One of my current goals is to put more videos on the blog and in Facebook. I’m working on iMovie, which I have to admit seems anti-intuitive to me. But while I do that, here’s a quick YouTube video of Willie and the bath tub. I took a simple video on my iPhone and although he doesn’t actually get a bath, it does show how easy it is to bathe a dog using positive reinforcement. Notice that he is staying in the tub of his own choice (although I do say “stay there babe” at one point).
What I want to illustrate is how important it is to go step by step. Here are the steps I used to teach Willie to voluntarily jump into the tub and get a bath:
1. Armed with lots of small, great treats, I first palced them on the edge of the bathtub, perhaps 2-3 times, and let Willie eat them up. Then I put treats inside the tub and encouraged Willie to jump in to get them. I reinforced every step along the way–paws on the edge of the tub, one back foot moving up, etc. Once he jumped all the way in I gave him a “jackpot” of lots of treats, one after the other. I did several sessions of this before I even considered turning on the water.
2. After he jumped in the tub, I held a treat right by his nose, and turned on the water. I knew the sound of the water would throw him, so I turned the water on as I let him eat the treat. I turned the water on and off, treating every time the water came on. Then we quit and left the bathroom.
3. Next step was switching the water from the faucet to the sprayer. It’s a different sound and was enough of a change that I knew Willie would need reinforcement for it too. So we did one session just on that, again giving Willie treats as I switched the water from faucet to sprayer.
4. Not seen on the video, the next step was spraying Willie with water. At that point I’ve put a jar of treats down beside me, and given him a treat every 5-10 seconds in the first sessions, then eventually every minute or so. Eventually I of course add shampoo (I mix it with warm water, works better than putting in on directly). Shampoo, rinse, repeat. Or just rinse–which I ironically did last night because it’s a muddy mess outside and Willie is a sponge for dirt. I should have taped it, but I needed both hands to get him really clean. Let’s just say the water ran brown for the longest time. After we were done I said to Jim “And this is why people have short-haired dogs.”
Would Willie rather be getting treats elsewhere? I pretty much guarantee it (note the different types of tongue flicks). But then, I don’t enjoy giving the BCs baths either… Tootsie can be bathed in the sink when I’m standing up and it’s more comfortable for me. But the BCs literally compete for who gets to come in the bathroom with me when it’s bath time, I can run them through the house into the bathroom in a second and get them washed off in a few minutes. Can’t complain about that.
What about you? How do you bathe your dog(s)? Easy? Hard? Fun? Too busy to answer cuz your dog is a muddy mess and you have to wash her off?
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: I WILL complain about mud season in January though. I’ll admit that 16 below was a tad nippy for me, but I’d take the cold any day over rain (which it’s doing now) and then mud, or then ice, or then icy mud… Argh. Not much we can do about it.
Maggie and I ran in another winter sheepdog trial at John Wentz’s this weekend. Everyone was clearly rusty, but the joy of small trials like this is that we can all consider it a training run. Judge Rose was especially helpful; if we “retired” and left the post to help our dogs she encouraged everyone to do so and take the full time allotted. Maggie’s first run was pretty sloppy, although it ended up in first place. (Someone said, “So you mean it was a SBS run?” I’d never hear the term, but it was perfectly descriptive. SBS = Sloppy but Successful. Note: There are other “S words” that can be used. Just saying.) On Sunday I messed Maggie up by lying her down when I should have let her keep going, which caused her to have to “lift” the sheep (get them moving) over and over again. Because of that, we ran out of time at the pen. Argh, I thought I’d already learned that lesson. Lots to work on, for both of us. But we’ve literally only worked two or three times in the last five weeks, so it was great fun to be with good people and work dogs together. I also had two great lessons on “shedding” (separating a select number of sheep out of the flock) from AJ. It’s REALLY hard and REALLY cool and I think/hope I’m going to love it if I ever figure the hell out how to do it well.
This is another part of what is keeping me sane–flowers in the house. Why would anyone spend money on shoes when they can spend it on flowers?
Minnesota Mary says
It seems to me that the success of positive training is dependent on the dog trusting the trainer. Once that trust is established, there’s not much that would be impossible to get a dog to do for you. Trust benefits the canine/human relationship in more ways than just ‘getting a dog to do something he/she doesn’t necessarily want to do’, but it sure makes things like bath time easier.
Mirela says
My BC is easy to bath. We bath him on the roof terrace with the spray or warm water in the winter and he did’t quite enjoy but he neither run or need the force to keep him. And we never use treats for his bath.
em says
Your flowers are gorgeous! Yay for you and Maggie, too. So glad you’ve been enjoying the chance to shake off the hobbles of winter to get out and work/play a bit. Here, we’re currently in the midst of the MOST dangerous winter walking weather- the thaw- paths and parking areas are sheets of wet, melting ice, roads and sidewalks are crusted in rock salt.
After a couple of days of absolute joy when the weather started warming and we were actually able to spend more than five minutes at a time running and playing (with other living beings! Dogs and humans!) outside after a grueling run of bitter cold, Sandy is back to her sad puppy face at having to pick her way along the edges of slippery and abandoned trails. Oh well, this too shall pass!
I’d say that’s the attitude that Sandy and Otis seemed to take to bathing. Neither of them ever seemed to actively enjoy it, but I bathed them both (separately) at home in the tub with a sprayer much like yours without any drama or difficulty. They looked (look) slightly downcast, and Sandy in particular has an undeniably low set to her usually perky ears and tail, but they stand (stood- I’m still struggling to master the grammar of describing both the late, great Otis and Sandy the living legend at the same time) patiently, don’t shake or struggle, clamp their tails, whine, or try to hop out. If I had a video, and I’m so incredibly pleased to see your incorporation of video to this post, I’d say they would show about the same level of distress as Willie.
Interestingly, I have never used food treats as reinforcement during the actual act of bathing, only as a big jackpot (lightly fried eggs are traditional in my house) after the fact. At the time, this choice not to introduce food rewards during the process had a great deal to do with Otis’ weirdness around food rewards when we first adopted him- he had had what seemed to be very little normal human contact- with no existing foundation of positive interactions involving treats, the first treats he was ever given were in the context of painful or uncomfortable medical treatment- as a result he learned a distrust of treats, and particularly to dread any procedures that prompted them. With food reinforcement tainted, I opted for the ‘immovable object’ approach to overcome Otis’ initial resistance to getting into the bathtub (he was horrified by the shower when we first brought him home-it took him a week to get over his distress at my husband and I bathing OURSELVES).
Simply put, I put a leash on Otis and walked him calmly toward the tub. At the doorway to the bathroom, he balked. I stopped and stood still, consciously focusing on remaining calm and imperturbably patient, holding the image of him standing in the tub in my mind. I didn’t try to force him forward, but also did not allow him to leave the area. When he calmed a bit, I asked him to move forward. We went two steps forward and a step back, toward the tub, for about five minutes. It took another five minutes to persuade him to join me as I stood in the tub. Once he was in, I stepped out and asked him to remain where he was with a palm out hand gesture, which he already loosely understood to mean ‘stay’. He did, and I picked up the pitcher of warm water that I had prepared and, setting it directly against his skin, softly poured water over his shoulders and down his back (I learned this trick from my childhood dog, who was terrified of sprayers of any kind- bucket baths were the only ones she could tolerate). In Otis’ case, the moment the warm water touched him, he visibly relaxed- he had been anticipating something else, clearly. Probably he’d been bathed at the shelter, and probably it hadn’t been pleasant, for whatever reason. Since he relaxed, and stood in the tub without resistance, I was able to proceed to the soap and rinse (thank heaven for short coated dogs!) with little fuss.
After the first time, Otis never resisted the bath again, and took even the introduction of a sprayer in stride. He’d walk up without resistance, step in, stand calmly by his own choice, then hop out when given the ok, and proceed to the reward portion of the event- a vigorous toweling (which he LOVED- so much that even when perfectly dry, if anyone, friend or stranger held out a towel where Otis could see, he’d beeline to them and duck under it) and a big food reward.
When we got Sandy, we repeated the process since it had worked so well. Despite years of dreading and fighting the bath in her former homes, Sandy’s story was pretty much the same as Otis’- she resisted the first time, with more fear than he had showed- she shook and clamped her tail. We were patient but did not allow her to retreat. Otis ran ahead of us and got in the tub- we joked that he was so chivalrous he even tried to take a bathin’ for her- so I had to invite him to get out to get her in- but his demonstration may have actually helped her. He hovered in the bathroom during her first bath, periodically touching her with his nose, and I think that definitely helped her. In her case as well, she seemed markedly less frightened the next time and never resisted again. Most times, Otis popped in to check on us, but he never stayed with her for the whole experience again.
Both dogs run up the stairs toward the bathroom and get into the tub without hesitation when I put their bath leash on. On more than one occasion, I had to get Otis out of the tub to put Sandy in it. I’ve never had to physically restrain them in any way once in the tub. On the surface, based just on that, it might look like they want to be bathed, but I have no illusions- my sense is that they dislike it, but they are resigned to the inevitable and looking to get it over with as soon as possible. If they thought they had any choice at all, they’d take it.
Sandy might have benefited from a slower introduction with plenty of positive reinforcement in the form of food treats, but it never crossed my mind and at this point, it seems unnecessary- she’s minimally upset by the bath, though she has never given me the impression she enjoys or would volunteer for one. Otis actually took a little pleasure in warm water, if the visible relaxation of his muscles, which we saw almost every time, (just to a lesser extent than the first time, when he was wound tighter than a harp string), is any indication, but the experience overall did mildly stress him as well.
I don’t believe that food-based positive reinforcement would have helped Otis, though. If anything, my instinct tells me it would just have ratcheted up the tension- adding more stimulation and excitement and working against the goal of calm, rather than for it. For many, if not most dogs, food treats work well to create a sense of well-being and happiness that can combat anxiety, but for Otis they only made things much worse. His preference was always to remain focused throughout an ordeal (vet visits, baths) and then celebrate with food AFTER the storm had been successfully weathered. Attempts to distract him, with anything, really, only seemed to add to his anxiety. Calm, quiet, and steadiness was the best way to support him when he was upset.
em says
Oh! I forgot to say! The sprayer than I use with Sandy and used with Otis is actually a bit different- I bought it at a pet supply store and unlike the standard shower head ones, it actually works with a trigger. It’s slightly noisy, but gives me the ability to let go of it and use both hands to soap, or to move the sprayer around the dog and use it only when in position, without water spraying everywhere. It’s been worth its weight in gold, washing my long-legged hound.
Melanie Hawkes says
Great instructions thanks. But do you ever worry about the dogs slipping on the tiles when wet? I did give an old dog of mine a shower once after a trip to the beach. He ended up scared of shiny floors. Not saying it caused it, but I’m too scared to try again with my current dog, so I have a dog wash man come and bath my dog now.
Erin James says
I have short hair dogs, two Russell Terriers. One of them is a real stinker to bathe as he struggles to jump out of the tub. It took quite a while for me to get him to get into the tub, using the same method you used with Willie. We’re still working on getting him to settle down while being bathed. Can’t be stingy with the treats, that’s for sure!
Dorte Nielsen says
Poor Will ♥️
Freddy the Mini Schnauzer is not a water dog either.
When we return home with dirty paws, I take a one liter yogurt cup with luke water and splash one paw at a time. Then say: “Can I have the next pretty paw, please?”
It’s OK with Freddy. Luckily enough, as we have to repeat the procedure several times if the paws are really muddy.
Then we dry the paws with a towel, and finally he goes to his dish washing mat that will draw the last humidity out of his paws.
Now Freddy is sneezing, so we have to take off for a walk 😊
Merry wishes from winterly Denmark
Jennifer says
Try Corel Video Studio editing program. It’s inexpensive and very intuitive (at least compared to most)! And then do a video on clipping nails! My rescue shepherd husky mix let me clip his dew claws the first few times but now puts up a big stink about it, even with reinforcers on hand.
Kay East says
Treats, treats, treats! A few boiled chicken hearts, cut up didn’t he trick and they get right into our walk-in shower. While one is in the bathroom being bathed, the other two are whining at the door for their turn!
I too purchased a hose w/sprayer attachment at my pet store 8 years ago, about $35, (which I thought was outrageous at the time). It attaches on the side of the shower head (to which you have installed a little attachment do-hicky that comes with it.) Has a toggle on/off and clip that holds it in the on position (all easily managed with the free hand). After wetting them down, I flick the clip with my thumb to stop the water flow and let the apparatus lie on the shower floor suspended by the hose from the shower head. When I’m ready to rinse, I pick it up again, flick the clip back and water flows through the sprayer head. Been a real savings in time and professional bathing costs.
Erin says
Hi Trisha!
Bathing our dog has been a challenge! We’ve tried slowly conditioning him but the problem was he is over threshold just by going in the bathroom- and he won’t eat the reinforcement. Ironically- I was just working on this with him yesterday. Finally am able to have him jump in the tub on his own and take treats. The water will be a different story and we probably won’t start that until ea more comfortable in the tub. Any tips on WOW factor treats? He was finally, and reluctantly eating chicken yesterday but won’t take cheese, hot dogs, peanut butter, wet food, etc once he’s in the tub because he’s over threshold. Anything you can recommend would be great!
JMM says
Willie is such a good, cute boy!
I’ve managed to avoid bath issues by adopting a greyhound – the magical self-cleaning, never dirty, never stinky dog!
C Crowley says
Beautiful amaryllis!! I have quite a few of those myself 🙂 I have 18 month old pups who are reasonably easy to get into the tub, because of using this conditioning. My female got gas or diesel or something on the side of her neck recently and it is SO NICE to be able to put a treat on the far side of the tub and have her climb in by herself!! With my guys, it’s getting in that is the most stressful, or so it seems. They don’t enjoy the bath but they are reasonably cooperative and don’t keep trying to jump out. But I started doing the training when they were still just little guys; now they’re in the 90-100 lb range!
Sheila Bannigan says
Sat at bathroom door, treated and walked away, no speaking. SLOWLY worked our way into bathroom, increasing treat value as we neared tub. Careful not to block dog’s access to exit the room. Rubber bath mat on tub floor for traction, and salmon on the soap dish–score! Adding water to tub, started at the door again and worked in the same manner. I too mix shampoo into water container, make certain that it’s warm enough to be comforting, and maintaining contact with dog’s body so he’s not shocked by water or touch, deep massage and gentle voice. Very little p-butter is enough now. However, I’ve a new challenge: how to keep the Boxer from hopping into bath meant for human. Visiting my daughter I heard, “Hey! That’s my bath!”. With previous dog, little 2 yr. old rescued pit bull momma, I put on shorts and t-shirt, lit lavender candles, mixed lavender shampoo into water, turned off lights, soft quiet music, gently hugged my baby in my arms and slid into tub with her. She relaxed, closed eyes, deeply breathing on my chest. It was a beautiful bonding experience. I eventually added a glass of wine and Netflix to our routine 😉
Christy Paxton says
My darling girl Tawny came to me terrified of water/rain, and it took a year of work to be able to give her a real bath. I had to start with a damp wash cloth — letting her chew treats, lightly touching with the cloth, removing cloth and treats, repeat — nowhere near a tub.
Today, I can give her a full bath with a hose and/or buckets of warm water and she will go outside in a storm. She loves “towel time” after. The power of patience and positive!
Sue says
Echoing JMM’s comment’ ‘That’s why I have a hound with short hair and long legs’, i.e. greyhound! In 5 years I’ve only once felt the need to put her in the bath…. – obviously, there are other reasons too for having a greyhound 😉
Kat says
With Ranger we use a self-service grooming facility. This means he’s in a tub that is a comfortable height for me, everything is ready for me when we walk in the door and best of all when I’m done someone else has to clean up. It’s well worth the expense as far as I’m concerned.
As a very busy Therapy Dog Ranger gets bathed about once a week so not having to fight him over baths is essential. To teach him we walked him into the bathing room every visit to the store for a few weeks and just let him look around. Then I showed him how the water works–it’s a sprayer like you use on a garden hose and you can set it to anything from a mist to a jet spray with Ranger and his thick double coat the shower setting seems to work best–after he understood the way the water worked I helped him into the tub and let him stand there then let him out. If I had treats with me he got treats but I didn’t make a point of rewarding the steps. Then one day we just gave him a bath. These days when Ranger goes for a bath he’ll politely suggest that we could do something else right up to the point where I close the door to the bathing room then he sighs and climbs in the tub. It’s not his favorite thing but he knows the next day he’ll get to visit somewhere that everyone will love him, tell him he’s beautiful, pet him all over, and generally make the bath worthwhile.
Finna is a fan of natural showers. Any time I’m starting to think that I really do need to condition her to walk into my shower with me so she can get cleaned up it will rain and Finna will go out and stand in the rain until she’s soaked. Then she comes in and I towel off her nice short coat and she’s clean again. Showering in the rain and loving to be brushed works for her. It’s lucky for her that she lives in the rainy Pacific Northwest.
Jenny H says
I simply do not ever bath my dogs. Well, the German Shepherds have such a dense undercoat that you cannot get down to the skin anyway. If they need to look beautiful then I brush and chamois them. If they are really filthy, then they get to chase the hose water. I don’t know what I’d do if they needed anything more
Linda Lipinski says
Good idea about mixing soap with warm water. Thanks. My 18 pounder gets put in kitchen sink but I will now start giving him treats while there!
Terry says
Our first attempt of me giving my dog a bath at our local groomer/diy dog wash a few weeks ago was a surprising failure. I had introduced him to the building and people over a period of months. Built a positive association of going there. Wow, sadly I found out that to him, b-a-t-h is a 4 letter word! I spent a bit of time there Sunday breaking down the behavior. Began by giving high value treats at the entrance to the tub, releasing him, then more a little further in. A few “in and out” games (no water) and then we left. Very successful! On his last entry he flew into that tub! Like crate games in a bathtub. Next time, some slow running water. Thanks for the well-timed article. Your steps to getting him to accept running water are very much appreciated and I’m looking forward to our next fun time in the tub!
Jann Becker says
We have a sprayer shower head in our master bath and a seat built in opposite the spray. Put dog on seat, turn on water, everyone gets wet, done. By the time they get upset it’s over, and they get to use Their Peoples’ Shower. Then towels that were on their way to the laundry get detoured into dog towels.
We didn’t plan any of this when we re-did the shower in place of the tub we never used, but it sure is handy. Now if only we could find the source of the stinky black stuff they like to roll in.
Frances says
I would say mine tolerate bathing, and enjoy the towelling and hair dryer that follow. I learned with previous dogs that warm water helps – warmer than tepid – and use the pour method rather than a shower. I have also always been very careful about eyes and noses, washing faces with an old face flannel and taking great care not to get shampoo in their eyes. They are both small, and have been bathed since puppies, so know the procedure and accept it. Poppy, as a poodle, knows it is usually the prelude to a longish session on the grooming table, which she also accepts with good grace – we built up slowly when she was a puppy, and compromise on the bits she dislikes, scissoring her feet rather than tickling them with the clipper. I did use treats when she was young, although manipulating comb, scissors and treats safely while keeping a puppy from jumping down proved tricky! Lots of very short sessions with treats at every stage got us there in the end.
Sophy the papillon has an amazing coat that mud drops out of as soon as it dries. So she usually looks clean, which is more than can be said for my car and house, where the mud lands!
Paula says
I tried and tried with my youngest golden retriever. Treats, small steps, even sitting in the bath myself smeared in Primula cheese spread! She’s two and a half now and still absolutely refuses to trust the bath. She has watched her big sister enjoy her bathing experience, luxuriating in it even, but no, little ‘un won’t budge. I can only assume that when the breeder told me she had bathed all the puppies prior to letting them go to their new owners, my rather anxious youngster was in some way panicked and won’t let go of that fear. Silly thing is, she will allow me to use the garden hose to bathe her and she loves being towel dried!
Monika & Sam says
With two standard poodles, boy do I feel your pain on the topic of baths and grooming. Neither one is keen on getting them, Elsa mostly freezes (she a puppy mill survivor and is learning how to be a dog) and Sam has figured out how to position himself just out of reach of the sprayer 😉 That dog is too clever for his own good. Luckily they both have short memories with high value treats. We manage to muddle through and then all seems well again. They seem to enjoy being sweet smelling and clean, maybe it’s the extra attention they get because of it.
Jeff Chandler says
Timely post. Just speaking with Bella, our 12 week old Border Collie about introducing her to bathing. Not sure if to start with tub or walk-in shower. She’s so playful, maybe she’ll guide me to the bath of her choice. Reinforced by treats of course.
Shasta & Spencer's mom says
I have used peanut butter on the far side of the tub wall to encourage the goldens I’ve had in my life, including my youngest rescue (now 10 yrs!).They stay busy liking the peanut butter while I bathe them – it also keeps their head turned away from the direction to jump out of the tub. They have all been certified as therapy dogs, so you could guess they’ve been good at learning/training, but mine also seem to know that a bath means” we get to go somewhere we’ll probably like.” Over the years I’ve accumulated a mat specifically for washing dogs – their nails don;t go through it & it gives them security (no slipping); also a detachable sprayer; and have taught them to let me start to towel dry them before they get out of the tub. That said, after their baths is when I do a cleaning of the bathroom, as there is always water despite all the towels I place on the floor & use to dry them.
Shasta & Spencer's mom says
Oh I forgot to add- even though they all like the bath, only one of them was a swimmer, so I can’t even say it’s because they like the water. And even if Spencer doesn’t need the bath, I always have to give him a wash first, because he’ll try to jump into the tub anyway!
Amber Wiseman says
I’m not coordinated but started working on this with my newly adopted dog (Australian Shepherd mix who is also a mud-magnet – and he’s a double merle so almost pure white!). I found spreading the walls with peanut butter works VERY well for reinforcement. Maybe a little *too* well as I have since discovered him hopping in the tub just to check if there is peanut butter in there for him if I leave the bathroom door open!
Kelly Schlesinger says
Bathing the BC’s became a lot easier when I started mixing play in with rinsing and sudsing. The old boy would retrieve balls while he was lathered with soap and the youngster sits stock still for hosing and sudsing until he is released to jump for the hose. Luckily, they both accept getting cleaned up in the shower for treats when it’s cold outside. I’m sure they don’t get as clean when they play in the yard during bath time, but I think cleanliness is overrated. They still smell good.
Caroline says
One of the nice things about poodles is that by the time they come to my house at 10 weeks they are already used to bathing because the breeder has bathed and groomed them several times. Hi speed dryer too. But I still give treats.
Connie B says
After having read The Education of Will (which was terrific in so many ways and for so many reasons), I love seeing photos of red flowers on your blog posts.
Susan says
Gimmel the Welsh Terrier is good for her bath, after being introduced similarly to your instructions. Being a terrier she has a thick beard and she will plunge her face under water if I drop a treat in the water, making washing her beard a snap.
Ivy says
The best bath trick – spread peanut butter on the bathtub wall. The puppy is so excited licking it off you can soap and rinse. And no need to handle treats and get them soggy!
Litzi says
I bathe my two Aussies at the diy dog wash– much easier on my back, and on my drains (!) than my own tub, making a bit of a game of it, with lots of treats, so they more than tolerate it. They have very thick undercoats, and I have stopped using shampoo, which was almost impossible to rinse out and left me worrying about the possibility of skin irritation. Now I wet them thoroughly, which takes quite a while, and then scrub with dilute conditioner, comb while wet and conditioned, and then rinse as well as I can. They end up thoroughly clean and brushed, and I worry less about leaving in some conditioner than I did about shampoo. I do this on my own thick and dry curly hair, too (not at the dog wash); the result for all of us is better than with shampoo. Worth a try if you have a thick coated dog!