Wash & brush up
Minnie Maisie and water go together like me and my sewing machine, I love sewing and could happily sew all day everyday but if I was forced to sew I wouldn’t enjoy it at all. They are the same, they absolutely love water, they paddle in the sea, try and get in my bath, mostly enjoy their own bath and best of all play the hose pipe game. But if you took them out in the rain or just after it had poured it down and the ground was puddly then they would hate it!
Is it just my crazy little pooches or do all little dogs suffer from Tasmanian devil syndrome when they just get out of the bath?
I can’t remember my previous big dogs being like this! As soon as they are lifted out of the water it’s like something got wet with their electrics and they malfunction! You know in films, (particularly James Bond) where there’s a huge electricity cable that has been cut and its whipping around short circuiting ……that’s what these two are like!
As soon as their feet touch the ground they’re off!
Things happen so fast it’s just like a blur of wet white flannels!
Sometimes I put their little green bath inside my bath to save using so much water. But If I bath them in my bath then they get done together. I plonk them straight in , I shampoo one and my husband shampoos the other at the same time.
They both want me to do them because I am faster, but Maisie usually draws the short straw and has hubby.
They take sly looks at each other as the shampooing is going on, each hoping that they’re going to be finished first! You can see the anticipation in their faces. Minnies eyes do a side glance Maisie does a hard stare for a few seconds.
They talk to each through their eyes, you can actually see the interaction, they are always doing it. They can be asleep on opposite sides of the room and then Minnie will raise her head and look at Maisie. Maisie will raise her head and look back. Minnie will then let her eyes casually drift over to something, a toy or a chewy, well anything really. Maisie will keep her head facing Minnie but her eyes will shoot down to what Minnie was looking at and then bang she’s like an iguana that catches a fly!
Anyway back to the bathing…. If I bath them in the sink, obviously it’s one at a time. They spend their whole time watching the birds through the window so it’s a quick and easy procedure.
If they are lucky, the sun is shining and they get bathed in their little green bath in the garden. They love this. If Minnie is in the bath first Maisie spends nearly all her time goading her, wanting her to play chase. Then when Maisie has her turn in the bath Minnie does exactly the same.
When they have both been washed and are as white as snow they do their utmost to get dirty again. They race around on the grass in the garden seeing who can get the greenest feet!
Without a doubt, even if it’s not on bath day itself then the following day, Maisie (always Maisie), will want to wear her favourite scent, pigeon poo perfume! Sometimes it’s seagull poo perfume and typically female, she smears it around her throat so that she gets the full strength of it herself!
She struts her stuff and looks so proud of herself while I am pulling my hair out in despair.
One day hubby was watching T.V while sitting relaxing on the sofa and Maisie strolled in and jumped on his lap. She bunted her head up to his face and he automatically stroked her with his eyes still fixed on the T.V. All of a sudden his face curled up like walkers quaver and he let out a roar as he looked down at his fingers that were covered in grey – green slime! She was so lucky that day because I feared she was going to have a crash course in learning how to fly! fortunately she jumped off his lap promptly and legged it over to me when he bellowed!
She didn’t have a clue what was wrong with him but she was not going anywhere near him! I gathered her in both hands holding her forward like you would if you were carrying a dirty stinking babies nappy into the kitchen and began the process of washing her neck clean. I keep a bottle of shampoo under the sink for such procedures! She looked and frowned at me!!
In the colder months I blow dry them with my hair dryer but I let them dry naturally at other times. They love the dryer, they fall asleep within minutes, I’m not sure if it’s the gentle warm breeze, the massage as I slowly run my fingers through their coat or the fact they are completely worn out after the Tasmanian antics!!
I have a ‘slicker brush’ that is like very fine bent pins, and you have to be really careful how you angle it to brush them so as not to hurt them. I know for sure that if one of those little bent pins did indeed prick them, then that would be the end of its life! Never again would they allow me go near them with it again!
Generally they are good with the grooming side of things really. They don’t mind being clipped off, in fact they enjoy being de-fleeced and are like tiny little skinny lambs bouncing around after its done. The only thing they both slightly object to is nail clipping. I’m sure they don’t mind really but they know that they get loads of ham while it’s being done if they protest!
I do have a grooming table that on nice weather days I put it up in the yard by the back door and brush & clip M&M on there. But other times I clear the kitchen worktop and cover it with their towel and do them on there.
On one occasion I was finishing Maisie, she was facing the window and I had her back foot up trimming the hair, a bit like a horse being shoed. She was really good, didn’t move a muscle, so I picked the other foot up and did that one too. She usually turns her head and at least looks at what I’m doing and sometimes she squirms a bit because it’s her feet! So, while the going is good I continued trimming, around her bum and then her tail, still no objections, I was really proud of her. It was only when I slid her round to face me I realised why she had been so good…… When I had placed the towel over the worktop, somehow I had missed the lurpak butter tub when I had cleared everything off……but she had discovered it and ate what was left in it! Her face looked like she had brill creamed it! Every time since that day when I have lifted her up to groom her on the worktop she eagerly looks around for the lurpak tub! (Maisie again…)
Oh I do love it when Minnie and Maisie are washed and brushed up…they look like little fluffy clouds on legs. ?
TO BE CONTINUED ……
What lovely dogs. I would love one like them. My dog,Dai, xbedlington and big Yorkie, was put to sleep last Sept. aged neaqrly 16.