After the Bath: A Five-Minute Coat Care Routine

The five minutes after you turn the water off are the five minutes everyone rushes. The bath's done, the bathroom's soaked, and the temptation is to let the dog go and deal with it later.

But if you want to know what makes a coat still look good ten days from now, it isn't the shampoo. It's this.

Minutes 1–2: get as much water out as the towel will take

Press and blot. Don't rub. Rubbing tangles the coat, especially a long one, and especially while it's still soaked.

Swap towels once the first is saturated. Most people use one towel until the dog is merely damp and stop there, when a second towel would still pull out a surprising amount.

The spots everyone forgets are the belly, the armpits and between the toes. Those are the slowest to dry and the source of nearly every musty smell.

Minute 3: dry to the skin if the coat is thick

Warm air on low, about a hand's width away, and keep the dryer moving. Never hold it in one place.

For a double coat, part the fur with your free hand and dry down at the skin rather than over the surface. The outer coat dries fast enough to convince you you're finished while the undercoat is still wet.

No dryer, or a dog frightened of the noise? Two more rounds with dry towels, then brush until the hairs separate. Just don't let him curl up and sleep while he's damp.

Minute 4: brush while it's still slightly damp

Damp is the moment. Not soaking, not bone dry.

Go once with the lie of the coat, then lightly against it, which lifts the undercoat and lets it finish drying.

If you hit a knot, don't pull at the root. Hold the hair above the knot with your other hand and work it loose from the tip inwards. Nothing hurts and nothing needs cutting.

Don't forget the ears

Take the cotton out and dry the inside of the ear flap with the corner of a towel. Don't push anything down into the canal — just the part you can see.

Floppy-eared dogs need this more than anyone. The flap sits closed over a warm, damp opening, and that combination is behind a lot of the ear trouble that shows up a week after a bath. Lift the flap and hold it open for a minute while the rest of him dries.

Minute 5: smell him and feel him

It sounds odd. It's the most useful minute of your week.

Smell the back of his neck, his ears and around his mouth. Learn what he smells like clean, because next week, if something has changed, you'll know immediately. Owners who catch an ear problem early almost always catch it by smell rather than by looking.

Then run your hands over him now that he's dry — lumps, scabs, any spot that makes him flinch. A dry, freshly brushed coat is by far the easiest state in which to feel them.

And between baths

Most dogs go 2 to 4 weeks between baths. In between, two things do the work: combing regularly, and spot-cleaning with a dry shampoo foam. Paws, belly, around the mouth — that's where the smell always comes back first.

A 150 ml foam at ฿490 tends to last one to three months used that way. A 500 ml shampoo at ฿890 typically covers three to five months for a medium dog.

If you want the whole bath from the start, the full walkthrough is here.

And if you've towelled and dried and the smell is still there, it usually isn't the shampoo. If you're worried about what a not-quite-dry coat does, that's answered here.