A cold bath

Today I marched myself over to Petsmart and spent far too much money.

Bowser has been entrenched in mud and snow for months without a bath, so he was in desperate need. He's also had a circle of hair loss that has not gone away for almost half a year now. I did some reading online and concluded that it was likely a fungal problem, and so while at Petsmart I picked up a special shampoo and conditioner that is supposed to kill fungus and bacteria.

Our guest bathroom's bathtub has been unusable since the last time I bathed Bowser in it. His hair clogged the drain, and neither Drain-o, nor a drain snake has been able to uncork it. So poor Bowser was in for a cold bath outside. I brought warm water in pitchers from inside the house and set to work lathering him up, rinse and repeat. I bought a special brush called a Zoom Groom that I massaged his skin with as I bathed him and he seemed to like that.

That big boy was dirty! I also discovered he has a healing injury, probably a bite from my other dog, on his nose. When I tried to clean it off, thinking it was dirt, it re-opened and began to bleed a little. All of this really drives home how much I have neglected my poor dogs. It isn't going to happen again!

After he was clean I introduced him to his new bed... a Kong bed that is supposed to be chew proof, and it better be for how much it cost me! In the past every dog bed I buy gets ripped to shreds in less than a day. We'll see how well this one holds up. The downstairs where his 20x10 kennel is set up has hard concrete floors, so I really would like him to be able to sleep on a soft bed. For those reading, the rest of the house also has hard flooring, so it isn't as simple as moving his sleeping spot.

I have been aware of how filthy the water bowls get and how quickly they run dry, so I also bought two 2.5 gallon filtered gravity water bowls. I just fill up the jug, screw on the filter, flip it onto the bowl and it keeps clean water in the bowl at all times. What a great invention!

The dogs finished their last bite of dog food yesterday, so I also picked up some new kibble. Before I was feeding them Petsmart's brand of dog food, alternating between that and Walmart's Pure Balance. Neither of those foods are terrible, but they aren't awesome either. So I picked up a big bag of Blue's Limited Ingredient Grain Free kibble. I also bought Missing Link Skin, Coat, and Joint supplement to add to the food. It had terrific reviews online, so we'll see how it does for my big boy.

I mixed up the food in the new stainless steel feeding bowls I got, adding the Missing Link, and also a deworming medicine, and when I offered it to Bowser he ate it like it was a T-bone steak. I suppose he approves of the changed I've made.

Lastly, I purchased a Gentle Leader harness. This harness is supposed to redirect the dog when they try to pull on walks. I got this so that I would be more apt to take Bowser on walks. Right now I resist walking him because he pulls my arms out of socket and he's always trying to get to other dogs. Maybe with this little device, at least until he gets into training, he'll be more manageable.

I have a few more items I want to purchase, but for now I think there have been some major improvements made. Today was a good day, and I think the dogs agree.