Hi,I mated one of my bitches 3 weeks ago,and although she's not due to be scanned til next week,she's getting a bit grubby on our walks,as it's so wet and muddy at the moment,is it ok to bath her as normal?

If she dont get stressed i cant see there being a problem.

Don't know if it makes any difference or not, but when I bath pregnant bitches I only ever use baby shampoo as opposed to the normal shampoos and conditioners.

Thanks,I only ever use baby shampoo on my dogs,I'm sure she'll feel better for a bath.

it would be far better for your dog if you used a proper dog shampoo.Baby shampoo has the wrong Ph for a dogs skin. There are many excellent dog shampoos out there.

If she doesn't mind being bathed it shouldn't be a problem, be gentle with her tummy as 3 weeks is when the embryos stop floating free and get implanted in the uterus, and make sure she's warm and dry afterwards. :-)

> Don't know if it makes any difference or not, but when I bath pregnant bitches I only ever use baby shampoo

Why? there are many excellent shampoos out there including ones designed for puppies. At a time when special care is warranted why switch to a product designed for a different species?

Agree, no problem in having a bath at all, as long as it is not too much trouble getting her in and out, (otherwise you'll have to stick to a nice warm shower wash) you need your girl to be fresh and clean. :-)

I have got dog shampoos aswell as baby shampoo,and will shower her.I dont want to have her scanned with a grubby belly!! :)

Why? there are many excellent shampoos out there including ones designed for puppies. At a time when special care is warranted why switch to a product designed for a different species?

Because puppy shampoos aren't for UNBORN puppies, and you can't get much safer than what is considered safe for a newborn human baby. Ph value etc doesn't bother me the slightest as we're not talking all the baths all the time, just the ones during pregnancy, and then I prefer to play safe.

> Because puppy shampoos aren't for UNBORN puppies,

No but the ingrediants should be safe for all dogs.

>and you can't get much safer than what is considered safe for a newborn human baby.

There are lots of things that are safe for humans but not safe for dogs. Onions, Chocolate and raisins come to mind. Therefore you cannot say that because something is safe for a human, newborn or otherwise it is safe for a dog. It may well be safe but I prefer to go with a shampoo that is at least designed for dogs.

Baby shampoo has the wrong Ph for a dogs skin.
I used to accept that too until I accidentally found out that a large and popular producer of dog shampoo actually bought their supplies from a human manufacturer. :)  It turned out that they used to dilute what they bought 50:50 with water and stick their own labels on the bottles. ;)

I used the base shampoo (clear,no perfume etc - like Neutralia) from this manufacturer for almost 20 years and had no problems with any parlour dogs, even those with sensitive skin. 

Found a very interesting study here -
http://groomblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-ph-of-pet-human-shampoos.html

The author tested both human and pet (dog) shampoos and found many of the human ones were within the correct pH range for dogs, while the "pet" shampoos varied greatly.