And a special one, at that. Care to know why? Ohhh you know, because today is the day Happy get’s her monthly bath! (Oh dear. Writing that in words makes Happy sound SoStankin’Gross).
Hurray for HYGIENE!
Whenever the first of the month rolls around (Newsflash: that’s TOMORROW for those of you who are still in the mindset that it’s mid-July. Okay. So maybe that’s just me? Sigh, always behind the times…) we take our little Happster into the guest bathroom for some scrub-a-dub-dub time.
haaaaalp!
Ya know, I’m not exactly sure how this monthly habit started. Heck, I don’t even know how often dogs are supposed to be washed. Is there a rule about this? Actually…don’t answer that. I don’t want to know how wrong I am and end up feeling like a horrible doggie-parent. (I already have too much stress on my mind, considering the fact I’m in the middle of my epidemiology final. Hrmph.)
All I know is that this time-line works for us, and we have yet to have a stinky doggie on our hands.
Don’t even think I’d spare your bed from my staaankiness...
The name's Happs, and I.DO.WHAT.I.WANT.
This scrubalicious time-line also works out well for us because we give Happs her monthly flea/tick meds on the 1st of every month. It’s like a clean-slate every single month.
In addition, Happy gets her heart-worm medicine after every bath. To her, this little brown-turd-o-medicine is like the treat of all treats. Whenever we free her from her bath towel and she hears the words, “Happy…do you want your *medicine*??!?”…
OhmiGAH is it the first of the month!??!???????
… she immediately prances over to the kitchen carpet (the place where all treats are administered, duhhh) and waits patiently for us to open the foil packaging.
Shmeeeee! Homegirl wants her MEDS!
After a good (hand)“shake,” “ nutmeg,” and a “rollover” (or three), we hand over the medicine treat to Happy and she scampers off to her doggie-bed as if she just scored the jackpot of all treats. You’d think they laced this stuff with pure bacon. Or crack.
Lick-yer-chops-clean-GOOD!
These are the pattern of events that go down every single month on the 1st, and for the past 10 months we’ve had Happs, these shenanigans have left me a laughing (and smiling) fool every.single.time.
Every now and then, Ryan and I have a field-fest clipping Happy’s nails.
Check out dem stems
Scratch that, I am the one that clips Happy’s nails, as Ryan becomes a nervous, shaky mess at the sight of the clippers. Not exactly the picture of safety.
Don’t hurt me?
To circumvent having to deal with a bouncy and curious pupsqueak, I’ve mastered the art of clipping Happy’s nails while she’s in “sleepy-mode.”
Derrrrrrr
Out like a light
I’ve mentioned before on the bloggy-blog that once 9PM rolls around, Happy’s “on” button gets switched to “off.” (This reminds me, I seriously need to figure out who’s in charge of her remote control and offer them some bribes…I mean peace-offerings).
Another thing Happy loves? Being brushed. By her daddy. I’m not sure who likes this more… but it’s pretty adorable to see Ryan grab Happy’s brush and head out to the porch with her pouncin’ at his heels with excitement. Melt-my-heart, whydon’tyou.
Ahhh yes, just another day at La Spa de HappyTales
Nevertheless…
This still happens.
I blame summer. And the hot-like-FIYA temperatures.
Is it just me, or do dogs shed more in the summer? This is probably another super-obvious question that I should already know the answer to, but my brain is fried and I’d rather just hear y’alls input.
So please, do tell! How often do you wash your dog? Or rather, do you even wash your dog? How often does nail-clipping in your household happen? And brushing?
Speaking of brushing, do you brush your dogs teeth? Our vet gave us some doggie-toothpaste and a doggie-toothbrush a while back, but we have yet to test it out on Happs. He said to “train” her with peanut-butter first, so she’d like the sensation of the toothbrush.
So, if you DO brush your dog’s teeth, how often do ya brush’em?!
Happy Tales 
That shower picture is actually the cutest thing I’ve EVER seen. We used to wash our dog once a month too… it’s such a production, so that was more than enough!!
We tried brushing her teeth too. Didn’t work out so well. She hated it, so we just kind of gave her healthy teeth bones and that worked fine! lol. 🙂
Okay so I hate giving advice when I don’t know the whole story…but toothbrushing is important but unless happy is nuts, pb and toothpaste don’t taste the same. Little homer fights the whole time but his smile sure is pretty after we finish 🙂 and if ur using the flea meds that you put on his skin, thn don’t do it within 48 hrs of bath time. Enjoy your little one!
Ohhh Lauren, that’s why I ask! Thank you so much for the advice on waiting for the flea meds applicaiton. In the past, it’s been hit or miss whether we put them on her ears *right* after (and by that, i mean a few hours) or a few days after. We’ll definitely be waiting the 2 days from now on! And the pb tip I is actually from the vet– he said it helps the dogs get used to the sensation of brushing. I realize that PB and the toothepaste don’t taste the same, and w/ Happy’s smarts, she’ll definitely realize it, too! We’ve been useing those doggie-dental-sticks, but I think we’re gonna jump on board the teeth-brushing train. How often do you brush Homer’s teeth?
Fin is getting a bath today and I know he will be very cranky about it! I normally give him a bath myself because he’s so little but he was at day care all weekend because we went out of town. So they give him a bath before I pick him up. He’ll smell like oranges. Yay! 🙂
I am really bad with brushing his teeth. He haaaaaaaaates it. I do give him a lot of greenies and dental chews though.
Our dogs get a weekly bath to help with their allergies and mine.
We need to start brushing their teeth. They are older dogs and dental cleaning can get expensive (they’ve had it twice). So a bit of bacon flavored tooth paste it is.
Homie’s teeth get brushed ohhhh like once a month or after we catch him in the kitty litter (which actually isn’t often). He doesnt like it, but we make up for it in treats.
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