Puppy blues!

[JessB1986]

Hi, we picked up our new puppy (fb1 cockapoo) on Sunday. We’ve had him 3 nights and she’s doing everything you would expect an 8 week old puppy to do. The trouble is I just can’t bare the smell! I’ve washed and hoovered everything umpteen times, including the dog (well I haven’t hoovered him obviously) but the smell is making me feel sick. He is definitely more cocker spaniel than poodle. It’s upsetting me so much I have completely lost my appetite. I’ve read lots of tips online but don’t know how I can face another potential 15 + years of this smell. I haven’t stopped crying today and feel so guilty because I really wanted him but now would happily give him back. Tell me I’m not the only one :-(

Could you be pregnant @JessB1986 ? Extra sensitive to smell?

Is it just a typically 'doggy' smell or something different? Our house does smell a bit doggy since we got ours even though I clean more and she's a pretty clean pupper. Its just part of having a dog.

I actually love the smell of her when she's wet she smells like egg fried rice.

Are her ears really dirty, OP? Our puppy needed cleaning solution for his dirty ears. His ears smelled much better after being cleaned. Now I regularly check and clean them to make sure they don’t get manky.
Have you booked her in for healthcare check with a vet?

Our dog came from kennels and although they are a very non-smelly breed she stank of kennels. I washed her with baby bedtime shampoo then took out all her bedding and washed all that with a cupful of Zoflora and dried it in the sun and it was gone. Is it a 'doggy' smell? Take to the vet for a full checkup, my old dog smelt terrible when her ears were playing her up, she had no other symptoms but had quite a bad infection. Once I realised that was the smell I had to treat her quite often when the smell came back. Once she was old it did bother her and she'd start scratching/ shaking her head before the smell started. My childhood Cocker used to get his ears in all his food, we had to wash the tips daily or he smelt like dog food all the time (he later got a bowl to stop it happening).

Has it farted yet? Because if you can't cope with the current smell and it's without the farts then you shouldn't have a dog.

My puppy smelled very unpleasant when I first got him. During his vet check she said he had mild seborrhoea which was causing the smell. She prescribed him Douxo Seb shampoo, to be used twice a week. It sorted out the smell instantly.

My dog smelled a bit when she’s scared or stressed. She has a slight ‘doggy’ smell and her bedding needs washing every two weeks or so. She sleeps on our bed though so I don’t mind her smell, she’s massive too. Perhaps it’s just the enormity of having a tiny puppy and your fixating on the smell? Give yourself a few days to bond a bit more?

Oh I LOVE new puppy smell! 😍

I would hazard a guess that this is paranoia due to your family’s views. I say this because my husband comes from a family who have no pets and who have always made comments about homes with dogs being ‘smelly and unclean’ (which upset me greatly as I come from a family with A LOT of dogs). When we got our first puppy, my husband felt as you do now, although not as extreme. It soon wore off and we have never had less than 2 dogs in the house over the 20 years since our first.

You need to stop worrying about what your family will think, if you love the pup and they want to visit, they’ll just have to get used to it. Although it’s highly unlikely your house actually smells, well, not as much as you think it does anyway.

But to my first point, if you’re associating dogs with being unclean, you will always be paranoid about something to do with him, so it may well be best to take him back if you feel you can’t get past this feeling. Think of how many homes, from Buckingham palace to the smallest flats, have dogs - they can’t all be dirty and smelly.

Ps. As someone has spent their entire life surrounded by many, many Spaniels, they are definitely not a ‘smellier breed’.

Pps. Stop washing the puppy, it’s really not great for their skin and coat to be over washed.

The new puppy smell wears off, just as new baby smell does.

Well, this makes me glad I've so far said no to a dog! We had a (slightly pointless) whippet in Australia, 15 years ago, who didn't smell.

But boy, we've known so many friends, family and acquaintances whose houses stank of 'dog', we wouldn't have another. People do get 'nose blind'.

people do get ‘nose blind’

How’d you know your whippet didn’t smell then? 😉

In all seriousness, I know lots of dog owners [in fact, the dog owners in my life outweigh the non owners by a fair amount], yet I can only think of 2 houses/people I’ve known who genuinely carried the smell of dog. It’s by no means a given or a rule of thumb that everyone who owns a dog smells and/or has a smelly house.

A dog smelling a bit of dog is very different to a house smelling of dog.

I have hard floors so no smell collects anywhere. My daycare place has dogs and they have carpets and there is no smell so even with carpets it doesn't automatically mean smelly.

BUT dogs as puppies have a 'smell', my dog is sometimes smelly from glands or rolling in stuff. He smells of wet dog when it's raining and if I sniff him he has his own smell which I love which I am sure I do to him as he sniffs me a lot .

The issue is that if a normal part of a owning a dog bothers you that much you say you cannot eat then dog ownership isn't for you because lots of dog and non dog owners would list the cons as hairy, muddy, smelly etc.

Oh and taking of 'smelly houses'. I can think of a few in my time I have visited and non of them had dogs

Selfishcrab: google ‘littermate syndrome’. Three pups is a disaster in the making.

Our little cocker spaniel stank at first too. I realised that he smelt of wee from the breeders as all the puppies were just weeing everywhere and walking through it or lying in it. Gave him a bath and it helped.

But then he got smelly again and, like you, when I came down in the morning the smell would hit me across the room and made me feel sick. I was so worried about living with that. Anyway I worked out it was his ear flaps, not wax or an infection. His ears dangle in everything especially dewy grass and were just constantly damp and getting smelly like washing that hasn’t dried properly. Now it is muddy out I end up rinsing his legs and tummy in the sink after most walks and give his ears a little wash too. Now he either doesn’t really smell at all or I’ve gotten used to it. If I sniff him he smells like a dog.

I do worry that the house smells and I have just acclimatised. But I was his bedding and the throws we use on the couch most weeks and bought some neutrodol carpet stuff for the living room rug.

All dogs smell but I do think some breeds are smellier than others. However I've never met a smelly cocker spaniel unless they're still damp from a swim or bath.

What you're struggling with could be totally normal (ie. puppy blues) or it could be a sign that you're not happy with the decision you've made.

Dogs are hard work and they do smell occasionally! Mine has been out for 45 minutes in the pouring rain this morning and he does smell distinctly "doggy". But I love him so I really don't care about the smell :)

I get what you’re saying OP.

Before I got my whippet I had a foster greyhound for a couple of months. He definitely had a ‘doggy’ smell to him that I found a bit unpleasant. Before that I’d been a cat owner, no dogs.

Whippet boy smells just fine (apart from his farts which are lethal )

Get him a vet checkup and see what they say before you make a decision.

Good luck @selfishcrab, you’re going to have 3 awful dogs in the future. No rescue on this planet would let you rescue 3 littermates, it’s completely irresponsible.

Op puppies smell delicious! All musty and yum. If you can’t handle it PLEASE give pup back to the breeder and don’t get a dog again.

Thanks for the doom and gloom!
I didn't go into detail because I was just replying to the OP but FYI...
We were allowed to have 3 but I can say it's not just 1 house on the property. We all work different shifts so when only 1 of us is home they are together... clear things up!
We are aware of littermate syndrome.
Pups sleep with their own owner separtely at night, we play with them separately, train separately, take them out separately.
Like I said we are all adults and we have full support from our vet, rescue and also a friend who is a puppy trainer.
Not our first rodeo.

Hm, I bought my puppy from a farm and god she stank.
But a few nice soapy baths and smell was all gone.
A healthy puppy shouldn't smell surely??