How to: De-Skunk a Dog

Yep, it happened. Mom's actually surprised it took as long as it did. I learned a very valuable lesson tonight: never chase the skunk in the yard. Mom learned an important one too: how to de-skunk a dog!

It started as such a simple night...Mom came home and picked me up to go hang out at Grandma and Grandpa's. I came in the house, ran right over to the backyard, and went outside to investigate the scratching I heard on the other side of the yard. I ran over there REALLY fast and Grandpa started yelling at me but I was just trying to get there as quick as possible so I could play with the furry black and white thing in the corner. Unfortunately that guy was NOT very nice and I ended up smelling...a lot. Whoopsie!

A quick Google search came up with the idea to use tomato juice to get rid of the smell and I quickly went into the bath.

My eyes were stinging really bad, as you can see in the picture above. I think maybe the little stinker sprayed me in my right eye and boy did that hurt! Luckily the tomato juice tasted good as it dripped off my face :) Oh and yes,  that's my grandmother on the floor drying me with a blow-dryer. Even when I do silly stuff like this they still take such good care of me!

I laid in my bed for a while and then Mom realized...the tomato juice only masked the smell for a little bit. Uh oh... back to Google we went. A little more digging and we found Paul Krebaum's recipe here. Perhaps the best way to remove skunk smell from dogs, it was a lifesaver! Here's the basic recipe:

16 oz. hydrogen peroxide
1/8 cup baking soda
1 tbsp liquid soap
About 12 oz. warm water

We used this all over my body but avoided my eyes because the hydrogen peroxide burns. We put it on and let it sit, lathered it up, and finally rinsed it off. I got dried...again!

Don't I look thrilled? Gee if I'd known what was going to come of this little adventure maybe I would have thought twice about it.

The new recipe really helped a lot and I'm finally starting to lose the smell. Mom thinks we may need to give me another bath tomorrow to really get rid of it completely but it's already soooo much better. I still smell a little funky but it's already a million times better. What's weird about the skunk smell is that it's different on your skin than in the air...it almost smells like oil and burning gasoline. Let's just say it's not good.

I hope you learned something valuable from my latest crazy adventure. I sure did!