Baths - How often?

Usually just once or twice a year.  Typically mine will swim in Lake Michigan in an area I know to be clean, but if they swim in some of the smaller lakes, they get hosed off, or on the rare occassion, in the ocean, hosed off.  They don't roll in poop.....mud is easy enough.  Once they dry, I brush it out.  But, I have gsds and they are short coated and easy to groom, unlike some of the furrier breeds.

My Standard Poodle is bathed once a week.

All of the other dogs are as-needed.  This evening, I bathed one of my dog's feet because they were all muddy.
 

Every WEEK???

Wow!  Do I feel like a sloth!  But, my guys aren't ever dirty, they never, ever smell, so why bathe them?  And on their rare baths, I don't get dirty water coming off them, so..............

My two are bathed as needed, which ends up being about once a month.  Both are bright white and I like to keep them that way ;)

Salem gets bathed as needed. Normally during the summer he gets bathed about 1 time total, but the rest of the year I'd say once a month. During the summer we play hose in the back yard a lot and he swims a lot (clean water) so he doesn't really ever feel dirty or smell bad. The rest of the year he needs it a bit more often. When I do bathe him, I wash, condition and blowdry so it takes me about 2 hours since he is a big guy and double coated. I also wash him if we are going to my parent's house to stay the night or something like that.

Cheza right now is getting it about once a week, because she gets herself sooooo dirty, and she has a lot of white so it really shows. When she is bigger I'm sure she will be about the same as Salem. She is also easy to bathe now because she is small and I don't bother conditioning or blowdrying.

Thanks for the replies so far.

I was just curious because it was time that I gave our dogs baths today and I wondered how often people do their dogs.

Ours fall into the 4-6 times a year category and they are all shepherds with thicker and longer coats

Honestly, my dogs get baths only a few times per year. The husky keeps herself clean (like a cat) and I have a blow dryer to dry her off after she goes swimming. Dirt just falls off the aussie once he's dry so he's pretty low maintenance too. I will never own a breed that needs more bathing than that. I like my dogs fairly low maintenance.

They do get brushed regularly though because they are both double coated. But again, the blow dryer helps with that too. 

Never. I brush them regularly. They smell heavenly. The only time they smell bad is when they've been in the rain. Then they have that wet dog smell.

As needed only.  Kenya's last bath was right before Christmas.  We were going to stay with family and someone had a new baby and was all freaked out about germs and dirty dogs, so we bathed our dogs (at the time, Kenya was still what I would call perfectly clean).  Then last week, I took the dogs for a LONG walk when it got up to 60 degrees.  We had like a foot of snow melting and both dogs came back CAKED with slush and mud, so I carried Kenya upstairs and just rinsed her legs and underside with water (not a full bath).  She will be bathed again next weekend because we have our first big show.  We still have very wet conditions here and our yard is low so the dogs are playing and pottying in a giant mud field every day.  Since I'm riding with a friend, I feel I should clean Kenya.  I don't care if my car gets dog dirty, but my friend has a very clean dog and clean car!  I would never bathe Kenya unless someone else required me to or she was filthy.  She is technically certified as a pet therapy dog for the local club, but there are places we will never volunteer because they demand you bathe your dog before EVERY visit (weekly or bi-weekly).  No thanks!

I would have to say rarely, only for the times that they roll in something nasty, or if my stud decides to mark one of the girls.

They are often rinsed or hosed down after  training or after a run at a trial in agility (summer of course )  and after swimming in the lake.

We never bathed them for the conformation ring either, coats should be harsh and not slick/soft etc.  And bathing them just before a show can give that effect, unless bathed with salt water.

Hi

Well this will depend on your type of dog ahd how clean you want to keep him, her. Our poodles are washed and groomed every 4 to six weeks. If you wash a dog to often you can dry out thier skin and never ever use HUMAN shampoo as a dogs skin and hair is not the same as a human and yey this can harm you pet. Please do not use the cheap shampoo you buy at K-mant Wal-Mart and other department stores as the cheap shampoos can be harsh on your pet so be sure to buy as good of a shampoo as you can find also use a cog cream rinse this will make thier hair very soft. I buy all my grooming supplies on line to assure I am buying a Higrade shampoo and cream rinse. If you do not let your pet sleep  with you all  the time or at all and the dog does not go out and get very dirty you may not neet to wash him, her very often. Never was your pet more than once every tow weeks, if you do this every week it can dry out thier skin. In the winter if you live in the cold when you wash your dog donot let the dog out in the cold when wet it can KILL your dog alse you should not use a hair dryer on you pet the dry them as it geets so hot it can harm them but you can use the exhause of a sweeper as the air pressure will dry your dog after a sweeper has been on for a while the air tend to warm.

I hope this helps as you can get alot of different answers. Some good some not so good.

 Chris

The Poodle Daddy

Dogs make the Nicest People...

As needed. Legend usually every two months. He goes in to the groomer at work and gets a bath and blowdry. He's not really 'dirty' at that time (never has a doggy smell) but it gets any loose undercoat out and he really likes going to the groomer

Ginger usually needs a bath every month to month and a half. I usually only bathe her if she's gotten dirty or I'm going to be clipping some of her fur.  Jules likes to get into gross things, so he ends up getting bathed more frequently.  If he's stayed out of grossness he's on the same bath schedule as Ginger

Once a month is about average for mine.  But I've done it anywhere from every other day for weeks at a time (if my allergic dog's allergies are bothering him) to twice a year. 

I have a hound, sooooooo, she gets a bath when she is going out into polite company: ie obedience class, or shopping at petsmart, or visiting in home at family.

Oh yes, we also trail ride in secluded areas  and she goes so when we get home she gets a bath with flea/tick even though we use K9 Advantaix once a month. I just don't want the little buggers coming home to the farm!

Unless she has rolled in "yuck" her hound smell does not bother me, but once I was late from work and we had obedience class at the local PetsMart and she had to go with out a bath. I did notice that those people that just have to pet her were politely offended by her "hound smell." My comment back, "Well she IS a hound and hounds just have their own perfume!"