[paux]

My girl is going to have puppies in a couple months and I was just doing some planning ahead of time. My Klee Kai absolutely hates water and baths and I wanted to figure out a way to keep her puppies from developing the same fear of water. What age is a good age to introduce bathing to puppies and would it be a good idea to bathe them once a week to get them used to the bathing process? I know that baths dry out a dog's skin but I just don't want giving baths to be such a dreadful event like it is with Nakoa.

[sophieblophie]

i think that getting the puppies to take a bath every week is fine. but i think that you shouldn't let the puppies see their mother taking a bath or being near water or else they might learn bad habits from their mom. maybe you should start with a very basic kind of bath without any shampoo or scrubbing etc. so they get used to being around water first.

[Binkalette]

Bathing will only dry out a dogs skin and coat if you are using poor quality products.. Show dogs are bathed weekly, and daily the week of a show. As for getting the puppies used to it, I guess I would start with out any soap, and just get them used to being wet, and to being handled, and then you can just add in soap whenever you want. Be sure the water isn't too hot when you do it, small puppies are very sensitive to hot and cold. Also when you start using soap, make sure it's a tear-less formula. You wouldn't want them to have that negative association