This has been my experience also. They get a total scrub down with shampoo bath once per year. They could skip it but it’s one of the things I’m used to doing in the Spring, so we do it. In the Winter, they do have snow to roll around in, and they get dried off afterward, and their feet wiped down with a damp cloth if they’re dirty. Then, of course, they get brushed and rolled with the lint roller.
They smell the same all year,and no, your hands don’t get dusty or greasy when you pet them. I have a beagle and what I think is a Boxer/Lab mix- both with short hair. The beagle’s coat is especially soft- so much that people have commented on it. When he was a puppy eating a very cruddy brand of food he needed more baths. Once we switched over to the no grains- human grade meat - forget about finding it in Walmart -level food, things improved.
I would bathe mine anytime she started to feel a bit greasy, which seemed to be about once every three weeks or so. She was small and had short enough hair that she dried off in five minutes, so it wasn’t really a hassle in any way.
Too late to edit, but I wanted to add that I don’t think my house smells like dog, either. I live here, of course, so I could just be used to it, but, more than once people who’ve come here several times didn’t realize there was dog until the beagle happened to be awake and walking around during one of their visits.
I haven’t heard that since we got the Lab, not because she stinks, but because she’s not letting anyone enter this house without greeting them first.