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How often do you bath your Golden?

129K views 86 replies 83 participants last post by  Redmeadow 
#1 ·
My husband and I go around and around... I have always been told you only bath a Golden when she is DIRTY. My husband says Skye should have a bath every 6 to 8 weeks.. I tried to tell him to many baths takes the oils from her fur and my every other day of brushing is better for her coat then a bath..
Skye is our fourth Golden I'm care giver. I'm the one that holds them when I lose them....I'm the one that reads, studies, and ask tons of questions.
Any way..now he says, and I have no ideal where he has read this...when I have a libaray on Goldens.. I know he isn't reading our books... He says he heard...or read...or was told by who knows who...that dogs need to get a bath every 6 to 8 weeks...

So...how often do you bath your Goldens?????
 
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#2 ·
Ours are bathed once every 2-3 weeks, although our young puppy, Tyson, has been getting bathed almost weekly lately since he always come in super muddy now that it's almost spring, but our two adult dogs have baths once or twice a month. It helps get the dead fur out and conditions their coats.
 
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#6 ·
The 'few baths' thing is mostly due to shampoos being really harsh in the past. These days that's not an issue. Some people are still set on few baths (...hah..I don't blame them!). My dogs got washed a few times a year... then I spent a few years working in a groom shop. "Clean" dogs and "dirty" dogs feel really different. "Dirty" is not just about visible mud or dirt but the texture of the coat. I quickly learned to 'feel' the difference and I learned there's a very obvious texture difference between a dog washed once and a dog washed twice (not so much between washes 2 and 3).

Now that I'm not at a groom shop, it's a pain to bathe frequently and my dogs aren't getting thier every 1-2 week baths, but I sure wish they could when I pet them! When we do wash, mixing the shampoo in a water bottle with some warm water and shaking it up helps disperse it... we wet the dog, scrub, rinse, scrub with shampoo again, and do a ton of final rinses. That second wash makes a huge difference!

Wash as often as you want. The brushing is what helps with the hair....but for smell/texture...the bathing can be important. Some dogs have coats that need it more than others, and sometimes it's lifestyle. In the summer we get more baths...the swimming makes the dogs smell like fish and I don't want THAT in my bed!
 
#7 ·
I try to bathe them weekly ( just did so today), but sometimes it stretches out to 2 weeks... never more. Bathing with a good shampoo and rinsing completely is actually good for the coat and skin. Show dogs are often bathed even more often to be in top shape. My dogs share my bed, and they wouldn't if they weren't bathed often.
 
#10 ·
Duke was bathed weekly and sometimes 2x/week with "Relief" shampoo due to his skin allergies. Also, he was brushed almost daily just because I loved to brush him.

His coat was beautiful IMHO. One thing that I was grateful for was that, in batheing often your hands are in places not normally in during every day life and although my hands were on him constantly, I did not feel the first lymph node until it was the size of a golf ball. I have the bath to be grateful for.

Not that we should live in fear, but even brushing him daily I missed it until it got that big. Which, those nodes can grow at an alarming rate so probably grew that big in a week. Just my opinion.
 
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#15 ·
I brush them a few times a week and once a week very thoroughly. Especially this time of year when they shed like crazy!
Bathing depends...They love to roll in stinky stuff and on our 20 acre property there is always some nice fresh coyote poop to find...:yuck:So yeah, then I bath them with shampoo.
When they are muddy I usually rinse them off just with water.
I think when you brush out the dead hair regularly they tend to smell a lot less.
 
#16 ·
At least once a week--but I am going to show mine. She goes swimming regularly throughout the week though and can come back quite dirty. I was just rinsing, but wasn't happy about how much dirt I was getting out so I have resorted to shampoo just where she is extra dirty--so that means she can get a few in a week. She's very good about climbing in the bath for me though....

I actually am getting addicted to having a clean dog. Over the holidays if she went more than a week without a bath I could feel it in her coat and wanted to give her a bath, lol. Nothing like snuggling with a clean, freshly bathed and good smelling dog. Mmm...
 
#17 ·
I've only bathed Ranger once since I got him last May...I'm awful! He doesn't ever smell too "doggie" because of having no undercoat. Bathing him is easy - he loooves being massaged and fussed over but he hates the blow dryer so he's damp for awhile afterwards. We live in a chilly basement suite so I didn't want him to be uncomfortable in the winter.

Now that it's getting warmer outside I should start bathing him more. Especially since it's so muddy and gross outside that I'm not letting him sleep in my bed anymore.
 
#18 ·
Only when he's dirty...that can mean twice a day! He pretty much averages a bath once a week. Hank is a serious mud-daubber and where I live, the yard is mud unless it's frozen or we're having a summer drought. It hasn't ruined his coat at all, even with the winter dryness, his coat and skin are beautiful. I'm not sure if it's genetics, food or shampoo type, whatever it is works for him.

My answer...there's no magical number, bath whenever needed.

A side note - when Maggie was alive, she only got a bath 3 or 4 times a year. She hated baths and didn't really get muddy anyway. Her coat & skin were much dryer than Hank's. Maybe more baths would have helped?
 
#19 ·
In the summer I try to bath Lucky every two weeks. Its not so easy in the winter so he may get a bath at the vets once or twice within a 5 month period.

Lucky's skin and coat looks best and seems more healthy when he's bath often. I use a conditioner at the end and this helps too.
 
#20 ·
I usually bathe every 4-6 weeks, just depending on the weather (mud, rain, snow, etc.) and how stinky. I brush at least every other day, sometimes every day depending on how much hair I pull out of my mouth in the morning when I wake up. :)
 
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#25 ·
Ruby was due a bath but yesterday she decided she was ready for her bath there and then
we were minding our grandson who Ruby adores, he was having a bath and Ruby was watching they were sharing his bath toys William would give one to Ruby and Ruby would reluctantly give it him back and wait patiently to be offered another
well we got Will out of the bath and Ruby jumped in we were so shocked as she is not a lover of bathtime but while she was in there she got the full works she smells all baby shampoo as thats all Baz had to hand in the spur of the moment lol
 
#26 ·
I give the big dogs a bath when they are dirty or swim in the ocean. Tally gets a "spa" day before shows. Copley gets a bath every week with a trim and a blow dry. Everyone is brushed daily, with nails trimmed every other week.
 
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