My lab is five years old nearly and he's had two baths and a few spot washes A good swim is usually enough to freshen him up!
Never - I hose down outside for mud and use Cowboy Magic for stinky stinks Bathing strips the natural oils and should only be done when essential, eg for allergies imo. . .
Hosing down outside is bathing a Labrador, right? I mean, what else does anyone do with a strapping great Labrador covered in fox poo and mud? Ok, a bucket of warm water and cowboy magic if it's a real emergency, but that's it...surely.....
I would never hose down a dog unless you have a warm water supply. Hosing with cold water can cause Swim Tail and is very painful for dogs.
I think of 'bathing' as using a shampoo or similar that will remove oils from the coat. I don't think that should be done too often. We only do it to keep allergy itchiness at bay, or for stinky rolls (fortunately rare). We usually chuck Obi in the shower for actual bathing. Hose downs with cold water can be done more often I reckon.
Really? I'll tell that to Charlie the next time he spends the whole walk throwing himself into any body of freezing cold water just to swim for fun - and no other reason. A hose down at the end is absolutely nothing in comparison. He has never suffered from limber tail. I've often wondered if it's thiner tailed/coated dogs that suffer more....
I'm sure that limber tail/swim tail is really painful and if your dog is prone to it then I'd be trying to avoid triggering it. But I don't think it's that common, whereas it is pretty common for Labs to want to launch themselves into any water body, no matter how icy. My dog is like that, in fact water is our biggest challenge/distraction. It can be subzero on a winter morning and he'll want to leap into the creek. He'll lie down and crawl along on frosty grass too.
My dogs come from working stock, keeping them out of cold water, rivers or lakes would be like trying to plait fog
Oban got a bath his first night with us because I heeded what I now consider to be bad advice and let him shriek in the middle of the night after being put to bed. Only to finally give up and go find the poor wee mite had peed in the crate and he and his bedding were soaked. Other than that, only when he's rolled or waded in stuff that won't hose off. Or the one encounter with a skunk. Cold water is said to be a factor in limber/dead tail but I've only heard of it being so when the dog swims too long in cold water. It's a muscle strain. When Oban got it the water was quite warm. If cold water alone can do it he should have had it today, and yesterday, and last week when he had to break ice to swim. Not that I encourage swimming in ice water but sometimes he beats me to it.
Charlie swims all year - it's just the UK, of course, so not all that cold, but nothing will keep him out of the sea in January. He'll break the ice on muddy puddles to roll in them, and launches himself into water filled ditches, ponds, lakes etc as enthusiastically in mid winter as mid summer.
We have working Labs that retrieve all winter from rivers and lakes with ice on, so no problem there. The problem can occur when the dog has not been completely in water, but needs to washed for rolling in something horrible. The dog is still warm and dry using a cold hose on it can cause a muscle spasm in the tail, only an observation from having Labs for 40+ years, sorry if I am wrong.
Hosing down doesn't cause cold tail - and Twiglet loves it! Tatze isn't so keen but then she rarely gets muddy as she's a woosy princess and likes to keep clean and dry (!)
We only bath the dogs if they've rolled in something unbearable - and it would be a warm Portashower in the garden (I'm a softie, I know). Years of struggling to bath Belle the bath-hater inside are behind us now.
We have gone off course and on to Limber tail! I understand that to be due to SWIMMING in cold water and the action of the tail, it is the muscle at the base of the tail which is affected. Back to bathing, my 10 year old and 4 year old have never had a bath, a swim in the pond or a heavy shower of rain freshens them up beautifully. The coats are self cleaning, except in the case of rolling in poo and dead things!
I don't have a hose outside (after 2 years of asking my OH!), so Harley gets rinsed in the shower every few weeks. We only use shampoo if she is really really dirty and smelly. On limber tail, Harley got it just over a year ago and she hadn't been swimming! It was icy cold and she was running around lots!
Pongo has never had a bath. He gets hosed down outside (cold water) if muddy after a walk - and especially at the moment with Alabama Rot around us. We dry him off nicely afterwards.
I've taught me spaniel to jump in a horse feeder full of water for a wash down after muddy walks (a permanent feature for Obi he's a mud magnet!) Riley wouldn't dream of getting in though and a wet cloth and a bucket is all he gets. Luckily labs are wipe clean
