We love our dogs so much. We have 2 miniature dachshunds that are about 4 years old. The problem is that they always smell bad! Here is one of them, Sabel:
We let them out in our backyard and they love to roll around in the dirt. I use to have a compost bin and they loved to hang out in there too! No matter how many times we bathe them, they still smell disgusting. I have doggie wipes that we use to wipe them down before they get into bed, but that good smell only lasts so long. Not only does their body smell bad, but their breath is gross too. We have bought chew toys, bones and mouthwash that is designed to make their breath better and it is still gross.
Yesterday, I got fed up with their smell. I was sitting on the couch and I couldn’t take it anymore! I looked up a couple ideas on the internet and came up with some awesome ideas. I don’t remember all the sites I used, but many of them suggested making your own dry dog shampoo.
Dry Dog Shampoo:
- 1/4 cup baking soda or corn starch (I was out of both and used baking powder which also worked well)
- 4-5 drops of lavender essential oil
Mix it together and work it into your dogs coat. Prepare to have lots of hair on the floor. As I massaged it into their coats it made the old hair shed. I read that this is part of the process of making your dog smell better because the old hair has dust and dirt particles that make the smell worse.
They smelled much better! It was pretty strong for a couple of hours and then about 5 hours later I couldn’t smell the lavender anymore but the dogs smelled neutral, not dirty.
I also want to get a spray bottle and fill it with water and lavender to use in between the dry shampoo treatments.
Dog Breath Freshener
- Mix 2 drops of peppermint extract into your dogs water.
This was amazing! I actually enjoyed having my dogs breath on me. I am not sure how well this will work in the future, but I read one article that stated that this also helps decrease gas in dogs. We will see!
I don’t want to overdo it and use it every time I give the dogs water. But I will try this a couple times a week when the smell gets to be too bad (or before we have guests).
This was so much cheaper than all the things I have bought in the past. I am very happy with this and have now saved a trip to the groomer. Basically I am saving $60 this weekend since they no longer need to be groomed right away!
Can hardly wait to hug them!