Hi, My dog Lily loves the water so much, she goes swimming every single day, usually multiple times per day. Does anyone have advice on the best way to dry her off? Blow drying is way too time consuming especially since once you finally finish, she'll be back in the lake in an hour. We towel her dry, but I think that is probably what is causing her to get mats. Does anyone have suggestions on drying techniques that work well and are reasonable to do multiple times a day? (Also for snow too, she gets "snowballs" in her fur and paws, so I pick them off, but when the excess snow melts, she is wet, so we towel her off then too) Thanks
I think I would limit Lily to one decent swim a day. Blot the worst of the water away with a towel, and only rub with the direction of the coat to avoid knotting. Comb through while she is still damp, and finish with a dryer. If she has a good run after her swim, a lot of the water will shake off or begin to evaporate, but do watch that she doesn't get chilled as the weather changes. For snowy feet, you could try trimming away some of the excess hair underneath, (leave some for protection though), and applying Vaseline. It does leave greasy pawmarks on shiny floors though. Otherwise there are waterproof fabric dog boots.
Hi Erin, What kind of dog is Lily? and what kind of fur does she have? As was mentioned by Carole, I would limit the number of swims to one a day this time of the year, and towel dry as well as you can. You could possibly trim her hair to a shorter length, so that she will dry quicker and hopefully not mat as much. With the snow balls in the Winter, our Irish Terrier used to get them regularly. I found that the only way to battle this problem, was to trim the hair on his feet really short and keep it that way through out the Winter. Another solution, might be booties, if she will tolerate them. One more thing that I used to do with Clancy, was tie him by the door when we got home, get a bowl of warm water, and soak his feet one at a time untill the icy snow balls would melt, then dry his feet with a towel. ~Elana~
