Bath time

[coxmegan80]

Hi there!

Trying to get my 4 month puppy used to the bath. We cannot seem to get past the dry tub phase. Even with treats and food he refuses to eat them while in the washroom (I'm holding him) as soon as we walk out he devours them. He gets visibly anxious and upset in the tub and we haven't even put water in it yet.

I wanted to start this young so that it's not a struggle when he is bigger. And we expect him to get large.

Thoughts?

[JMFS]

I know this will be asked - what kind of treats are you using? It's going to take something fanflippingtastic to get him into the tub based on how resistant he is based on your description. Another question - does he like water or is he opposed to it? Have you tried him in the kitchen sink? If that's too much, have you tried what I call "monkey baths?" That's where you get a washcloth and wipe him down (I do this for Gertie when she's rolled in some nasty thing or another and only gotten it on a small portion of her fur). Does he follow either of you into the bathroom when you're going about your daily routine? If so, you can start with the treats there while he's well under threshold to get him to start associating washroom with good times. If not, you can still drop treats by your feet or even toss them to him while he's at the door watching you. With time he should enter the restroom on his own.

 

I usually wash ours outside while they're on their leash so if that's an option you might give it a go. If it's not, I do get Gertie to come into the shower with me and she's pretty darn resistant so I'm well acquainted with your plight! It takes freeze dried salmon or freeze dried liver or something she rarely gets (e.g. if we have steak the night before I'll reserve some just for that shower time!). There are some oreo-type cookies that she goes crazy for and I'll use those as well. You can do dry runs where he gets into the tub, treat, release him to go to his place of comfort. If he won't get into the tub, you can try having him target it (touch it with his nose or paw) and reward him for that effort until he's comfortable, then move to getting him inside the tub. I think that step would come after you've acclimated him coming into the bathroom first. It will take baby steps. Sure you can force it, but then you're going to be constantly battling a big boy and that doesn't sound like much fun for Anyone involved!

 

When you're holding him, has he come into the washroom on his own or have you carried him in there?

 

Adrienne will either confirm what I've laid out or she'll give you an even better run down of how it would look. I'm almost positive she's going to tell you to break it down into little steps and always work with him under threshold. If he's shaking, resisting, trying to run away, whining, pushing against you to get away, etc . . . then he's over his limit and you'll need to go back a step until he's confident again.

 

Oh! Another thought. Make the washroom a Fun place, a place he Wants to go. When I take a shower Gertie has a mat she can sleep on and initially I would give her a Kong with peanut butter in it so she'd stay out of the dirty clothes pile (she was a sock aficionado - she Loved to chew on them, gross!). Now she chills out there without the Kong. When I tell her "shower" she'll get up, turn in a circle, curl up like a little fox and whale eye me, ready to make a break for it. We're still a work in progress ourselves. :D

[coxmegan80]

I've been using freeze dried liver, but I have also used this for all his other training as well. So I will try switching this up. He is very food driven that I cant tell if he enjoys a certain food over another.

When we go into the bathroom he used to come in to sniff around but now he will stop at the door. I think we pushed him too far so I will take your suggestion and try starting over with baby steps.

Thanks for the thorough response. Also, how can you tell when dogs love a particular treat?

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Jennifer has provided excellent tips on how to make the area super rewarding and getting dogs used to the sensation of getting wet while making it fun. Yes, baby steps are the way to go if your dog is giving signs of being over threshold (not taking treats, tense body, resistance etc.)

 

With some dogs, another aggravating factor is the surface they are placed on. If it is slippery, adding a non-slip mat can be helpful.

 

When we think of giving our dogs a bath we think of it as just one single action, while in reality it consists of several units of behaviors (that dogs may perceive as unpleasant/scary). We might have to lift the puppy up, place the puppy in an unfamiliar place, restrain him, touch him (which can be a problem if a puppy isn't used to being handled), then being exposed to water that is often poured over, exposure to shampoo having a strong scent, then placing him down again, and sometimes even drying with a loud dryer. So we sure have a lot of things going on!

 

Some things that come to mind:

 

-Some dogs dislike the part of being lifted into the bath tub. Portable steps may be helpful or you may need to also desensitize him to being picked up by practicing in another room at first and feeding some tasty treats while placing your hands under him, then for putting a little bit of pressure, then for lifting him slightly up, then a little more and then for staying in your arms a bit (always feed treats while he's up, once you put him down, no more treats). Once he's accepting of all that and you see a conditioned emotional response (your dog looks relaxed and even happy to being picked up) you can then start doing that in the bathroom.

 

-How does your puppy do with being handled? Some pups get nippy or tense when touched. It can be helpful as well getting him used to that in case that may be part of the problem. So when he's in the living room and relaxed, just mimic what you do during a bath. Massage him briefly-treat. Belly rub-treat, touch paw-treat etc, gradually building up the time it takes to give a bath.

 

Also, make sure to use a tear-less shampoo when you're at the point of bathing him. All we need is a negative experience of shampoo that accidentally gets in the eyes to un-do all the hard work!

 

One your puppy start enjoying baths, something great is likely to happen: the bath itself becomes a big reward on its own and you will no longer need to give treats all the time (but always provide lots of praise, fun doggy massages, and sing silly songs) However, give some treats every now and then to maintain all those super positive associations still crisp.

 

How to tell if a dog loves a particular treat? In my experience, what I notice is the dog asking for more (you can almost see them think "wow, that was so good, do you have anymore of that?" On top of this, I take it as a good sign if a particular treat helped a dog overcome a little hurdle in training of behavior modification helping us move to the next step (just as we may feel more likely to take a little risk if the incentive is high enough) and some dogs may start visibly drooling when they really like something. Of course, every dog is different, so you may see other signs. It would be interesting to hear other dog owners' input on this as it's surely an interesting question!

Edited November 15, 2019 by Adrienne Farricelli

[JMFS]

One way to tell what their favorite is would be to gauge their enthusiasm. For the Zuke's minis the dogs are pretty darn happy, but when I bust out the freeze dried beef or real chicken, especially Warm chicken, Gertie's butt will hit that floor Immediately. For the Zuke's she still sits quickly, but I can hear her tail slap the ground when it's something she Really likes. It's a bit messy, but I recently purchased an cake decorating gun and filled it with peanut butter so I can easily fill Kongs and whatnot. I may try that on the tile to get her to follow the trail of peanut butter to the shower. It cleans up easily enough off of tile, right? :D

 

Momo's focus will intensify and his ears will perk up when I've upped the ante. I have to be careful with him, though, because he'll easily get over threshold if the food is Too good (steak) and we've been working on his resource guarding issues. He'll start snapping at the treats if he's too excited about them and he's even grabbed my arm once with his paws (not cool, Mo, not cool). He'll also do a type of bow or he'll spin around in a circle when I've got something particularly good. He's been known to produce the occasional drool bubble, too.

 

Gertie will offer behaviors if I have something she finds particularly scrumptious. When I added wet food to her diet she was so excited over the salmon that, again, I could hear her tail slap the ground, but she also offered a bow, a sit, a down, her paw, the other paw . . . she was trying all her tricks to get some of that food. Now it's our pre-dinner routine - I'll put her through her paces and ask her to perform these tasks rapid fire style. She won't do that for Zuke's minis. I'm using the salmon to get her accustomed to the treadmill. I started feeding her near the treadmill, then put the food on the treadmill so she had to get closer, and eventually I moved it to a position to where she had to get on the treadmill to reach her food. Next I will probably turn on the treadmill and feed her away from it, moving her closer and closer each evening. It's similar to what you'll do with the bathroom. I kind of slacked on the treadmill training and need to get back to it. Silly life getting in the way of training! :D

[coxmegan80]

Thanks for all the stories and suggestions! We've gotten as far as willingly coming into the bathroom and he will hesitantly eat treats off the bathtub ledge. It's a long process but we are going slow and steady with it.

[JMFS]

:cool: