It’s more trouble getting the system up and running than it is to routinely feed. I don’t think I spend any more time during the day than someone who scoops kibble from a bag–but we do have a separate chest freezer for dog and cat food, and I do spend a little extra time once a month or so shopping for meats.
I feed any and all of the following, in no particular order or pattern: chicken, pork, beef, lamb, goat, various fish, organ meats, tripe, raw eggs, any other various and sundry animal parts I come across.
And thanks for the nice words!
yeah, it is a nice dog…like a larger, not-quite as muscilar pit bull…but rather cute…
and posing nicely, i see.
yes, rubystreak, i’ve heard dolphie’s take on the metamucil ingestion.
i hear you’ve got another fuzzy face in the house?
Usually once a month, before the monthly application of Frontline. (I don’t think think you have to do this though, and I’m not even sure if it’s a good idea, but it’s simpler to do both on the same day.)
I’m supposed to wash my Shiba more often because she’s got skin allegies.
For sensitive skin, try oatmeal-based dog shampoo.
Rubystreak, that’s not a question easily answered, and I don’t want to hijack the thread. Email me, if you want; I have an active, helpful dog nutrition yahoogroup, and I can give you plenty of info.
The short answer: Not much trouble at all, depending. 
(Metamucil?) :eek: :eek:
Never.
When I got my first dog, I bathed him when he was a puppy because I thought he needed it. I haven’t washed either of my dogs in 6-7 years, and they’re both outside for about 1.5 every single day in water, dirt, grass, and pavement.
They get wiped down if they’re muddy, and in the summer, one of them gets the hose because he likes to cool off in mud puddles, but that’s just to keep the house clean.
You’re supposed to wait at least three days after a bath before applying Frontline. It needs to mix with the oils in the dog’s skin to be effective.
I bathe my dogs about once a month, as soon as they start getting that “doggy” smell. I wash all of them with tangle-free baby shampoo, which seems to condition their coats as well.
My mother, a true clean-freak, washes both her cat and her dog once per week. Neither seem to have suffered any ill-effects from it.
We take our Basset to the groomer’s about every 6 weeks, because she gets really niffy if we don’t (she’s an inside dog). She gets full groom and a conditioning treatment because she tends to have dry skin. The grooming also seems to keep the shedding down quite a bit.
Dolly is a golden retriever with sensitive skin and allergies. Her vet gave (er, sold) me some oatmeal shampoo and told me to wash her once a week in the summer. Sha! I did manage to do it 1-2 times a month, though.
She hates baths (loves to get in the tub, tho) and it’s murder for me to wash her in the winter when she gets really dirty. I always try to make an appointment at PetCo (the only groomer open on Sunday) but the last 2 times we had a muddy hike - including yesterday - they were all booked up 
We hike alot, all year round, and she always finds the muddiest mud so she ends up getting bathed at least once a month, by me, because I can’t afford a groomer (or they’re closed).
As for her dry skin, oatmeal shampoo helps as does fish oil caps or treats, and “sensitive skin” food (from Hill’s Science Diet i believe).
We have a lab mix. Before I got pregnant, she was bathed once a month with doggy shampoo and conditioner we inherited from my in-laws. Maya went to the groomer’s for Christmas, because I felt too big to do it. She sits or stands very quietly in the tub for us, and doesn’t really seem to mind it at all. We use a brand called Best Shot, which is what the groomer uses (I used to work there).
Our mutt only gets bathed when she rolls in poop, so maybe once every two years. She does a full undercoat shed every six months, so we’ve got a lot of fur turnover.
I’m astonished at all of the people who say they don’t wash their dogs. Don’t they stink?
After about three weeks, my dogs start to get that “doggy” smell, which intensifies over time unless I wash them. It’s not a bad body-odor like smell, but they do have an aroma-- they smell like a dog, in other words. Their bedding starts to stink, too, unless I keep them clean.
Thanks! I guess I didn’t read the instructions thoroughly enough.
I bathed my dogs yesterday - they are so soft and fluffy! (Well, Zoe the Collie is. Simon is a Rat Terrier so he’s as lumpy as before. I wish Zoe would sleep on my bed instead of Simon.)
Nope! He actually has an almost non-existant body odor, slightly sweet and just kinda… clean smelling. Partly it’s a function of breed, he’s got very little coat, and it’s not oily like a water dog’s coat, but by and large I attribute it with complete glee and an equally complete lack of scientific evidence to his diet
About once a month. She gets pretty stinky after a month of no baths. I also wash her bedding and apply Frontline at the same time. My g/f is a former vet tech/trainer who still works with dogs every day, and that’s what she recommends.
Otherwise, I would have said about twice a year. 
I wash my dog about every six weeks - sometimes more if she hasn’t been very active or gotten very dirty. She hates it. Usually I take her to the doggy wash place nearby, complete with shampoo, conditioning and blow-dry. But sometimes I just get her into the shower with me and rinse her down.
My dog is named Sascha too, by the way. And she even kind of resembles your Sasha.
PS- he’s 100% an indoor dog (never outside unsupervised), sleeps in bed with us every night, and runs 20+ miles per week… so he gets outside, gets lots of exercise and opportunity for filthiness, and you can certainly bet that if he were smelly he wouldn’t be sharing my bed 
I don’t have a dog, but when I was a child we had one in the family. It got cleaned weekly.
Oh, she’s so pretty-what kind of dog is she, Rubystreak?
We’ve just had Westies and we generally bathe our dog only once every few months, or if she gets in something (she steps in something, or throws up and it gets in her fur or whatever).
I believe my mother uses Saergent’s “Fur So Fresh” which actually smells pretty good. Lexie tends to get dry skin from laying on the furnace vents when it’s cold, and my mother uses a cortisone spray on her back.
Not in the slightest - and like MixieArmadillo’s dog, mine are outside a lot; they get off-leash walks almost every day in the woods and along a lake. In addition to the back yard. No doggie breath either.
Right now they’re napping on the couch, though. They’re not “outside dogs.”
They are very shiny and don’t smell at all doggy; the link up in my first response has plenty of photos of them. The shaggy one used to do hospital and nursing home therapy visits (as a registered therapy dog) and they had to be clean and non-stinky to do that.
Diet, I’m telling you, has a huge influence on coat, skin and odor. Raw is wonderful, but high quality kibbles and other types of diet can make a big difference too.
I don’t show in conformation (we do agility, obedience and are beginning freestyle), but have many friends who do, since I’m sort of a dog geek. Most people I know personally who show have quit feeding kibble.
I have it on fairly good authority the Bullie who won BIS at Westminster this year ate a raw diet.