Hugo (21 weeks ) is our first dog so not sure if there is a bit or naitative going on here but he really smells and it hits you as soon as you enter the house! We have bathed him in doggy shampoo but it seems to make his natural smell stronger?! any tips ???
Ah Hugo,close your ears ,what's your Mum saying about you! Can you describe it to give us a better idea? Labradors do have a distinctive aroma....I haven't been around a lot of dogs in my home but Whilst I wouldn't call Dexter smelly he does smell different to say the spaniels we had when we were younger. It is stronger when he is wet and I think it's down to the oils in their coat.Dexter had ear yeast infection and that had quite a sweet scent when you had a sniff and I've read recently that if their anal glands need attention they can have quite a sharp metallic smell about them....Hugo shouldn't really be bothered by his glands yet though I wouldn't have thought? Dexter's paws also have what I would describe as a sulphurous smell to them sometimes.... Heavens above ,I think I've got the smelly dog not you!
I've found its often the bedding that holds the smells. I wash the vetbed every week if I can, to try and stop the smell hitting you as you come in the house. Having said that Ripple has just discovered the joys of swimming and that makes his coat smell really strong plus the amount of river water he consumes seems to contribute to lots of smell emanating from the rear end .
Labradors smell quite strongly of Labradors! I think Charlie smells delightful. Tonight, he smells of Labrador, the sea (he's been swimming), with an undertone of meadow grass which he rolled in on the way home. Blissful.... Of course, sometimes he rolls in fox poo and dead seagulls in which case he gets a soapy bath, pronto. Then he smells very strongly of wet Labrador. Learn to love it, I say. Not the fox poo and dead seagull bit, of course.
I'd say Obi's are like corn chips. I am a secret paw sniffer (only my own dog though!). I love Essence of Labrador. I think they smell nice Not sure what visitors to my house think!
I don't smell things its a lost cause for me but my OH who is Princess Smell(think princess and the pea) told me that Rory smelled vile when he was teething and then when he (whats the best way to say it) hit pubity. He did smell very differently when his boy bits started to work, apparently
Clean his ears regularly. Sometimes they have a yeast infection, most when they swim often. You can also wash his vetbed. These options are already mentioned. Does he have cuddles? Then you have to wash them too. We never wash Finn. When he is really dirty we drive to the beach and let him swim it of in the North See. His coat is then very soft and smells nice!
Is it generally throughout his coat or can you pinpoint a spot that is worse? Supracaudal gland infection can smell room clearing, gagging awful. I'd think he's too young for that though. Is it his breath? Is he teething? Jet's breath smelled like rotten meat when she was teething. I guess it was rotting meat, bits of gum.
I love the smell of labs...unless like yesterday morning when Bailey had his first fox pooh roll he was most unimpressed with the bath when he got home how could mum and dad take away that wonderful smelling new perfume that he was wearing! Will be going on an alternative walk this morning!
I appreciate everyone on here that loves the smell of their labs & I do love Duncan's puppy smell too sometimes, but after about 3-4 weeks of no bath with shampoo he starts to really smell and it is NOT a pleasant smell... I think we started to get used to it trying to wait at least 4-6 weeks in between shampooing him like the vet told us to (and we use very gentle puppy shampoo from pet store with honey and oatmeal that was recommended) and because he has been sick so much lately that we were worried about other things, but we brought him to my in laws this past weekend because they were watching him while we were out of town from Thursday-Sunday and my father in law immediately commented how much he smelled haha when we got back he had been bathed and smelled like delicious but very clean puppy again & his bed and toys had been washed by my mother in law I do find after about 4-6 weeks since his last shampoo he definitely smells more like wet dog smell and just plain smelly and have to shower him about every 4-6 weeks - I know some people never shampoo or shower their dogs, but we live in the city and he gets very dirty and through potty training he was peeing all over his paws and then he will go roll around in stuff at the lake on weekends when we take him there so not showering/shampooing him is not an option to us and we do shampoo and shower him no more than once a month -- my vet said this was perfectly fine and just to pay attention to his coat and make sure it is shiny and smooth and make sure he isnt itching his skin like it is overdry, but with showering him every 4-6 weeks he has a super shiny, smooth, beautiful coat and no dandruff or itchy skin whatsoever - and you can also add fish oils to their food if you are worried about showering/shampooing them and it drying out their skin. Also, their ears get very dirty and smelly - by recommendation of the vet we started cleaning Duncan's ears out at least 2-3 times a week with the dog ear solution cleaner and a soft pad and I am amazed at how much dirt comes out of there every time we do it! even if we have been doing it everyday when his ears are especially bad or he has been swimming there is still SO MUCH DIRT everyday -- but before we knew that we needed to wash his ears out so much I noticed they would start smelling yeasty like his paws (I think they smell like corn chips too! haha) and now I know it is because they can easily get yeast/bacterial infections in their floppy ears, so you definitely want to make sure you are cleaning out the ears as much as you can/as they will let you --- they do get better about it overtime... Duncan HATED it at first, but now he lets us do it with minimal crying and fighting to get away haha Other than that because he is always stepping in nasty stuff and then because of the yeasty paw smell we sometimes in between bathing him every 4-6 weeks just pop him in the bathtub to solely wash off his smelly feet I know a lot of people do not wash their dogs or think the smell is fine or love the smell, but besides living in the city and all the various reasons we have to shampoo him, I also am a clean freak and I hate when you walk into someone's house and you can tell right away that dogs live there and the smell is so strong of dog... I mean Duncan already runs our lives basically & is spoiled rotten, so I am not going to also let my house wreak of dog instead of nice like it used to! Try washing the bedding especially, any blankets they lay on, towels you use on them, the plush toys, and then their ears/paws and the puppy itself if you are not against it! If you put the towels/bedding/toys in the wash on HOT with distilled white vinegar for one cycle it gets so much of the smell out and any mold smell out of towels / any wet/mildew smell out of things & then I either pop everything in the dryer after that or I run it through once more with detergent so it has a pleasant smell depending on what I am washing and how smelly it is!
Oh! also! in addition to my very long post above haha the vet said in between baths when he starts to smell after 3-4 weeks or so and we are trying to hold out on shampooing him there are basically doggy sprays/doggy dry shampoos at the pet stores you can use! haha we did end up getting a nature's miracle version of this "freshener" that we spray on his paws/body when he is extra smelly in between shampoos but we are trying to hold out and not shampoo him too often! Here is the one we purchased after recommendations - Nature's Miracle Supreme Odor Control Spray - in spring water scent - it smells quite pleasant https://jet.com/product/detail/57e1...lpuKFnDFMui9hNtsVhe4mhoC3HTw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
I think that what you're doing is fine It's not like you're scrubbing him down every day. Once a month is not that often. Might be totally irrelevant but my first Labrador got very smelly on his original kibble diet and it was basically a kind of yeasty skin infection. He smelled really bad. Awful. We switched to raw/home-made and he transformed back to normal in a week or so. It was just something in the kibble that was affecting him. I'm not saying it's at all related to what you're seeing with your dog and I'm sure your vet would be onto it if it was. But just thought I'd mention that in case anyone else was dealing with a very, very smelly dog.
It's really not normal to have to clean your dog's ears 2 - 3 times a week to remove a lot of dirt. Dogs have a sort of 'self cleaning' mechanism in their ears, where the skin cells grow outwards. Their ears, ideally, should keep themselves perfectly clean all on their own. So if your dog has visible discharge or dirt in his ears every day, this warrants a swift trip to a specialist dermatologist (not your regular vet). Please don't leave it, ear troubles can end up with the ear canal thickening, and that really causes problems.
Yeah, good point from Julie. I was talking about the fur only. You could ask a vet dermatologist about the smelly fur and feet issue too, just to get an experienced nose on the job. You could avoid washing for a few weeks beforehand.
My two don't smell that strongly anyway - although I have a rubbish sense of smell, but DH agrees with me, and he's like a bloodhound. Except for poo-rolling incidents, obviously! Even when they're wet, it's not too bad - it's more if they've been swimming in seaweedy water etc that they'll smell, but it's the water that smells, rather than the dog. I love sniffing their feet. If they're hot, they smell of popcorn. Here in Spain, where we have loads of herbs growing wild on the land, they smell of a combination of thyme, rosemary and curry
