A Rotten Salmon VS My Dog

As my husband and I are urban dwellers we let our dog, Cutter, go out on hikes with a dog walker at least once a week. She takes them up in the mountains and to the beach and sometimes to the river.

Yesterday they had a river adventure roaming in the paths and then down to the water to play. Cutter, who is not a swimmer, entertains himself by playing with the rocks on the beach. He could spend hours rolling them and kicking them, so when the group got to the beach yesterday Cutter went off to play with rocks.

When the walker checked in on Cutter he was rolling in the rocks. At first she didn't think anything of it, but after a while of rolling she walked down for a closer look. Well he had found a big, rotten salmon and was rolling in this new and "wonderful" smell. Cutter is not alone in this quest. Dogs seem to have a fondness for foul, funky smells. There are different theories of dogs trying to mask their sent for hunting and so on, but one thing is for sure he was immensely proud of his new smell.

The walker washed him three times before bringing him home to us, but you could still cut the stench with a knife. We doused him with some doggie perfume but he was still very fishy and smelled like he belonged in a brothel. My husband then took him onto the patio for baths number 4 and 5, but he was still nasty smelling.

Our final effort was an anti skunk bath. When I was looking for a dog lifejacket for Cutter I had seen a recipe for Polecat Perfume on http://www.ruffwear.com/. I had remembered that, because the skunk's spray was not water soluble it was hard to get off. I really don't know much about the make up of rotting fish but knew that the water was not getting the job done.

Well after bath number 6 in Polecat Perfume he was much better. We still can catch a little fishy smell when he cuddles with us but the improvement is incredible. I would defiantly check out this recipe in times of heavy odor problems.