Puppy Trouble....x2! - Rebecca Colby

My family adopted 2 beautiful golden lab mix puppies in May from the Humane Society. They are about 1 years old now. We adore them and they bring so much happiness to our home! But if you have ever had a dog, and especially TWO dogs that are puppies at the same time, you may know that it’s not all fun and games….well, maybe it is for them but not always for their human companions!

Today for instance, was one of those days for me. But I must share the back story first.

Last night, around 8pm, our town lost power. Like the whole town and some surrounding areas! And it was out for about an hour. When the power came back on, our next door neighbor’s sprinkler system turned on! And apparently was on ALL.NIGHT.LONG!!!!

How does this relate to my dogs? Well, the water ran over into our yard and drenched our once pretty blueberry patch. (why don’t we have any more blueberry bushes? That’s for another post, but you could maybe get the story from my dogs because they had something to do with it!) Needless to say, I had no idea the water and mud trouble we had in our yard until…..

I let the dogs out today in our fenced back yard to run and do their business while I got ready to go to my son’s school to help in his classroom. I was running just on time and called them in to put them into their kennels. If you know anything about lab puppies and their chewing habits, you will understand why they stay in kennels while we are away.

I was MORTIFIED when they came running to me and my beautiful golden doggies were COVERED in MUD!!!! Our girl, who I am guessing who’s idea this was to dig in the mud, was more covered than our boy. He usually just does what she tells him! Her snout was black, her legs were black and dripping mud. Her beautiful white fur on her chest was speckled with black. She was a mess and he wasn’t too far off from where she was. I quickly grabbed a towel to do the best I could to clean them up but of course when I walked them in they left muddy footprints behind!

Off I went to my son’s school, a few minutes late!

When I got home I had to decide how to clean up my naughty dogs. Since it was in the 40s outside I opted for an inside bath, which we had never done inside and certainly not by myself! But it was either that or they were in their kennels all day.

I will spare the details but it was pretty much a comic show. Neither would get into the tub but easily walked into our shower. One at a time, I washed them using Basic H2, which is a great and safe all purpose cleaner for the home but also a great dog cleaner! My girl of course, the curious one, tried eating our shampoo bottles while I wrestled with her to clean her up, getting drenched myself in the process!

I tried to blow dry them after to no avail.

After they were cleaned up and put back into their kennels that I cleaned I worked on my carpet.

I have a favorite mix of safe cleaners that work on all hard stains on clothing and carpets. I call it DHNG (pronounced DING) Here’s the recipe and it really worked well on the muddy footprints. Also great if your pet or little one has an accident on your carpet. We used it a lot for that when the pups first joined us.