Sheena had a puppy tonight

[NicoleLJ]

No it is not what you think. This puppy doesn't have a cute little black nose, a wonderful wet tongue, a wiggle tail or gorgeous brown eyes. This puppy doesn't even have bones it is just all fur. I bet you guessed it. Sheena is dropping her coat. Tonight I brushed out enough soft white fur to make a whole puppy and then some. LOL

This poor dog has been in misery for 3 weeks. 3 weeks ago my husband was suddenly put on a 14 hour, 7days a week shift that is suppose to last till the 23rd of this month. Poor Sheena ran out of her shampoo and skin and coat conditioner at the same time. There is only one pet store that carries this special shampoo and skin and coat conditioner and that is a 45 minute drive away. Unfortunately by the time my husband gets off work the store is closed. Since Sheena goes to school everyday I have to make sure she is always spotless. I bath Sheena every week. Keeping a white coated dog spotless is not easy. So we had to buy a different shampoo for her that was here in town. BIG MISTAKE. Within a few days of bathing her Sheena was itching. I tried using a different coat conditioner. It didn't work. Her itching got worse. Her skin started to get redder and more irritated looking. Her itching was always at it's worse after she had to wear her service dog vest, even if it was only for a few minutes, or in the evenings. Well today my husband was able to book teh evening off because of Agility practice so we made a point to go in and buy her shampoo and skin and coat conditioner. As soon as agility class was over we went home and scrubbed her down. We scrubbed her for 20 minutes and the whole time she was grunting and groaning in pleasure. Then we rinsed her off and brought her upstairs were we proceeded to brush an entire puppy off of her, agian with her grunting and groaning in pleasure. After the brushing I sprayed on the skin and coat conditioner liberally and then worked it into her skin and coat with my hands. All told I worked on her for an hour and a half. By the time I was done she gave a great big stretch, a huge shake and then jumped into her chair and sighed with relief. She has not once itched since the start of her bath and the redness seems to be going down in color. I will never agian allow us to run out of her shampoo and skin and coat conditioner.

Have any of you had problems with dry irritated skin? This is the very first time, and I hope the last time, I have had to deal with it with Sheena.

Some times I wish the public could truely see all the work that goes into presenting a well trained but also a well groomed service dog that maybe some of them would not wish so much that they could bring their pets with them everywhere as we do with our service companions. It is definately not as easy as it looks.
Nicole & Sheena PSD

[.Little Texas.]

Don't worry Nicole! I see you as a very responsible owner, and that your Sheena does have to look groomed and puffed up for service work, and I'm grateful for the dogs that do Service work, also the owners that work hard to make the dogs look nice, but I'm just repeating my sentence.