We love to get out for a long dog walk no matter the weather, but the arrival of Autumn and Winter brings new challenges for walking with our four-legged friends. Dogs shaking off mud all over the back seat of your car, soggy leaves getting caught in their fur, and the tiring post-walk routine of bath time can all be difficult to deal with, especially if you have multiple dogs! Below we’re sharing our top tips for cleaning up after a muddy dog walk, and how to embrace the mud!
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Dress your dog for the weather
One way to deal with post-walkies mud is to prevent your dog from getting too muddy in the first place! Consider investing in a good quality coat or fleece for your dog, or even a waterproof raincoat to ensure their body stays dry and mud-free on a soggy walk. This is especially helpful if you have a long-haired breed, as it can reduce the amount of clean up you have to do after your walk. Depending on the size of your dog, you may be able to find them a fleece that covers both their body and their legs, so cleaning up is just a simple task of wiping their paws!
Car seat covers
Another way to reduce the amount of mud you’ll have to clean up is by investing in seat covers for your car. We spent years lining our car seats with multiple bath towels, cramming the edges into the crevices of the seats to ensure the towels stayed in place, so we could save ourselves from hoovering up mud, sand and dirt every time we took dogs out in the car. Having a built-for-purpose, good quality seat cover saves SO much clean up time after muddy walkies and prevents you from endlessly washing dirty towels! This waterproof seat cover fits all types of vehicles, whether you have a small car or a campervan like us. It’s wipe-clean, non-slip and scratch-proof, making it the perfect durable cover for your dogs to relax on after a wet or muddy walk. When the cover gets really mucky, you can easily pop it in the washing machine for a good wash! It’s built to stay in place even if your dog moves around when settling, making it a no-brainer for protecting your car seats and saving you from constant upholstery cleaning.
De-tangle brush
For long-haired dogs, it’s not just mud that needs washing off! When the season changes in Autumn, endless soggy leaves line pathways and fields and get caught up in dogs’ fur, in addition to seeds, little twigs and grit, as well as clumps of wet mud. Before rinsing or washing we give our dogs’ fur a good comb through with a de-tangling brush, so we can be sure to get rid of any debris and prevent fur tangling or matting. This small but mighty brush is perfect for use on any breed of dog, and helps get the worst of the mucky bits out of their fur before you bathe them. Its little size means it won’t take up too much space in your dog walking kit, and it’s easy to rinse off for next time!
Portable shower
Being able to give your dogs a quick post-walk rinse before they hop on the back seat of your car, or enter your home, can help reduce the amount of mud you’ll have to clean up. The Mud Daddy is a portable bottle, with a brush attachment, that you fill with warm or cold water to give your dog a shower after you’ve been for a walk. It’s operated by pump action that sucks the water through the hose and brush so you won’t need power or batteries, making it perfect to take with you in your car boot! The Mud Daddy uses 90% less water than a hose so it’s more cost-effective and environmentally friendly that washing them with a garden hose at home! If you really don’t like the sound of pumping water after a long walk, there’s also the Mud Mummy which has a rechargeable, battery-powered brush head to make a quick shower even quicker. Both designs are also effective when rinsing your shoes, if you’re covered in mud after your walkies too!
For times when your dog doesn’t need an all-over bath but has been walking through dirty puddles, there’s the Paw Buddy! It’s essentially a small bottle with a brush at one end and a comb at the other for giving paws a quick wash on the go. Simply squeeze the bottle to release water as you wipe your pup’s paws! Its small, lightweight design means you can easily fill it with water and bring it with you wherever your walkies take you.
Towels
It might seem like an obvious one, but there are different towels we recommend for different ways to tackle muddy dogs after walking! We became fed up of using old bath towels to dry off dogs and having to continually wash the damp, holey towels we’d use to cover the seats in our car. A lot of pet towels are made from a thin microfibre material for ease of portability and quick-drying, but we find these are almost completely useless when trying to towel-dry larger dogs. While pet sitting in the Sussex countryside with an energetic Spaniel, who loved to run through cow pats, wet bushes and dirty puddles, we discovered his owners have this towel that has convenient hand pockets to easily dry off your dog! The shammy-like material is ultra absorbent which makes it quicker to dry your dog, and the towel dries faster than a regular towel after use. These towels are also fantastic for doubling up as blankets in your car when you’re heading further afield for walkies.
At home, after our dogs have had a bath or shower and a good drying off, we like to put them in wearable towels to protect furniture and floors from becoming damp. Depending on the age and breed of your dog you’ll need a different size, which is why we recommend checking out this Lucky Paws towel coat that comes in a range of sizes. This is the same brand as the towel above, but this towel is designed to be worn by your dog so you don’t have to exhaust yourself drying their fur! The fabric is absorbent and soft, meaning your dog will be comfortable as they dry off, and comes in a range of colours to suit your style. From our experience using towelling coats, dogs are very comfortable wearing them – in fact the hardest part is getting dogs to take the towel off again once they’ve snuggled up! If you have an especially fluffy pooch, a wearable towel can save you lots of time after bathing your dog and the soft leg straps mean the towel will stay in place as long as needed, even if your dog moves around.
Bath time!
Of course, when towelling or a rinse just isn’t enough to get your dog clean, there’s only one thing for it! Giving dogs a lovely warm bath has been one of our favourite ways to pamper pooches over our years of pet sitting, and we love when owners are delighted to come home to a clean and fresh-smelling dog! It’s important to only use products that have been specifically formulated for dogs when given your pooch a bath, as dogs’ skin reacts differently to humans’. You can easily disrupt the natural oils on your dog’s coat by using an inappropriate product, which can lead to dryness, itchiness, and irritation. There are hundreds of dog shampoo brands to choose from, but one we see time and time again at our pet sits is Bugalugs. There are various different products in their range, such as the Flea and Tick shampoo or Medi Fresh shampoo for itchy skin, but for a good all-rounder dog shampoo we recommend Baby Fresh. It’s scented to smell like baby powder and gently removes smelly odours like mud and dirty puddles! The shampoo is made to a vegan formula and is suitable for all breeds, and puppies over 8 weeks. If you’re a lover of Pumpkin Spice season, Bugalugs also make a Pumpkin Latte scented edition for Autumn!
If your dog not only loves to get muddy, but rolls in something stinky too, Animology’s Fox Poo shampoo is specifically designed to help remove bad odours and break down dirt and oily substances. It has a built-in conditioner to leave your dog’s fur super soft, as well as being gentle on the skin and rinsing off quickly and easily to reduce the amount of time you’ll spend washing your dog.
Not everyone loves a bath, of course! If your dog isn’t a fan of bath time and kicks up a fuss when they’re in need of a thorough wash, our best tip is to find a spreadable treat they enjoy and spread a little on your bathroom wall for them to enjoy while you bathe them! We first discovered this hack while pet sitting for excitable Devo, a Whippet, in London. His favourite treat was peanut butter and his owner recommended that we spread a thin layer on the tiled wall at bath time to keep him occupied – it worked like a charm! Since then we’ve used this technique to keep nervous dogs happy while we get them squeaky clean at bath time. If you’re in need of a dog-friendly peanut butter, Bugalugs also make this yummy treat! Unlike the leading competitor, this peanut butter contains no palm oil (which can be unsafe for dogs), and is made from 100% roasted peanuts. Your dog will thank you!
Learning to embrace the mud
A few extra tips to help you enjoy the soggy walk seasons:
- Let your dog get muddy! The cycle of washing, grooming, and drying your dog after a wet and muddy walk can be tiring, but it will be more enjoyable for both you and your pooch if you let go of your worries and let them enjoy their walk no matter the weather! Letting your dog splash through mucky puddles, run in mud, and snuffle through piles of soggy leaves will ultimately give them more enrichment as you walk, leading them to tire out quicker and help them snooze for longer at home. This is especially helpful if you’re cutting a walk short due to inclement Winter weather, or when Autumn days with shorter daylight hours roll in, meaning you have to take a shorter route for walkies.
- Be aware of other walkers. While you’re letting your dog run free on their muddy walkies, make sure they don’t jump up on other unsuspecting walkers! As full time pet sitters we’re very used to being covered in mud, fur and drool at any given time, but it can be super embarrassing when your dog runs up to another person and lays muddy paws on their coat or trousers! We’ve also been on the receiving end of this when we’ve been out on a walk without dogs, and we’re not dressed to be covered in mucky paw prints! Let your dog have fun but be mindful of disturbing other people and their dogs on their walks – not everyone loves the muddy paw print look!
- Enjoy the post-bath zoomies! Once you and your dog are warm, clean and dry at home, you can sit back and watch them go wild with their zoomies! Dogs often get excitable and run around after a bath due to an instinctive desire to get the new clean smell off of them, and get back to a more familiar scent. They might also just want to burn off some energy after being confined to a bath or having to sit still while you towel them dry! Either way, sitting back to watch your dog run off some steam means the muddy walk routine is complete and you can relax!
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