Is my new puppy actually magically self-cleaning or am I just fooling myself?

I have a big white dog and she somehow gets pretty clean appearing on her own. I suspect whatever the dirt is, is flaking off on the floor or grass or furniture.

Shaking, rolling then rubbing herself on the carpet, the beds, the couch, where ever. My white pom-a-poo stays magically white as well ;)

Even when she looks clean if I give her a sharp smack on her butt a lot of dust will fly up. I’m not gonna wash this dog to eliminate that, and I learned it’s not a good idea to bathe dogs very often.

@woodcutter She’s my first dog, if that isn’t obvious, :-) and I’ve also read not to bathe dogs too often. I’ve given her one bath in the six weeks I’ve had her and that was on the advice of the vet to help alleviate a minor skin irritation.

I mean, dogs do tend to lick themselves. And I really mean “themselves”. But, when I had my dog, he sometimes licked himself clean. But that was only one time.

Although it may be rare, it is possible. She also might have rolled around in the carpet or shaken herself.

Some coats just shed the dirt a lot better than others do. It may be a function of how oily the coat is and how smooth each hair is. Some dogs have hairs that are microscopically scalier than others (here’s a picture.). I can see how they would get dirtier quicker.

@crisw Yes, kind of like those micro-fiber cleaning cloths. :-) From the picture I can see how some dogs’ coats could shed or retain “dirt” more than others. And the relative oiliness would make a difference too.

You have a magic dog! I know. I have one too.
If the white looks white, the fur is soft and the dog smells pretty good, don’t worry. A dog shouldn’t smell like dryer sheets and they will rebel against all attempts to make them smell foofy.

Really, don’t bathe too often. As long as the pup doesn’t stink, you’re good. If it smells like a frat house floor (yeasty; old beer smell) you might be looking at some dermatitis, but if it just smells like a “wet dog”, it’s all normal.

@Blueroses She went swimming in the stinky creek today and I had to take off the clothes t I was wearing and throw them in the washer because she jumped on me and my clothes smelled awful, but a couple of hours later she smells fine, like a dog, but fine. Her puppy breath, which isn’t all that bad, smells worse than her fur and I didn’t do a thing to her.

can we see a pic of her?

@woodcutter Yes, I’d love to show her off. She’s such beautiful dog, particularly for a mutt. I’ll have to load some photos onto photobucket though, in order to post pics.

@woodcutter O.K. That didn’t take to long. I have a lot of photos of her, the proud mom here, but I’ll go with these two:

This is my puppy, Lizzie, when she was about 2 months old

And,

‘this is LIzzie as of few days ago at 4 months

Right now it’s a little hard to get pictures of her when she is not moving, unless she’s asleep, all that puppy energy and everything. All I have to take pictures of her right now is my iPhone and, even if she’s standing still, as soon as I get close enough to her to get a good shot she gets excited and starts moving again.

Looks almost like my girl only she is a slick hair. I think it’s funny when they sit on the side of their butts like that.

@lillycoyote That is the cutest dog ever!

Awwwwww. That’s all there is to say.

[IMG]http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff392/woodcutter2/RonGroomingADasPup.jpg[/IMG]

This is when Annie Belle was 10 weeks old;5/2010.

Not sure how to do this so I gotta work out some bugs

Oh, she’s so sweet @woodcutter. Link it like this

@woodcutter She’s so incredibly cute! She and Lizzie look a little alike. What kind of dog is Annie Belle? Lizzie is a Husky, German Shepherd, Chow, Mastiff mix but a lot of people think she’s a lab or a setter.

And here’s a link to formatting on fluther. {IMG} doesn’t work, not the protocol here.

@chyna My friend’s dog had puppies and she kept posting pictures of Lizzie on facebook. You can see how I had no other choice than to drive to Indiana, from the East Coast, to pick her up and bring her home, right?

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff392/woodcutter2/AnnieBelle2.jpg see if this one goes

A B is a great pyrenees/ lab hybrid @lillycoyote

I stopped formatting when someone here mentioned they won’t click on anything if they can’t read where it’s going. Made sense to me, so I don’t do it anymore.

@snowberry Some people may feel that way, I don’t.

@woodcutter How old was she in the picture and how old is she now? Did you just get her? I’ve had Lizzie a little over 6 weeks and she’s my first dog. I’ve had cats my whole life.

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff392/woodcutter2/SmilingABpuppy.jpg This is one of my favorite baby pics

@woodcutter What a great picture and what a great puppy smile. I have some like that of Lizzie..

@lillycoyote They were taken about 9 or 10 weeks old last June. Her birthday is 3/3/10. I think I must have at least couple hundred pics just of her. She’s hopefully stopped growing. It’s a bad deal when she steps on my toes

@woodcutter Lizzie has some mighty big paws herself. When I told the vet that I thought “she’s going to be big,but you don’t want a dog that’s too small” she said “don’t worry, she’s going to be big.” Just how big is the question.

AB had some really homely paws as a pup, some serious clod hoppers. It looks like they are the same size now as when she was a pup. It worked out that she grew into them. She can cover up a golf ball with her paws/ toes.

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff392/woodcutter2/ABFishing2011.jpg
More recent one fishing

What beautiful dogs. I cringe in shame about my little bichon-poodle (daughter’s) living here. He so needs groomed- july 5. He’s handsome as can be when clean and groomed and really is white!

@faye You should post a picture of your “grand dog” too, the bichon-poodle, if you have one handy.

I’ll see if my daughter will ‘teach’ me in the morning- I can’t get linking into the menopause brain.

@faye Having been there, done that in terms of menopause, the menopause brain is only temporary.

Those dogs are freaking adorable! And this is coming from a cat person. :)

@crisw makes a good point about the different coats on a dog. Dogs that are basically meant for outdoors and weather resistance/endurance, tend to have excellent coats for shedding dirt, water, ice, snow and other natural substances/materials. That’s the biggest reason your dog magically gets clean.

About licking:
I’d like to add that, yes, dogs clean themselves with their paws, tongue, and even grass, sand or dirt (or your carpet, clothing or bed!). Many times if you have two or more dogs, they will clean eachother in places that are hard to reach themselves. My dog, along with licking his own private parts, will rub his ears and eyes with his paws then lick his paws off – this is how he cleans those two hard to reach places; if I had another dog, that dog would most likely lick his ears, neck, butt and back for him (and my dog would do the same for the other one).

Dogs also lick because they are exploring with their tongue – much in the same way we use our fingers to explore. Other times, they lick to hasten healing of a wound. Many times, they will tend to lick a spot where they are experiencing pain or discomfort (even if it’s not an exterior wound/condition). Sometimes dogs excessively lick themselves but that’s another issue (infection, allergies, genital discharge, anxiety, stress, etc).

Okay, I’ll stop talking about licking now. I can get carried away. :)

@lillycoyote You were absolutely forced to get that puppy!

@woodcutter Your dog is smiling! So cute!