bath time...

[i'm_sofa_king]

how old does a puppy have to be befroe you can give it a bath? my little Shih Tzu, Toby, is 7 1/2 weeks old. all the dog and puppy shampoo we can find says for puppies 12 weeks and older. he smells really bad, partly because we are trying to potty train him to use the puppy pads for now, then we'll transition to outside. but he will go once on the pad then lay in it, so he smells really bad. can we give him a bath, and just use no shampoo, or is there something we can do? what about taking him to a groomer for his first bath?

[Renee750il]

Try Johnson's Baby Shampoo. You'll just need to make sure he doesn't get chilled. Be very careful about using a hairdryer. It can burn his skin very easily. The best thing is to towel dry him as much as you can then put him on some warm blankets near a heat source - just not so near that he gets too hot or there's a danger of his blankets catching fire! :eek:

If you want him to go outside eventually, it will be much easier on both of you to go ahead and train Toby to use the outdoors now than to try and re-train him later.

[i'm_sofa_king]

its soo cold here now, and he goes outside and just starts to shiver. we bought him a sweeter thing, but when you put it on him he dosent move. he just stands there. frozen, only moving his head.

[milo]

I bathe my puppy with Jonsons Baby shampoo!And i onlu bathe Lucky and Milo when they really need it but coz Lucky is only a pup and he's a very light colour i just havento wash him in stead of bathing him coz it can stripp the oils from him!!!

[avenlee]

its soo cold here now, and he goes outside and just starts to shiver. we bought him a sweeter thing, but when you put it on him he dosent move. he just stands there. frozen, only moving his head.


Yeah, I hear ya, but you are teaching Toby that the outside is where he needs to go to do potty. Even if its cold and he's shivering, you need to open up that environment. I've used the potty pads with my dogs when they were puppies, but only during the day and overnight when I wasn't home to let them out. I live in Mass. and know all to well friggid weather and dreaded standing outside with my puppies waiting for them to do their business, but it pays off in the long run. You have to remember, when they are puppies whatever you get them accustomed with, they will keep with them. Can't teach an old dog a new trick! LOL

[gell914]

hey guys my pup is also 7 1/2 weeks old and i just bathe him the day he arrives. It was winter and i just turn on the heater and wash him real fast with some anti-flea doggy shampoo. guess what? he lived. but then he still scratch his body most of the time but i couldnt find any fleas/ticks in his body.

[i'm_sofa_king]

did you rinse all the shampoo off of him?

when we took Toby to the vet for his first shots, they gave us some sample packets of shampoo. they seem to work really good. so far he's gotten a bath once a week.

[2pups622]

i used pampers baby wipes worked really well for me :)

[Renee750il]

hey guys my pup is also 7 1/2 weeks old and i just bathe him the day he arrives. It was winter and i just turn on the heater and wash him real fast with some anti-flea doggy shampoo. guess what? he lived. but then he still scratch his body most of the time but i couldnt find any fleas/ticks in his body.

The shampoo would be too harsh for a pup that age and it's irritated his skin and dried it out. Brush him with a soft brush and put a little olive oil on his food - just a bit, too much will give him the runs.

[hotdoggy124]

I bathe my puppy with Jonsons Baby shampoo!And i onlu bathe Lucky and Milo when they really need it but coz Lucky is only a pup and he's a very light colour i just havento wash him in stead of bathing him coz it can stripp the oils from him!!! i use baby johnsons baby shampoo on my 2 dogs,too. One of them is 2 the other one i 9. i started bathing my dog, princess when she was 4 1/2 months old.The people i adopted her from said to give her a bath as soon as i got home, they didn't want to give her one at there place baecause she was very tiny. she gets carsick so she really smelled. :)

[candy722]

I heard it isn't good to use human shampoo on dogs even if it is baby johnsons. I read on other sites it is still better to use puppy shampoo. I bath my Toki really early. When I bought him they told me that he was 10 weeks so I bathe him and then later someone told me that his 7 weeks so I guess I was bathing him at 6 weeks when I got him. Gosh I hate breeders that lie. Thank god Toki didn't get sick.

[Saje]

Renee: I was going to say the dry skin thing! :)

I bathed my pup when we first got him. He was 3 months old so this isn't really relevant. But we were all paranoid about him getting cold and we turned up all the heat and towel dried him very thoroughly...

It wasn't more than a few days that he was swimming in the cold, winter ocean. :) We had a good laugh. He loved it and was fine. Did that all winter.

By swimming I mean wading and hunting for.. shells, fish... I don't know.

Just keep your pup warm. Use an appropriate shampoo. I don't bath my dogs much unless I can't stand the smell anymore. They're always stinky. Maverick likes to wade in all kinds of sloughy water.