A day in the life..

I gave Finn a bath today. When my husband got home from working on the barn roof, he wondered why it would take me all day to do that.

Well...

To start with, bathing Finn means you get a shower too. There is no way to give him a bath that doesn't involve you ending up soaking wet and covered in dog hair, so better to bow to the inevitable and plan for the after-bath shower. I just take Finn in the walk in shower with me. (he doesn't fit in the tub)

Ok, fine, but after his bath, Finn will be lying all over the floor. if the floor is dirty then you have just wasted your time bathing the dog. So first I had to sweep the floor. Fortunately I didn't have to worry about the bedroom, we had recently scrubbed the carpet thanks to Finn coming in from a 2 am tinkle call with poo all over his feet and then tracking it over every inch of the carpet.

So all I had to worry about was sweeping 4 rooms and a hallway, all oak flooring. I put Mr. Poopy Paws in the back yard while I clean. (a necessity, trust me) I start to sweep all the floors, then realize the rugs are dirty too. I take small rugs to the basement to wash, toss large ones outside for vacuuming. As I am sweeping I notice crumbs and dust bunnies under the couches, so I pull everything out and sweep under everything. I try to sweep off the dog beds, but figure they probably need a wash too so I take the covers off to wash. Meanwhile Finn is scratching at the back door and looking mournful.

I look at the swept floors and thought sweeping really just gets the loose stuff, the floors were still dirty (after all, wood floors are dirt colored) After Finn has his bath he will lay on the floor with his wet coat. Any dirt on the floor with quickly rub on him rendering the bath a loss. Ok, let's just do a quick mop then. I pull out my Swiffer mop, and a package of wet floor scrubbies. I work away at the floors, finding many interesting mystery spots to scrub up.

Hmm that is sticky..hey, bird poop! When did a bird get in here? When did that spill? More bird poop? How long was that bird in here? How did sprinkles get all they way over here? More pine needles...Finn is now barking to get in. Hope the neighbors don't mind.

I get to the area where Finn eats and spend 10 minutes just scrubbing there. Of course if you are going to clean the floor, you have to wash the wall behind it and the baseboard (splash factor). Once I was finished I looked at the floor. Kind of dull, and streaky. It was clean, but... So then I get the Golden Glo wood floor spray and a dry cloth and proceed to polish the floors. Much better with a bit of a shine.

By now the dog bed covers were washed. I pull them out, put them in the dryer and put the small rugs in to wash. I go to vacuum the rug from the family room (Finn eats cookies on this rug) and realize the shop vac weight about 50 pounds. Obviously it was never emptied from cleaning out the pellet stove. Lovely, I take it outside to empty it. As I do that I see the back yard. After his bath, Finn likes to run around in the back yard, and sometimes roll in the grass. Our back yard is a mine field of poo. If this isn't cleaned, again, the bath will be wasted effort. I play Mine Detector for a while, and clear the decks for action. Finn supervises this work.

Back to the rug now, and it is beyond help. There are numerous unidentifiable sticky things on it, including peanut butter. Another trip to the basement to the laundry room. Pull the small rugs out to dry, stuff large rug in the wash. I vacuum the other large rugs and put them back on the floor.
I am now ready to actually start the bathing of the hound. I prep the battle field, lots of towels, shampoo, and slip leash to drag the unwilling pitiful creature into the shower. I strip down to underwear and go in the shower with him. (it's the only way, really). 30 minutes, a lot of shampoo, and 3 huge clogs from the shower drain later we are done. I do my best to towel off as much water as possible before releasing a wet, whirling dervish into my house. Finn runs around the house shaking and jumping, then I let him into the back yard to run.

I wait at the back door for him, sopping wet in just underwear, but holding a wet, dog hair covered towel in front of me to save the eyes of my neighbors, plus just in case someone from Zillow is driving by looking for a reason to drop our house values again. I put a towel down for Finn to roll on and go to take my own shower.

Of course now the bathroom is covered in dog hair, so I clean the bathroom, walls, floor, shower, scrub out the sink, etc. (since I'm cleaning anyway) and finally take my own shower.

I put the dog bed covers on and set them out, took all the wet towels, etc to the basement, and put Finn's collar back on.

And that's why it takes 5 hours to give the dog a bath..

Long, tiring day...

Saturday was a work day.

I needed to clean, which means Finn has to stay outside. It really doesn't help the cleaning process, if the 140 pound fur covered dirt magnet who is the cause of most of the dirt is following you around getting in the way.

Finn was exiled outside, to help the hubby with some outside work. (By help, I mean lie down and watch) I swept, vacuumed, cleaned all the small rugs, took the cover off Finn's bed and washed it, vacuumed all the cookie crumbs off the family room rug and washed it as well. I left the rug and bed cover hanging to dry.

Next it was out to the barn, and 3 hours of barn work. repairs, cleaning out the hay room, some digging, stall cleaning, then feed and water the horses. Finn got to run in the pasture with us, and we also worked on some back and forth with Finn. We have treats in our hands, and one would call Finn to come, treat him when he sat, then send him back to the other one. We got further apart, and Finn did well except he tended to want to stay with the person who had the whole treat pouch in their pocket.

Then it was back home for showers. This includes Finn. It was pretty muddy at the barn, and he was overdue for a bath. Just so you know, it takes a huge walk in shower, a lot of soap, and about 35 minuted to bathe Finn. Then you have a few seconds to towel off as much water as possible before he goes galloping through the house shaking water everywhere.

Then dinner...which for us was Chinese delivery. Finn had leftover turkey, cheese and kibble. After clean up, we settled down with the gas fire going to watch a movie. Finn couldn't settle. He kept nudging me. No, he didn't want out. He had food in his dish, so not still hungry. It took me a while, but finally I figured out he wanted his rug back. It was still a bit damp, but then so was he. I spread it out in the family room and with a sigh he curled up on it, right in front of the fire.

So we watched the movie, with the gas fire going, popcorn to munch, and a warm furry (slightly damp) wolfhound on our feet.

It was a good day!

Linus would understand.

On Monday I gave Finn a bath. It hadn't been long since his last bath, but he was starting to smell rather doggy already. I decided this was because his rug was looking rather dingy despite regular vacuuming. It was due for a wash. It wouldn't quite fit in the washer so off to the dry cleaners it would have to go. Until then, to keep him from rolling on it and getting dirty, I rolled it up and put it outside on one of the lawn chairs.

The first problem we noticed is that Finn wouldn't lie down in the family room now that his rug was gone. He just stood there looking at us. When we went outside with him, he went to his rolled up rug and sniffed it, looked at us, looked at it, looked at us.....

He wanted his rug back inside where it belonged. I wanted him to stay clean. The rug stayed outside. For a moment I wondered if he thought because his rug was outside he might have to stay outside, but his beds were still in the house.

Last night he again went to his rug outside. I hadn't taken it to be cleaned yet so it was still draped over the lawn chair. He sniffed it and looked at me. Nope, it isn't going back inside until it's cleaned. After his dinner, I gave him a few cookies to munch on like I usually do. He promptly took his cookies over to the couch and ate them standing over the couch cushions so the crumbs fell all over where we sit. He did this twice. See, the couch was were we sit in the family room, the rug was his 'couch' and it wasn't fair that it was gone.

If you have kids, remember when they were small, and had a special 'blankie' or stuffed toy they HAD to have. Remember how dirty it would get, and how you would sneak it away from them to wash it and get it back before they realized it was gone. Yeah, this is just like that, but rather than throw a screaming fit, Finn plans his revenge.

This morning when I got up, he had deposited his much chewed rib bone on the couch. The point was made, I dropped the rug off on my way to work to be cleaned. Unfortunately it won't be ready until Saturday. Funny, the lady at the dry cleaners gave me such a strange look when I asked how quick it could be cleaned because my dog wants his rug back.

Finn gets a bath

Finn had a bath today, and after the trauma of that, had lots of energy to run and play.

First bath..

Just how do you bathe an Irish Wolfhound? He won't fit in the tub. I didn't want to pay for a dog groomer to bathe him (expensive, and traumatizing). Fortunately we have a walk in shower, so I just took the doors off and walked him in.

I thought I was prepared. I had my oatmeal doggy shampoo, I had towels in the bathroom on the floor, extra towels for drying, and blocked him in the bathroom by closing the door. Luckily, our shower has a hose and nozzle, so I could work on just about every part of him. I put a slip leash on him, and tied it to the top bar of the shower. All the while praying he didn't decide to really make a break for it. I wasn't sure the shower would survive.

He was miserable, but a good boy. He kept sitting down on my hands as I scrubbed him. By the time he was clean, and rinsed off, the bathroom was swimming. There was not enough towel in the world for all this wet. I dried him off best I could with what I had, then tried to slip out for more dry towels. That was all he needed, he was out the door in a flash, and running around the house.

Wolfhound fur holds a lot of water. I swear I went through 30 towels, and still he manage to coat every room with water. Lots of shaking, and lots of exuberant running. I couldn't be too mad when he was putting on such a show, the most enthusiasm I had seen out of him for anything. I took him out in the back yard and he proceeded to run laps around the yard. I got my first glimpse of the true beauty of an Irish Wolfhound. they are poetry in motion when they run. All grace, speed, and power, and they can turn on a dime.

It was almost worth the mopping and the three loads of laundry, just to see that.