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Black labs are the best. Okie is gentle, enthusiastic, and affectionate. But, he is one heck of a shedder. I find dog hair in the pantry. In the refrigerator. On the windowsills. The vacuum? Full of black hair. The dryer vent? Full. Of black hair.
Recently, we brought Okie to the local pet store where he was treated to an anti-shedding bath for a whopping $78. Tonight when I came home, I concocted a plan to create a DIY treatment for my boy Okie. The two of us headed to my shower, the bottle of shampoo in hand.
Okie wasn't so sure about coming into the shower with me, but with the help of his collar and leash, he complied. (He really didn't have a lot of choice in the matter.) I gathered up the old towels, stripped the two of us down, and turned on the hand-held shower attachment. For the next twenty minutes I lathered and rinsed, lathered and rinsed, watching the pile of black hair grow in the shower drain.
If Okie minded, he didn't let on. He stood while I scrubbed at his backside-- a place where the hair seems to be particularly prone to coming out all over the house. He sat while I worked on his neck and chest, and he refrained from shaking when I placed a towel over him and rubbed him down.
"You really are a good dog," I said many more times than once.
Once I finished, I opened the shower door and let him out of the bathroom. He ran downstairs and I listened to my husband laugh at him as he ran around the house like a puppy. My work was far from done though. It might have taken me just as long to clean and de-hair the shower as it did to bathe and de-shed the dog.
All good things,
I could imagine the hairy shower :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a job! How often do you think you will have to do that? I enjoyed your little words of reinforcement to Okie. Sounds like a very good dog. ❤️ Jess
ReplyDeleteThere are many reasons I wish my uncle were still alive, but one of them is so I could ask him how he kept the dogs' hair from clogging up his shower. He was notoroious for letting his dogs shower with him. (Seriously, they were the cleanest dogs around!) I'm sure he had some kind of magic concoction.
ReplyDeleteHope the anti-shedding treatment works!
Oh, Melanie! I know how copiously Labs shed. What a great attempt at problem-solving (I never thought of this-). I can only imagine the clean-up - but did it work for managing Okie's shedding??? If so - it's worth it! I can so see his initial confusion and subsequent giddiness.
ReplyDeleteHow good to have a dog that will let himself be showered. I have never had that experience with dogs to date. So I hope it continues to work out well! Such a fun slice!
ReplyDelete