How I Learned to Bathe Puppies (IP&T 301) Reflection 1

How I Learned to Bathe Puppies

I decided that I would learn how to bathe puppies since it seemed like a fun thing to do and I would be able to help someone out in the process. I know a lady whose two dogs had a total of twenty puppies (yes twenty) so I would have no shortage of practice. The idea was rather simple: gather materials (shampoo, towels, etc), run the water and allow it to warm up, put the dog in the tub, rinse, shampoo, rinse, and dry. Unfortunately, it rarely went that smoothly.
I learned a few things in the process, which I believe allowed the experience to flow much easier as I gathered more experience. Constant chatter seemed to help the dogs calm down and quickly drying the dogs fully allowed them to "forget" the trauma of being washed and scamper off to redirtify themselves. I also learned that keeping them from jumping was a definite plus…I understand that dog do not have the jumping ability of a cat, but they hop pretty well when they want to. Personality really played a factor in bathing the dogs; some were reserved and behaved quite well while others were very energetic and truly hated the experience.
I know the experience helped me in mastering the skill. An example of this was the speed in which the dogs were washed. The first few puppies took much longer than the last few, which was to be expected. Learning how to quickly dry the dogs was something I thought would be easier than it was because all of the dogs had a natural tendency to want to shake the water off. So instead of trying to stop them from doing it I figured it would be smarter to just slightly pull the towel off and allow them to shake away. Once the dogs were done dancing I could simply go back to towel drying.
All in all it was a good experience and something I looking forward to doing again.