Ask Me Help Desk - Male dog won't clean his privates

Male dog won't clean his privates

Our two year old mixed breed does not clean his private area. He is about 12 lbs. and wiry terrier hair. His penis area has about 1-2 inches of hair growing and sporadically on his belly. When he pees, pee is all left on the hair. He does not bother to locker clean the area. He is bathed regularly and kept clean, but this is a daily problem with pee residue in that area. I have never had a dog ignore his hygiene like this. Is this normal?

Some animals simply are not immaculate groomers.
One solution may be to take him to a good groomer and have his privates trimmed every so often, and use a clean damp cloth to clean him yourself when he comes in from using the bathroom.
Without the hair it shouldn't be much of a problem.

Okay,thank you. My son bathes him fairly regularly. Probably too often, sometimes twice a week. Which I know he should not. But one of the reason he does is "Henry" gets pee all over his belly and it is wet even and he does not even bother to lick or groom himself. So a good groomer will trim around his penis area? I know it will grow baked course and probably quicker than we would like then, but I guess just cleaning him with a wipe when he comes in is a good idea. I just did not think this was normal. Thank you.

Yes a groomer should be more than willing to trim his privates for you on occasion.
Even baby wipes would work well and help to cut the odor if there is any.

I agree with LadySam. In fact, I was about to say the same thing.

Great minds think alike Sam. Sadly, I had to spread the rep.

Another question :-) What does the reputation mean? When I tried to click on helpful, it said I needed more reputation before I could do that? Where do I find out how this site works?

Click on the Help icon at the top of the page.
And welcome, you'll enjoy it here.

Another vote for just trimming the hair. I would go to a groomer and get them to show you what to do and then after that you can do it yourself.
You can pick up a cheap set of clippers and just clip away the patch of hair that gets wet often.

One of my boys will lift his leg so high to pee he sometimes gets his front legs wet! In that case I just do as suggested above and use a baby wipe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by maddy6

Our two year old mixed breed does not clean his private area. He is about 12 lbs. and wiry terrier hair. His penis area has about 1-2 inches of hair growing and sporadically on his belly. When he pees, pee is all left on the hair. He does not bother to locker clean the area. He is bathed regularly and kept clean, but this is a daily problem with pee residue in that area. I have never had a dog ignore his hygiene like this. Is this normal?

I would suggest trimming the hair regularly so that his urine doesn't stay on his body.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shazamataz

Another vote for just trimming the hair. I would go to a groomer and get them to show you what to do and then after that you can do it yourself.
You can pick up a cheap set of clippers and just clip away the patch of hair that gets wet often.

One of my boys will lift his leg so high to pee he sometimes gets his front legs wet! In that case I just do as suggested above and use a baby wipe.

Shazzy, our poodle Silver used to do a handstand (literally), whenever he peed. His stomach was constantly covered in pee. Sadly a trip to the groomer really didn't help that issue, LOL. Instead, my mom made him a little "apron", that was water resistant. He'd wear it on walks, do his handstand, and then we'd just rinse it and put it on him the next time. Much better than daily baths. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by maddy6

Another question :-) What does the reputation mean? When I tried to click on helpful, it said I needed more reputation before I could do that? Where do I find out how this site works?

Reputation is when you give someone a helpful/accurate/greenie.

Just to make sure that friends aren't constantly repping each other, you can't do back to back greenies (that's what the old timers call them). ;)

I think you have to spread the reputation (give a greenie) to 5 other people before you can rep the same person again. Not sure about the number of people you have to get, but I think it used to be 5.

Most of us old timers don't really need the greenie. We'd much rather that you quote our post and let us know that we helped. That way we get the feedback and know what we did right. Also, don't be afraid to let us know if there was advice that you didn't like. A reddie (unhelpful/inaccurate/reddie) is only for factually incorrect information, and I can say, no one likes getting one of those, especially because most times people hand them out because they didn't like an answer, not because the answer was wrong. Sometimes the truth does hurt.

Like the greenie, if you didn't like a post, it's best to quote the post and tell us why.

But, if you see someone giving very inaccurate advice, or harmful advice, a reddie is totally appropriate. In that case I usually also report the post (there's a report button on every post), so that the moderators can decide if the post should be left visible.

I hope that cleared things up, and I'm glad you decided to stick around.

One warning. This site is addictive :). You'll meet people, you'll start answering questions, and before you know it, you've been here for 4 years. OMG! It's been 4 years! WTH? How did that happen?

I've never met any of the people on this site in person, but I am friends with many of them. I can say this without any hesitation, they are the best group of people on any Q & A site on the net, and I've tried others. I don't know how we all ended up here, but this site is what it is because of the people that volunteer on it. We care about the answer we give. We care about the people coming here for help. We care about each other. We all started just like you, with a question. The rest is history. We stuck around, and now here we are. :)

Seems like every dog I have had has different ways of taking care of business. One of my Corgis is a "walker" when she poops so she leaves a trail behind her. I think they all come programmed with quirks to make us appreciate each one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbs4352

Seems like every dog I have had has different ways of taking care of business. One of my Corgis is a "walker" when she poops so she leaves a trail behind her. I think they all come programmed with quirks to make us appreciate each one.

So true. Like people, they all do their own thing. Sometimes it's gross, but we still love them. :)

Alty, I was just telling my older kids tonight about this site. Apparently we have lots and lots of questions :-D we were remembering all the dog questions we had over the last year. We are psyched to start coming on here. Thanks again for aloof your help :-D

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alty

Shazzy, our poodle Silver used to do a handstand (literally), whenever he peed. His stomach was constantly covered in pee. Sadly a trip to the groomer really didn't help that issue, LOL. Instead, my mom made him a little "apron", that was water resistant. He'd wear it on walks, do his handstand, and then we'd just rinse it and put it on him the next time. Much better than daily baths. :)

Show poodles with the balls trimmed on their front and back legs wear little plastic sleeves to stop them getting wet before they go in the show ring. I'm lucky with Cyrus, he's all skin apart from his legs so baby wipes do the trick :D lol

Maddy6 - We love new questions and new members. We're all volunteers here who just love helping people and talking about dogs! :)

Yea I agree, my 4lb yorkie hikes his leg but it goes all over his belly and the back of his front legs. We had him trimmed to nothing it still didn't help within a few days he smelled again. So I am going to try the apron, its like he has no control where it goes and it goes everywhere. I thought of taking him to the vets to see if there is something wrong with his dingling. I think I'll try the apron 1st.