Most times it really does not seem like five dogs is a lot of dogs.
There are two times when it does seem like a lot of dogs. One is when someone comes to the door-the noise is deafening, we have worked on it and they settle pretty quickly but it does sound like a kennel when someone knocks on the door.
The second time five dogs seems like way too many dogs is on grooming days!
Some days I wonder why I bother. Saturday I got all five dogs washed and fluffed and pretty, ummm, they smelled GOOD and looked so pretty. It took most of the day but how worth it to have five fresh smelling, pretty doggies.
I had barely finished grooming all the dogs and left to go clean myself up when I heard Cricket outside. Someone had let her out moments after I finished grooming her-I raced to let her in but too late.....Cricket had been rolling and having a great time in the dirt. She is good with her rolling technique, she takes her time and gets the dirt all the way down to her skin. She looks like a little pig pen from the Charlie Brown comics, her color changes to brown and when she walks there is a little cloud of dirt that follows her. THANKS CRICKET! Yep, I was glad I went to the trouble of getting her pretty.
Poor Skyler has a tail that does not work-it was broken some time before I got him so it has no feeling and he can not move it. He can not wag his tail to tell people he is happy an he can not move his tail out of the way when he goes poo- poor guy! Anyway, I got him very pretty but later that day I kept smelling something and thought maybe it was just Skyler developing a little smell associated with him being older, so I put some nice moisturising spray on him. As the day went on the smell got worse so I looked and ughghggh, you guessed it poor Skyler must have had diarrhea and was caked all over with poo everywhere-poor guy he got his second bath of the day.
Lizzie rolled in some type of poo when I went to the agility yard to practice, and Breeze played with her egg ball which she obsesses over and drools so bad that the ball and her legs and face get covered in drool that mixed with the dirt in the back yard makes a nice mud drool to cover her front legs and face with.
Hours worth of work and I did not even get to enjoy it 24 hours ;-). How is that right? Chloe the sheltie is the only dog that still looks pretty and freshly groomed, good girl Chloe. The dogs were very proud of themselves-and anyone who stops by will wonder when I will break down and give the dogs a bath because they sure would not believe I had just done it!.
DOG SHAMPOO RECIPE:
I have been making my dog shampoo. I like to use a nice shampoo because we have a few dogs with sensitive skin and I like to wash pretty frequently and the dogs cuddle with us all day so I like to know we use something without too many freaky ingredients. I am not a vet ;-), and not a groomer but I did notice pretty much all the recipes I was finding had some pretty similar ingredients so I felt it must be pretty standard and my dogs skin has done very well with the shampoo so use your judgement but this is what I like. You can alter the recipe so it suits what you like.
I got an old big dish soap bottle and cleaned it out to put my shampoo in when I was finished making it.
2 cups of dish soap, I used seventh generation-I wanted something very gentle and without a lot of ingredients, you could use Ivory
2 cups distilled water-the water does not have to be boiled or distilled but several recipes said it would make it more luxurious so what the heck it makes sense without the minerals it would probably lather better?
2 cups apple cider vinegar-this alters the ph so it is correct for the dogs
1/2 cup glycerin-this makes it really nice, you can purchase this on line or I got it at a natural health food store, some pharmacies may carry it.
OPTIONAL:
*You can steep a few chamomile tea bags in the water before adding the water.
*you could add about 1/4 cup of aloe vera
*add a few drops of Lavender essential oils, or some other scent.
*Add a cap full of tea tree oil
*for dogs with allergies or itchy skin you can add one cup of Colloidal oatmeal (you can buy the oatmeal or make it by putting uncooked oats into a grinder or blender and blending so it is the consistency of flour-add a tablespoon of your oats to a cup of warm water and mix if the mixture looks like milky water it is ready, if the oats fall to the bottom you need to grind/blend it a little longer ;-))
If you have a dog with allergies-especially if you added a bunch of ingredients-you might want to do a small test patch and make sure it does not bother your dog and make sure to rinse the shampoo off your dog really well.