First Bath!

It's always interesting to give the puppies their first bath. They get so excited when you pick them up and carry them to the laundry room, then they probably begin to wonder, "what's happening?"

First, I hold them and trim their toenails, then I set them on a towel on the washing machine and put little plugs of cotton in their ears to keep the water out. At this point they're usually holding pretty still wondering what's going on.

I have a small bucket that I use for the puppy shampoo. I add some to the bucket and then put some warm water in and mix it up. Since I'm not using straight shampoo directly on the puppy it makes my shampoo go further. A trick I learned from my dog groomer friend.

Next we gently set the puppy in the laundry sink and turn on some warm water and start getting the coat wet. It's pretty easy at this age and size since I can just hold them under the faucet and turn their little bodies any ol' direction to get all the hair wet. Then I dip a sponge in my shampoo and started lathering the puppy all over.

At this point we get different reactions; some kind of freeze and just sit still, some whine, some wiggle, and some try to just climb out of the sink. "Get me outta here!"

 Coco

Little sable girl

Oscar

It doesn't take long to bath a small puppy, so soon I'm done shampooing and start the rinsing phase which is basically the same as at the start. Then I use my hands to squish as much water off the puppies coat and towel dry. If it's cold weather I use a hair dryer for the next step. But since it was so warm today, I put the puppies back outside in their pen to air dry.

They look so cute, all fluffy and clean, and smell good too!