[Dailydrool] Bathing

[dpmcquade at verizon.net]

I rarely bathe my hounds. Maybe I've just gotten used to their scent, but usually they do not seem to be so stinky that I have to frequently go through all that bathing trouble. When the hounds are getting smelly, it's time to have their anal glands checked and give the ears a lookee. These are the two biggest smell producers, in my experience, and both can have a powerful stink. Really serious ear problems can be terribly stinky--when our Alexis came to us with an awful pseudomonas infection, you could smell her halfway across the room. But more often, anal glands are the culprit.

The only time I have experienced a terrible stink that was solved by bathing was when we fostered Baby, a puppy mill escapee. After I bathed her, the tub was filled with red dirt that obviously came from her original surroundings, not here in New Jersey, where the dirt is darker. Though I'm sure the rescue had her bathed numerous times before we got her, after a few days, she was just incredibly stinky, probably from having been filthy all her life. Once I took her to a bathe-the-dog-yourself place and washed her thoroughly, she smelled just fine. But unless you have a dog that's newly released from a puppy mill, a real stinky basset is probably having anal gland or ear troubles.
 
Not that my dogs' bedding doesn't also smell, Marie, but like you, I wash it often. It just comes with the turf of basset ownership.
Pam, food slave to the Dashing Bassets