What's your Wet Dog System?

[natura]

Just started raining here where I live a couple of days ago for the winter season (after 8 months of no rain it's heaven!) and I'm already out of dry dog towels😂No tumble dryer or radiators, either - woohoo!

I'd love to hear all your systems and approaches for dealing with wet and muddy pooches when they come inside – particularly if you have big hairy beasts!

(Except if you have a dedicated 'mud room' – if you have one of those I really don't want to hear about it 😂)

Do your dogs wear raincoats?
How do you get your dogs dry when they come in?
If you use towels, how do you keep your doggy towels from filling the washing machine with hair?
What do you keep by the door?

Hacks, systems, products... give 'em all to me!

For context, I have a VERY wriggly labrador and a big elderly Shepherd mix who is basically a homing pigeon for his bed...

mine wears an Equafleece coat to keep her dry. Towel by the front door for paws and bits that aren’t in the coat, and she’s bathed once a week

I put a hooded towel on her, then dry her legs, tail, etc. with another one.

@DustyLee123 wow Equafleece look epic! Can't imagine my two tolerating them, but they're very cool!

@PrimalLass how many towels do you get through - and how do you deal with them getting hairy?

We go out at least 4 times a day, so when it's rainy we easily get through 2 towels per day between them - and then getting the towels dry and clean again becomes a bit of a Sisyphean task...

Use pet laundry bags! Keeps all hair out of machine.

Wait - WHAT? How have I never heard of these?!

Excuse me while I lift my jaw off the floor and run to Google...

We have a downstairs loo/shower by the back door so they're diverted straight in on returning from Mud City to be sluiced down. Big dog has muddy feet; small dog has muddy undercarriage. Baby gate on the open doorway between there and the kitchen. Ruff & Tumble dressing gowns on after shower, or basic towelling with dog towels (bright pink so never confused with human towels). Towels in a pile then sporadically washed.

Strong cup of tea for soaked dog wrangler.

I have dog towels so don't care if they get hairy. I just hang them on the line afterwards or on a radiator. I don't bother to wash them every time.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B093SKZ6CD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

This is what I have. It absorbs most of the water and I take it off after a while so she can air dry. She's a retriever.

Two labradors here, if they're muddy they get rinsed off, then into drying coats before they're let in the house. Stairgate used to contain them in kitchen. Generally they nap in drying coats for an hour and then I remove them and dogs are dry. Drying coats get hung up and washed maybe once a week.

Washed down, towelled off, drying coats on and kennel until fluffy! 😂

When we get back I pop his drying coat on and confine him to the kitchen while I take my coat and boots off. Then grab dog towel and dry paws. He doesn't really like the drying coat as it's a bit big so that then comes off and give him a big rub over with towel. He is then let out into the rest of the house while I use the dog towel to wipe over the kitchen floor. If sopping I pop it straight into machine to spin it out otherwise hang it up to dry. Only wash it when it's proper grim. Dog towels are always dark coloured in our house! Also choose thinner ones which dry faster rather than big thick ones. Equafleece is great, but my dog would be far too hot at the moment. They really do keep the dog dry and they dry out so quickly too. They stop the muddy underbelly too.

Oh, I just hose him down outside to get the mud off, cold water fed hose, if he can swim in the river, he can cope with the garden hose. Then he shakes off the worst of the water outside and comes indoors to be rubbed down with a dog towel. Towel then gets hung up and dog gets a treat for his patience. Towels get washed weekly, I have a pile of them.

Edited to add - I have a huge turtle mat type thing by the back door so the floor doesn’t get slippery and dangerous when a wet dog is hanging around the place. It makes things a lot safer and less messy.

I have an unhinged amount of crap towels.
I don’t have a mud room but they stay in the kitchen until they are dry, then brush the mud out.
they also have towel dry robes (they look like little dressing gowns) and those go on and do help a bit.

One of them is prone to bad skin and bathing him too often makes him worse so we try and stick to once a fortnight

Rough coated terrier. Towel down in car or in porch and she’s good to go.

I use a horse rug bag for washing pet bedding.

Retriever here. She sits on a turtle mat by door and gets a brisk rub down with a chamois like towel. I have lots. All similar colours (I buy when on offer on Amazon) I wash them once a week and they dry in minutes.
She wouldn't entertain clothing of any kind. She does have a dressing gown but she looks so glum in it I reserve it for emergencies/ car.

Hose by the back door to remove mud and then into these - https://ruffandtumbledogcoats.com/ for an hour or so. Rural life/labradors and all that here!

Schnauzer here, you can’t brush mud of her because it literally gets stuck in her fur (it’s like Velcro!) I have a mud daddy in the car boot for the big countryside walks. She has two coats with the legs in them. The local walks she wears her coat them gets paws washed from a bowl when we get home.

You can get them used to the coats, they won’t love it but will learn to accept it.

Straight up the stairs and he jumps into the bath to be showered and shampooed. (Does this happily on command) Fluffy towel to dry him off and a throw on the bed so he can lie there after. Yes, he's spoilt.

We walk as normal, no coats.

When we get back everyone is blasted dry with the blaster one by one. All come back in within 5-10min (each dog)spotless and bone dry. It blows off the mud, sticks and leaves, loose coat and wet. No more messing about with towels and all that sort of thing. Best money I’ve ever spent.

@Leonberger what dog blaster do you have?

Ruff and tumble coat when she comes in. Wash them in tumble case. If you can afford/have room for tumble dryer...get one....or heated laundry rack.

Hose down outside. Come in the house, straight in to the crate with a treat while she dries off for about an hour.

I've tried telling my terrier it's a spa experience when I put her 'robe' on, but she gives me evil looks and does her impression of an ill-treated stray who needs rescuing, so I've given up.

Mine is Gravitis, it was around £100 and it’s been amazing. It’s dried 3 dogs (2 giant, 1 large) every day in winter. I also use it to blow out undercoats rather than spend hours brushing. It’s very powerful and has a heat setting to dry them quicker. It did break once but the company sent a part next day delivery.

If you have large fluffy dogs it will make your like 100 times easier! I wish I could go back all those years and tell myself to put the towels down 😄

We have drying bags. So quick rinse if needed pop into there and 40 mins later they emerge dry

Mine won’t do drying clothing either. I’ve tried, believe me I’ve tried, but he panics. No amount of training helps, so we do the towelling option as described. He couldn’t wear a coat for prevention either, he’d just overheat.