Bath night

About once a month, it's bath night at our house.  Of course, Mathew, Maddie, and I take baths a lot more than once a month, but this is full bath night.  That means everyone gets a bath, including the puppy dogs.  It's quite a process, but we have a pretty good system down.  I wash and Mathew dries.  First up is Madeline...

She loves splish splashing around in the tub.  Maybe she'll grow up to be a swimmer like two of her aunties.  Bathing her is the easy part.  After that, the real fun begins.  We put Maddie in her swing to kick back and watch the show.

Conveniently, the first floor guest bathroom has a walk in shower with a sliding door and shower head with a long hose, which is perfect for washing dogs as I put on shorts and a t-shirt and hop in the shower with them.  It's (relatively) easy to get them in, and they can't escape once I slide the door closed.  First up is always Daisy since you can say "Daisy, go get in the shower!" and she'll run right to the shower.  I always forget how white she is when she's clean...

Bailey is always #2, but Mathew usually has to pick her up and put her in the shower as she isn't nearly as excited about getting a bath.  However, once she's in there, she doesn't mind it in the least bit.  Here's our nice and clean Bailey...

By this point, my back is starting to get sore, so the big guy is third in line since he's so tall that I hardly have to bend over.  Like Bailey, he is not too excited about getting a bath, so it takes some serious wrangling by Mathew to get him into the shower.  Mat used to be the dog washer, until Edison got huge.  Now, the two of them won't fit in the shower, so that's when I turned into the washer instead of the dryer.  Once we get Big Ed in the shower, he just sits down and thoroughly enjoys getting scrubbed down.  The only hard part is getting him to stand up long enough to wash the back of him.  He he is crashed out, after his 30 minutes of post showering spazing...

He won this month's award for being the dirtiest and shedding the most.

Last but not least is Miss Allie May.  By this point, she has realized what's going on and decided she wants no part of it, so she's usually hiding in our room.  She doesn't struggle when Mathew picks her up and puts her in the shower though.  She just surrenders to the "torture" of being washed.  After she's clean, she slowly and delicately steps out of the shower and stands there (looking completely demoralized) and waits for Mat to dry her...

Fortunately, she doesn't pout like she used to.  I had no idea dogs pouted until we got Allie.  She has quite a personality.  I love washing her though because she's the shiniest black labrador I've ever seen when she's clean...

Usually, Mat washes the munchkin in the kitchen sink at some point during the process.  However, since he was keeping an eye on Maddie as well as drying the big dogs, I ended up washing Freddie in the shower.  The poor little guy stood there shaking like you wouldn't believe the entire time.  I forget how small he is, until I get him wet and realize that his hair makes him look a lot bigger than he really is!  Here's the clean little guy...

Afterwards, it's treat time (aka positive reinforcement that baths are good) for everyone!  Our five clean and shiny puppy dogs...

After that, I was ready to soak in a nice bubble bath myself as my back was shot.  However, Madeline was ready for her nighttime routine of rocking and nursing until she falls asleep so I only had time for a quick shower.  The joys of being a mommy.  Of course, I wouldn't trade it for anything though :)  Here's a cute shot of Big Ed and Little Fred I took when Mathew and I finally sat down to watch a movie...

110 pound Edison and 10 pound Freddie...best friends :)