His Bath, Then Mine: How Dog Bath Day Got a Better Ending

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Bathing Rowan is a two-person job that I do alone. He is a sixty-pound shepherd mix who loves water in every form except the one in my bathtub, and every bath day follows the same script. I fill the tub. He leaves the room. I find him. He goes rigid in my arms like a piece of furniture. And twenty minutes later the dog is clean and I am soaked, the bathroom floor is a pond, and there is fur on the ceiling. I am not sure how it gets to the ceiling.

For years the day ended there, with me mopping the floor in wet clothes. These days it ends differently, and that is what this post is about.

What bath day actually involves

I have written about shedding season and the vacuum, but bath day is its own thing. Before: towels down, the drain cover in, treats on the counter, the cat shut out because Mabel thinks the bathroom belongs to her. During: a lot of quiet encouragement and one very wet dog. After: towel, towel, more towel, and then the shake, which always happens about three seconds after I think it will not.

Then the cleanup. Wet towels in the machine. The floor. The tub, which after a dog has been in it needs a proper scrub before any human goes near it. The walls, sometimes.

The second bath

A couple of years ago I started doing something about the end of that day. Once the dog is dry and asleep, the floor is mopped and the tub is scrubbed, I run a bath for myself. Not every time, but on bath day it has become the reward. It makes the whole thing feel less like a chore and more like a strange two-part ritual: his bath, then mine.

It also turned out to be a good reason to clean the tub properly, which I had not always done.

Bath bombs, and the one rule I follow

Part of the second bath is a bath bomb. Old Whaling Company makes them by hand in small batches in Charleston, South Carolina. They are a woman-owned business, and their range covers a lot of scents, from lavender to oatmeal, milk and honey, plus a fragrance-free option. If you would like to look, the banner below goes straight to their bath bombs.

Now the rule, because this is a pet blog and it matters more than anything else in this post.

Bath bombs are for people, never for pets

Never use a bath bomb, bath oil or scented product in your dog’s bath, and never let a dog or cat into bath water that has had one in it. Pet skin is not human skin, and what feels lovely to us is not what is good for them. Use the shampoo your vet recommends for your pet, and nothing else.

Store them like you would store anything else they might eat

Bath bombs look and smell like treats to a dog. Rowan once ate most of a bar of soap that had been left on the edge of the tub. Mine live in a closed cabinet, not in an open dish on the counter. If your dog or cat eats one, or something like it, call your vet.

Close the door

Mabel likes to sit on the edge of the tub. On my bath nights the door stays shut, so nobody ends up drinking the bath water or walking through it.

Consider the scent if you share the house

Strong scents linger in a small bathroom, and animals have far more sensitive noses than we do. I lean toward lighter scents, or the fragrance-free one, and I open the window afterwards.

A few dog-bath habits worth keeping

Brush first. Getting the loose fur out before the bath means far less of it in the drain.

Lay a non-slip mat in the tub. A dog who feels the floor move under him will try to leave.

Have everything within reach before he gets in. You will not be able to leave him to fetch a towel.

Ask your vet how often. Different dogs need very different bath schedules, and more is not always better.

Both of us, clean

Bath day is still a production. Rowan still turns into a statue at the sight of the tub, and I still end up wet to the elbows. But the day ends with a clean dog asleep on his end of the sofa and me in a warm bath with the door closed, and that is a much better ending than mopping in wet socks.

If you would like your own reward for bath day, you can browse Old Whaling Company’s bath bombs here. Just keep them in a cabinet, and keep the bathroom door closed.

Photos: Solé Gomez and Yaroslav Shuraev via Pexels.