Today was bath day for Maudie...not a big deal, unless you haven't bathed a dog who weighs more than 25lbs in many many years! Of course she was a patient good girl; but like all dogs I know, she looked miserable while being tortured by soap and water and was equally ecstatic when she got out and felt how clean she was.
I lined the bathroom with towels, slapped the suction cup noose onto the tile, heaved her in and off we went....One side at a time, the bathroom turning into a sauna from the heat and the water and the breathing...
M helped me...kept her coat wet while I soaped her up with EZGroom (crystal white). Because she's a mahogany sable (my favorite color collie) it was fascinating to see the range of colors that showed up in her wet coat. Copper and black and mahogany and pale tan and grey and white..... I tried to imagine her a smoothie when she was soaked and her coat clung to her body, but I realized that I've never seen a mahogany sable smooth collie. I don't think they exist....Maybe there is not enough length to each hair to carry all those colors??
Then we brought the rocket powered dryer into the bathroom and dried her in the tub; I ended up climbing in there with the hose to get to all her parts.... still..... I let her go before she was totally dry, so now she's got a little cowlick on her back and she looks kind of fuzzy...I remember the corgis looked like that after a bath..
Its not quite as satisfying as washing a papillon who comes down off the grooming table all sparkly and silky and never looks better, every hair in place and glowing. With these double coated dogs, it takes a day or two for the oils to come back and the coat to settle down...unless of course, you spend the time drying and brushing until...well....they're dry! But she feels super clean and her whites are dazzling. It was SO hot today, I figured she'd dry off pretty quickly on her own. She did.
A preeeeety exciting day!? huh! Well, it is. Tomorrow we have our Dove Lewis interview.
I have such big hopes for us. There's no reason why we shouldn't do well, but I'm excited so I'm nervous. She's snoozin.
I sympathize, having bathed many dogs over the years-- my border collie, Alonzo, was a similar challenge the first time I bathed him after having only had to bathe a mini dachshund named Violette in the kitchen sink. But until you've bathed a Saint Bernard you have not played in the major leagues of grooming; I felt I was hosing down a mastodon. Next to that wet mountain of fur, Violette looked like a mouse.
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