Bathing Your Keeshond

	Rub A Dub Dub - There's A Dog In My Tub!
	Well, before we proceed with bathing our furry friend I want to ask you one thing ... is he completely groomed out? Because, if he's not you'll be sorry. Washing a dog with a matted undercoat is like wetting a piece of leather. As the coat dries, those mats are going to shrink up on you, becoming so tight you'll never get them out! Additionally, with a heavily matted undercoat you cannot get the dog clean and the skin will not dry quickly, the result will be a dirty, smelly dog with hot spots or a fungal infection, yuck! Groom First ...... Then Bathe! A Regularly groomed Keeshond that spends most of its time indoors will not need bathing more than 2 or 3 times a year. It is the brushing that keeps a Keeshond's coat clean. Properly groomed, a Keeshond doesn't ever smell like a dog. So, let's get that dog in the tub!
	Washing Facilities
	I think we have an ideal set-up here at Cari-On for bathing Keeshonds. Having bathed dogs for more than 18 years, and Dennis has done so for over 25, I think we've seen just about every kind of set-up one can imagine. I like the one we have now the best. What I like about it is it does a very thorough job of washing the dog all the way down to the skin without wasting excessive amounts of shampoo. By not using too much shampoo in the coat, it is easy to rinse the dog properly, getting all the soap out. This is essential, as a dog with soap left in its coat will most assuredly have skin problems. Now, ours is a fancy commercial set-up and the average pet owner would not want to invest the kind of money Cari-On has invested, just to bathe one or two dogs. Ours is a Hydrosurge. It consists of a single switching unit which powers a recirculating pump and a two-speed, heavy duty blower. It has dual built in ground fault circuit interrupters to prevent the potential for electrical shock. It also has a custom spray nozzle. It is all hooked up to a tub the size of a human bathtub at waist level to ease back strain. Finally, the same tub has hot and cold water from a raised faucet with a short length of hose attached. Now, most everyone has a bathtub, not necessarily at waist level, but for the time it takes to wash one dog, most people can kneel ... they require you to kneel longer in Catholic Mass than it takes to wash one dog. So, whatever tub you have will work, and of course you have access to hot and cold water right there. Also, Keeshonds do not need to be blow-dried, provided they have been properly groomed out prior to bathing. A good shake and an air dry will work just fine. Or, if you insist, you can get a blow dryer just like ours ... you can pick up a nice 4.0 horsepower Dryer through the pet mail order catalogs for about $150. Ours is only cool, forced air, designed to blow most of the water off in sheets, we do not use it to dry the dog all the way, only to get about 70% of the excess water out of the coat.
	Bathing Procedure
	So, how does it work? What makes it so great? Well, picture this ..... you plug the tub up and you run about an inch to two inches of warm water in the tub. You add a small amount of concentrated shampoo .... careful, don't over do it or next thing you know you'll have a tub full of bubbles overflowing! Now, place your pump in the tub and turn it on. Get the picture? You have warm, soapy water recirculating in the tub. You can use the hose end to place it all the way next to the dog's skin, thereby actually flushing dirt and dead hair from the undercoat outward. The dog gets cleaner, with a fraction of the amount of shampoo you would normally use. It takes less than 5 minutes to wash the entire dog and you aren't struggling with shampoo bottles tubside. After you are done shampooing the dog you can drain the water from the tub, add an inch or two of clean rinse water, turn the pump back on and rinse the soap out. It works really slick. If you got carried away with the shampoo, you may need to drain the rinse water and run a fresh tub and re-rinse or simply rinse from the faucet rather than using the pump as we generally do. It is very important to get all the soap out of your dog. The hardest thing to get used to with this setup is not using too much shampoo. The circulating action of the pump creates huge amounts of suds and your dog will be enjoying a luxurious bubble bath if you don't control your urge to add too much shampoo to the bath water. Once the dog is rinsed, let him shake the excess water off, or towel dry or blow dry if you like. Then let him air dry the rest of the way. Once he is completely dry you will want to groom him out again to loft the undercoat properly. Of course, if you don't want to something as nice as ours, you can stick with the good old fashioned approach of wetting the dog, applying the shampoo (which you might want to pre-dilute in some water so as not to get the dog too soapy), rub the shampoo in, rinse it out with a hose or bath tub attachment (preferably holding the hose down to the skin to flush the soap out and away from the skin), and finally letting the dog shake, towel dry or blow dry, then air dry. The essential thing in bathing any dog is to be absolutely sure to get all the soap out and in a double coated breed this can be very difficult, especially if you use too much shampoo. The submersible pump really helps to cut down on the amount of shampoo you use and does an excellent job of getting the dog clean and rinsing the dog free of soap. Have fun and just try to stay dry! <INDEX