Sham-eh

Today was grooming day. I have been prepping Cheetah for weeks, having her jump into the tub any time she follows me into the bathroom, getting in there with her and shutting the sliding door for a few minutes before I shower, and closing her in the bathroom with me when I shower (she often goes and hides when she hears me in the shower.) Needless to say, she HATES to be bathed. So I was using some desensitization techniques to try to make it a less frightening experience.

So first we all went out onto the back deck for pedicures. First Swiffer. When Swiff was a teeny puppy of a mere 2 pounds, I managed to cut the quick on my first attempt to trim her nails. I had been trimming Lexy's nails for years, but Lexy's nails are translucent and Swiffer's are not. Both little puppy Swiffer and I were completely horrified and traumatized by the event. Ever since then, she is a big baby about having her nails trimmed and so am I. For 5 years we have taken her to PetSmart for her claws and done the rest at home. I am not proud to admit that poor Swiffer's grooming has suffered greatly ever since Cheetah stepped foot in the house with her belly full of puppies. Long story short, her nails were very long. So I took her out and stood her on the picnic table on the deck, and trimmed her Elvira claws. Because her nails are so long, the quick is overextended too, so I had to be careful how far back I went. Luckily she has ONE translucent nail on each foot so I was able to guage by that and we had no horrific events out of a slasher movie.

Once Swiffer was clipped, I took heart and called Cheetah over. She does not love to have her paws handled but she will put up with just about anything from me, and a few snips later we were all set. Then came bath time. Duh duh duh daaaaaaaaa.

I swear to god she knew what I was up to from the MOMENT we came in the house. I gathered 4 or 5 towels, plus a couple of the "big size" Sham-Wow's. After covering every square inch of the bathroom floor in towels, and prepping myself, I took off her collar and invited her into the bathroom. NOPE. Now I know you are not supposed to call your dog to you for things you know they hate. But I defy you to pick up a 45 pound dog who does not want to go into the bathroom for a bath and carry them in there. Suddenly they are Sumo wrestlers weighing about 250 pounds. If you do not know how to use a dog's own wieght against them, I highly recomend against trying to bathe them yourself! So eventually I coaxed her in and shut the door to the bathroom. Now she was positive the jig was up.

The repetitive training got the best of her, and when I gave her the signal to jump into the tub, she hesitated, but she did it. Bravo Cheetah. So I got in behind her as in practice and shut the door. If the dogs are too big to fit in my utility sink, I take them in the shower with me. Let's face it, I am going to get soaked anyway, and my presence in there with them usually calms them down. So I spent some time petting her and telling her how good she was and then turned on the tub. She wasn't frantic but it was clearly upsetting to her, so I decided to quit drawing it out and just turned on the shower. Overall, she did better than last time.

Even being the doggy Jedi Master that I am (haha) I make the occassional mistake. I was certainly glad I clipped her nails first, because she stepped on my foot in an effort to get out and it felt like someone was shoving nails through my foot. But other than that we had no major injuries. I found that holding her frontquarters helped both to calm her, and to keep her off balance enough that she was forced to do what I wanted.

So the entire point of writing this drawn out bath story (which has got to be boring the eyeballs out of all but the most devout Cheetah fans) was to tell you about the Sham-Wow. First I toweled her off with the usual towel. She also spent some time rubbing herself on the towels on the floor (which was pretty funny for the record). Once I had the initial water off, I went to the Sham-Wow. Honestly, I did not feel it performed any better than a towel, if that well. I expected it to suck water right out of her fur. Not so much. So my review of the Sham-Wow, at least as far as it goes for grooming, is "eh."

After her bath, since it was so warm out, I let her run her usual adrenaline circles in the back yard. She goes absolutely wacko - again - hilarious. There is the added benefit that she is wet so she doesn't overheat, and she dries off quickly. There is the drawback that she is likely to roll around while out there, but she is a dog after all. It's not like we were going to a dog show. It's what they do. I suspect that the lovely smelling shampoo is rather offensive to any self respecting dog. Happily, she just rolls in the grass (as opposed to poop or dead things) so no great harm done.

My big plan was to work on Swiffer with the mat comb after Cheetah's bath, but I took a break that lasted all day. So Swiffer suffers neglect yet again. My goal is to get her done by the 15th, when she and Cheetah are due for more Frontline. I have said it publically, so hopefully I will do it!