your dog so that you can remove dirt and odors from them. Like any other living creature, dogs accumulate grime that should be removed from their body to keep them clean.

While you will want to remove the dirt and odors so that your dog is more pleasant to be around, this can also serve other functions. For example, cleaning your dog ensures they don’t track dirt around your home after they get dirty. While this is the most basic reason to bathe your dog, it’s still important.

It’s A Time to Closely Examine Your Dog

It can be hard to find time to closely examine your dog when they are bounding through the yard or scrambling around you to get at their food bowl. Yet, when you’re bathing your dog, you’ll have the opportunity to get up close and personal with your pet.

During this time, you will get the chance to look more intently at their skin, paws, ears, eyes, and other parts of their body that need attention. It’s a good time for you to check their body for irritated skin, bumps, ticks, and many other potential issues. Best of all, you can do it under the guise of soaping up your pet with lukewarm water, so they won’t try to escape your grasp like they would during most days.

Not only is this important for doing a checkup on your dog after a day out playing, but it’s also a way that you can regularly look for potentially severe issues with your pet.

Remove Potential Toxins from Their Body

Dog’s paws seem to catch everything that they step in. While a little bit of grass and mud isn’t the worst thing to track inside the house, there are some serious dangers that dogs can pick up with their paws.

If you walk your dog around the neighborhood, they could inadvertently pick up bits of fertilizer, pesticides, and even needles from plants in their paws. Not only could these all irritate your dog’s paws and skin, but it could also lead to them accidentally poisoning themselves if they decide to lick their paws.

Giving your dog regular baths will allow you to wash in-between their paws and reduce the overall likelihood that they will get hurt in this way. You just have to make sure you are washing them thoroughly.

Bathing Reduces Shedding

Another reason that it is important to bathe your dog is that it can help reduce their shedding. Some dogs shed a lot more than others, so it’s a good idea to keep it in check if you have one that leaves clumps of hair all over the place.
Washing your dog and using shampoo will give them a shiny, healthy coat. From there, you can dry them off and brush them, removing even more of their loose fur. By the time they are ready to leave the bathroom and jump onto the couch, you do not have to worry about them leaving as much hair behind.

Of course, this can only help so much as some dogs shed a vast amount of fur throughout the year. Still, it should give you and your dog some relief.

Get Familiar with Your Pup

Last but not least, another important reason to bathe your dog is to get familiar with them and bond a bit. Baths are relaxing for a lot of dogs. They enjoy the warm water and getting their body rubbed and scrubbed. During this time, they’ll feel relaxed by your efforts and become even more comfortable with you.
Of course, this does depend a bit on whether or not they see a bath as being stressful or not. However, if you take things slowly or get lucky with a dog that is ready to jump in the tub, you’re bound to get a better connection with your dog as a result.

There are many reasons to consider bathing your dog, and some of them are a lot more important than others. This is a way to keep your dog clean, maintain their health, and just make them more bearable in close quarters. Either way, it’s a good idea to consult your vet to see how often your dog should be bathed, or just give them a good sniff test beforehand.

 

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