How Often to Bathe Your Boxer Puppy
27 May 2009
Boxer , dog bath , bathing a dog
This is one of my contentious issues. Everywhere I read they tell me not to bathe my dog too much. Some resources even claim that you should not bathe your dog more then every few months. Well I have news for you. Unless your sense of smell does not work a dog can smell within 2 weeks. Not to mention the shedding issue.
One of the arguments out there is that you can wash your dogs natural oils off their fur. I cannot speak for breeds other then boxers but I can tell you this. I bathe my boxers every week. Yes that’s right , every Saturday they come in and join me for a shower. How is this you ask? Don’t boxers hate water? Well, keep reading and I will tell you how I manage this.
When I got Mickey at 12 weeks, he was a hard boxer to house train. He would feel the need to take fecal matter and fling it all over the walls , all while in a crate. I would put him in a crate for 30 minutes at a time so he would get used to it. And sometimes I would leave the house for an hour or so only to come back to a house smelling like a dinosaur took a dump in my living room. Well to my surprise it was just little ‘ol Mickey playing in his poop. How he managed to fling poop on the wall next to his crate is beyond me but at any rate I would have to bathe him. This is my wife cleaning the boxer cage!
Bathing him was an arduous task at first. I guess you can say I’m an authoritarian and don’t go for the “touchy feelie” approach. I would grab Mickey and hold him out like a dirty diaper. At that time he was only a few pounds. Then I would run into the kitchen sink and bath him. I used the sink because it was much easier then filling up the bathtub. Don’t worry we used disinfectant on the counters and sink afterward! The first time I bathed him you would of thought he was dying. He howled like he was going to die and just insisted on jumping out of the sink.
At this point I had to put on my “Authoritarian” hat and just forced him to stay in the sink. I firmly said ‘NO’ and just held him there. I didn’t baby him and do all that goofy softy stuff some books tell you to do. He smelled like poop and he was going to get a bath, I was not going to baby him, that was the end of it. Afterward I would give him a nice treat. This was a ritual repeated a few times a day within the first few weeks.
When he finally was house trained something magical happened. When I would take a shower in our standup shower he would be right there watching me. I opened up the door and he walked right in. At that point I realized he got used to water and actually liked taking baths. So I decided this would be our weekly ritual.
When we got Dixie I did the same thing , used the sink and started the shower routine. Now they both wait patiently for their turn at the shower. How awesome is that. I bet if you do this you will get the same results.
19 Responses
2009 May 28
Thanks for posting, I very much enjoyed your latest post. I think you should post more frequently, you evidently have talent for blogging!
2009 Jun 15
Hi, interest post. I’ll write you later about few questions!
2009 Jun 16
I think I will try to recommend this post to my friends and family, cuz it’s really helpful.
2009 Aug 06
hey that was a great read . Thanks for the great post .Loved every part of it.
2010 Mar 12
Loved the blog! I just got my 4 month old baby, and after a week decided she NEEDS a bath! I am gald I ran across your blog. Thanks for writing it, and I hope when I do some searching I run across more of your blogs! Keep writing about the boxers. I will follow you!
2010 Jun 25
Tiffany,
Thanks for the support. So glad you found this information helpful!
2010 Jul 09
Thanks for best news!
2010 Jul 09
great experience, dude! thanks for this great post wow… it’s very wonderful report.
2010 Jul 09
Was an interesting article, thank you..
2010 Jul 10
Sorry, but you don’t give yourself enough credit.
2010 Jul 10
Congratulations on having one of the most sophisticated blogs Ive come across in some time! Its just incredible how much you can take away from something simply because of how visually beautiful it is. Youve put together a great blog space –great graphics, videos, layout. This is definitely a must-see blog!
2010 Jul 11
Good post and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Gratefulness you seeking your information.
2010 Oct 06
Sorry for my bad english. Thank you so much for your good post. Your post helped me in my college assignment, If you can provide me more details please email me.
2010 Oct 07
This was an amazing piece of writing! Thanks so much now I know that I can give my Boxer a bath more than twice a year!! I heard that it would hurt him otherwise. Now I will try and bathe him much more often? How do you dry them? Mine likes to run outside but I can’t do that in the winter.
2010 Oct 08
why would you get a boxer if you have to put it in a crate? boxers are not meant for crates. no wonder he flings poop everywhere,i would too.
2010 Oct 08
Jackie,
Don’t worry. We only have our boxers in the crate for a few hours when noone was home and ONLY when they were puppies, so they wouldn’t chew anything they weren’t supposed to or use the bathroom on the carpet, etc. (We’d rather they poop in the crate then on the carpet in the house). Now they both our boxers are housebroken, they haven’t seen a crate in years. It was just for housebreaking reasons. Our dogs are NEVER crated now.
2010 Oct 08
When we dry our dogs, we just use a towel on them. Of course, it won’t get them 100% dry, but since they have such short hair, it doesn’t take them long to dry on their own. When it is nice weather outside, we let them out after their bath. They love to run around and play outside after a bath and the sun helps to dry them too.
2011 Feb 19
Our Boxer was as easy as other breeds to house train. Train to newspaper in the laundry first and then gradually to outside. He has always enjoyed his bath as long as the water is warm, but will only paddle in the sea and hates it when we give him a swim in the pool. We only crated him for a few weeks until he got used to our routine. I love Boxers. They are the best dog. We bath him when ever we think he needs it.
2011 Jul 02
Wow Awesome! NOw who’s working or training you to take a shower everyday instead of just once a week with Mickey and Dixie. You know humans can smell like poop to.