Oh No! My Dog Got Skunked!

If you are a dog owner chances are better than not, your dog has been sprayed by a skunk. When skunks spray dogs, it's because they are scared and defending themselves. Dogs don't know how skunks are until they get sprayed. They just think they're chasing an animal similar to a rabbit. I'll never forget when Cosmo, my Siberian Husky mix got sprayed. He was really freaked. Since skunks are common in our neighborhood, we will smell them outside our house. You always get nervous when that happens because the skunk smell is so potent. Even Tom Hanks' dogs got skunked as you will see in this video below.

I the past, I've gotten cans of tomato juice and then let it sit on my dogs. After letting it sit for about five minutes, I would rinse, and then use dog shampoo and rinse again. It worked ok for my dogs but I've found a recipe that should work equally good and the only drawback would be that it may lighten the color of your dogs fur because of the hydrogen peroxide. This was found in a local newspaper.

Anti-Skunk Dog Rinse

• 1 quart fresh hydrogen peroxide (can be found at any drug or discount store)
• 1/4 cup of baking soda
• 2 tablespoons liquid soap suds (Dawn is a good one)

1. Mix all ingredients. This mixture will bubble and must be used when it's still active.
2. Do this outside and wear protective rubber gloves.
3. Don't wet the dog. Instead, pour the mist over the dry dog, being careful not getting any of it into the dog's eyes. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
4. Rinse and repeat.
5. Check the dog, if the smell persists, do it one more time. It's a good idea to follow up with a professional groomer who can really give your dog a nice bath and make it smell wonderful.

Well, thanks for stopping in. I'd love to hear any of your stories if you've been in this predicament, but most importantly, I hope you guys have a great weekend and I'll be back on Sunday!

**8/3/09 Never save the solution you've made. If the ingredients sit long enough in a closed container, they can explode. It's best to dump anything you have left, in ab envionmentally-friendly way. **