Washing hands after touching puppy?

[permaquandry]

Hello, I feel I need to wash my hand every time I touch my new puppy. I'm not obsessive with hand washing, it's just that I am trying to be hygienic with 2 kids in house. However, thus is going to be impractical, I'm already getting chapped hands thru it!

Obv, I wash my hands before cooking/handling food and after scooping up poo/wee.

What does everybody else do?

I figure any germs on the pets are household germs anyway...unless he's been licking my hands, I'd wash them then.

If I washed my hands every time I touched a pet I'd have no hands left, lol.

Hand gel dotted about the house. Doesn't dry your skin out then

Unnecessary. What do you imagine you will pick up from just touching a puppy?

Handling poo/bottoms/wee definitely requires hand washing; some people wash after licking, others (me included) don't always bother.

A thorough hand wash before preparing food/eating/cooking is usually sufficient.

I have a 11mo baby a 14 wo puppy and 3 cats. If I washed my hands every time I touched the pets or child I would have a water bill as long as my arm!!

I wash my hands before I touch anything in the kitchen, but other than that I tend to just not worry about it. I was very vigilent with the DC when we first got our dog, but once you've seen them share a sandwich 'Lady and the Tramp' style, you realise you're on to a losing battle. No one has been ill.

I just don't bother. Obviously before I do before cooking etc. but once the dog has moved in, its 'germs' are going to be all over everything! So not entirely sure of your logic here

Oh and DD was 7.5mo when our dog arrived and she has never been ill, she is 16mo now.