Clean Dog: Your Dog Can Smell Nice – Here’s How!

Let’s address the most common stereotype and prejudice about dog owners. Just because you have a dog, many people might think that your house is filled with hair and that it, oh well no nice way to say it, stinks. Guess what, you can have a hair-free and odour-free home! And no, dogs do not necessarily stink. If they do, it’s definitely the owner’s fault.  

Clean dog

Needless to say, washing your dog regularly is imperative for having a ‘non-stinky’ dog. Yet, there are some owners who will tell you it’s not healthy to bathe your dog often. Please ignore them and listen to your vet, and this holds for many other scenarios. And obviously, use a quality shampoo that won’t damage your dog’s pH. Do you ever get a rash or simply itchy after using a new shower gel? Well, it’s probably because the product altered the natural pH of your skin, and the same can happen to dogs . You want to use pH neutral products that won’t interfere with your dog’s natural skin barrier.

Don’t forget the paws

Apart from bathing your dog regularly, make sure to wash its paws after each walk. Obviously, owners whose dogs live in yards do that, but if you live in a flat this should really make sense. There are even cool new products that make this even easier! But most importantly, use a mild shampoo (i.e. suitable for sensitive skin!) for daily use.

Accessories

You even have deodorants and fur sprays that not only smell great, but also help you to brush your dog with more ease. And no bathing required! But make sure that you use quality ones, like that of Furminator, or any other with natural ingredients that won’t develop an allergic reaction if your dog is sensitive. And there’s even one deodoriser that smells just as heavenly as baby powder, and it’s used by professional groomers.

Their majesty – the teeth!

Perhaps the greatest myth of all is that a dog’s mouth stinks. And that there’s nothing you can do about it. Well, there’s quite a bit you can do about it. And it all starts with washing your dog’s teeth regularly.

Dental sticks will somewhat help because they smell good, but if you want your dog to have healthy, white teeth along with a fresh breath, you just have to wash his or her teeth at least every other day. Otherwise, there’s no point. But, if you do that, not only will your dog never have bad breath, but you will also save a lot of money on having to go to your vet every year to take the tartar off. And for all those devoted dog-parents, we even made a dental hygiene step-by-step guide. These teeth cleaning pads are a are great alternative to dog toothpaste and provide an effective way to clean your dog’s teeth and maintain good oral hygiene.

Ears and eyes

Number 1, get ear and eye tissues. Supposedly, if you have a dog with sensitive eyes (many small breeds), you will clean his or her eyes every morning. For ears, you need a special solution and ideally, something with tea tree (for antiseptic purposes) and with hazel (to dry it out ASAP) which also happens to smell great. Ear infections can be dreadfully annoying especially as they are easy to become chronic. And besides the health aspect that can trouble your dog and cause it pain, there’s the inevitable smell.

Anal glands

If your dog has a weird-smell (once you’ve smelled it, you won’t forget it), its anal glands might be impacted. It basically means it is having a hard time ejecting toxins with the stool and it’s all staying inside. And when the poor thing rubs its bottom on the carpet looking for relief, it’s going to be everywhere around your home as well. So, first do your best to avoid this problem and if it happens, besides going to the vet, there are things you can do to immediately help your furry companion.

Clean house

Surely, you don’t want your house to be dirty. And when you have guests over, you most certainly don’t want them to think ‘oh, (s)he has a dog’ just by the smell that is more than obvious when entering a room.

• Vacuum

iRobot Roomba is here to help! And the good news is that this market is so developed now that you can find them in all kinds of price ranges, whereas earlier £700 was the norm, you can now even find some models for £200, and a lot more in between. Or you can just use a good old traditional vacuum cleaner. Sorry to break it to you, when it comes to pet hair, there is really no alternative to vacuuming.

• Clean

Now as far as bacteria and bad smells go, mopping is the only cure. Just make sure to use hypoallergenic cleaners, i.e. Frosh or Briochin so your dog doesn’t develop an allergy – yes, it can happen and it’s actually more common than you might think!

• Activated charcoal bags

These are a great way to keep any room odour free, fresh and dry. Just keep in mind that activated charcoal absorbs everything: the good and the bad. Activated charcoal bags will absorb both the bad and the scented smell but they are also great to deal with polluted air in general, doing both you and your dog a favour! They need to be recharged every 1-2 months by leaving them in direct sunlight. You can use them up to 2 years and the best news is that they are super economical!

• Oil diffusers (scented sticks in fragrant liquids).

These are really the most powerful way to make a room smell heavenly. Obviously, the more you spend, the better it will be. Ikea diffusers hardly do anything at all, but Jo Malone London goes a long way. Just make sure that your dog doesn’t mind the smell which will be obvious if he or she starts coughing. The alternative is to use natural ingredients as a lot of those perfumes contain chemicals that can irritate your dog and cause an allergic reaction. Perhaps the safest way is to invest in an oil diffuser that evaporates water with a drop of any essential oil of your choice. Lavender, rosemary, sage, tea tree – the list is endless!.

Having a dog and clean household that smells great is possible – we promise you!

Just follow the above advice and no way will anyone notice that you have a dog. Before actually seeing your furry household member that is, looking all shiny and clean. But it’s entirely up to you to clean your dog and make him smell great – sorry, but dogs don’t self-maintain. You can still get a pet if you are not willing or able to invest all this time in grooming as cats clean themselves :)

What if you don’t mind the smell?

Many dog owners complain that their friends aren’t compassionate enough and that the smell is really not that bad. Others go as far as saying “The dog lives here. You are just a guest,” so deal with it, or don’t come at all. But there’s a reason why it’s important for your dog not to smell bad, and it is beyond purely cosmetic and for appearance-sake. It’s hygienic. Bad smell can indicate health issues. And something as simple as bad breath can result in a lot of health complications for a dog. And if you don’t bathe your dog, he or she will be more susceptible to allergies and even infections. We’re sorry to break it to you but there is no way to justify a ‘stinky dog’.

Cleaning is a must

Sorry to break it to you, you’ll still have a lot of pet hair lying around, so house maintenance is something you can definitely not afford to skip if you decide to have a pet. But at the end of the day, it’s so worth it. Trust us or just look at those beautiful, loving eyes filled with nothing else but pure love, looking at you 24/7/365 days a year…. nothing short of priceless. And compared to that, cleaning and grooming are really not such a high price to pay!