How to Bath - Collie

Now it’s time to bath the dog. Now Frostie was lifted into the bath, two hands went onto the bottom, one onto the chest and make sure you bend your knees if you’re lifting a heavy object like a dog like this.

First thing you’re going to do in the bath is to wet his collar and his front with the water, and then we’re going to wet his legs under his tummy all around his back under his tail just with water before we do any shampooing. A quick note about shampoo, I don’t believe in expensive shampoo. Personally, I think it’s rip off so if I’m bathing a dog like this I will just use something very cheap and cheerful. A pound will buy you a liter of shampoo, human shampoo will do the job, and I re-dilute it. So I’ll put maybe two or three tablespoons and with the couple of pints of warm water and that should be enough.

You can buy very good conditioning shampoos, but I won’t use it for this job. I might use a conditioning shampoo for specific show or whitening shampoo for specific show, but today I’m just going to use good old super dog’s best.

Alright, first thing is water, make sure it’s not too hot or too cold as dogs have feelings too. Keep testing it to make sure it’s the right temperature, that’s it. I think we’re about there, Okay, watching the collar, around his chin because he had been in mud in now is the time to try and get it out, to his legs get the mud out behind his feathering and his feet. Let’s get some mud out, that’s it. It doesn’t take long, more coats in there. It’s getting cold. Now it’s better.

Right, under his tummy, his other legs again. Check the hook first, make sure the mud is out of that. That’s it. Then quick time is better like if the back is too wet. It takes too long to dry, and the dog won’t need too much wet. Okay it doesn’t take long to wet a dog. I think we’re about there. Alright, so we’re through.

Now comes shampoo time. Again, I’ve diluted the shampoo and we put it down his front and a little so it will make a nice lather. We even dilute, it makes a plenty of suds, that’s it. Little tip, dip the feet into the shampoo jug, and it get the shampoo right where you want it, and then the other one, that’s it and dip him in. That’s lovely. Make a nice lather get right into those toes.

Next, the collar again just a little bit that got too mud. Okay so my collie is usually very clean coat of the skin so it’s the coat on the edge of the collie that you’re really trying to get clean. This little top little fingers, okay then we go under his tummy. It does make the feathering stand out a bit more, and to his legs and the back. Dip the foot into the jug again and go between his toes and at the inside of his back legs. They get very muddy at the inside of their back legs. And the last one, that’s it. I won’t do too much on his back just on the hand just to get the surface coat dry because the undercoat is going to come out anyway.

I don’t want to spend too long rinsing him and get back. This feather and grab his bottom and to the thumb and the finishing touch is the white tip on the end of the tail. That was a lot better if you shampoo that. All collars have a white tip end into the tail, so it makes them a collie. I think we need to shampoo. It doesn’t take long. Don’t shampoo around his eyes and don’t shampoo too much on top of the head because the soap just runs on their eyes. They don’t like it because you don’t like it either. I’ve been using a full jug, that’s in the big dog.

Right, now comes fun time, rinsing. Let’s put the water on, and make sure you check the temperature. It’s best to have it slightly cool when you’re rinsing. It doesn’t make quite so many lots of soap suds then and start at the top, behind his neck, squeezing all the time. You need to start at the top because if you don’t the soap will run into an already rinsed area which is not a good idea. Keep squeezing, once you get all the soap out. It’s going to be all gone. You can’t leave any in it at all.

I’ll come back to his front in a minute because sometimes you think you’ve got total soap out and there are still those left and you can’t tell. You don’t want any left in there at all because it can all sap all sorts of skin infection and get asthma and things like that if they have soap left in.

Alright, now go down to his legs, the next is feet and front legs. Make sure the feathering get all the soap out as well. Feel with your fingers all the time because you cannot see the other side of the dog. You just have to go for the feel. Once it stand still, you don’t want him to shake each moment if you do you get very, very wet. That’s it.

So at the top again and work down, squeezing and pulling the coat. You can feel the soap when you squeeze it with your hands if it’s still soapy there sort of it squeaks. You can hear it squeaking you’ve got trouble, and go and get that soap out. You can’t leave any soap in, that’s not the reason for diluting your shampoo because it just does a good job, but you’ve got to take off your suds, that’s it.

And the last little bit I think we’re only searching is the soap. I think we haven’t got any soap left. The last thing should be the tail. It should now be a lovely brilliant white. You water, don’t want him standing and save your water so wash the soap away from his feet. And just double check again if there’s any soap left in it.

Right, and now for the bit of what you hate his face, cover his eyes up so he doesn’t get water in them and a good rinse. Once it gets very messy on their faces. Okay, that’s it. Now, it’s time to get you sorted out of the bath. And we’ll squeeze out the extra, excess moisture of your feet and save the bathroom mat. Squeeze out your feet and the other one, that’s it.