Winter Baths

Winter Bath Time

We’re rapidly approaching the dry skin season and need to make a few adjustments to help prevent our doodle’s skin from becoming too dry – which can lead to a wee bit of shedding. Generally speaking, unless your doodle plays in the mud, winter bathing should happen about once a month. For an extra skin-soothing bath, try an oatmeal shampoo made for dogs on a loofa. I find that putting shampoo on a loofa and then applying it to the dog reduces the amount of shampoo needed. Less shampoo means easier rinsing. Pay special attention to rinsing – I use a spray garden nozzle that gets all the shampoo out. Before I consider the job finished, I run my hands over their coats - a rinsed coat is squeaky clean. The shampoo left in his coat will cause itching.

• Adding a spoon of oil to his dry food will help keep his skin moist too. I add wheat germ oil to the food for the breeding dogs in the winter. Because my diva dog has food allergies, I buy Welactin fish oil by Nutramax for Winston –just a tiny bit each day does the trick.