DM Blog

Back on New Year’s Eve (December 31, 2012) while in Calgary for the holidays, I took a photo of Lorenzo all fluffy and nicely groomed after we gave him a quick bath. I’ve had that photo flagged in my Aperture library for more than six months now and I’ve been meaning to share it for quite some time… Here it is, finally:

Ever since we’ve had Lorenzo he’s been such a drama queen after a bath – he’ll go on forever, rolling in the towel and growling as if he’s covered in toxic goo or something. The video shows him after about fifteen minutes of drying off as he’s just starting to calm down. I’ve always wanted to take a video of him drying off (it’s super funny to watch and hear him at his peak), but I always forget to get my camera ready… In this case, it took me about fifteen minutes of watching him to remember that I should get the camera.

I remember the very first time we bathed him when he was just a puppy, Michelle and I were worried that maybe we got soap in his eyes or water in his ears, or worried that maybe he was allergic to the shampoo or to the laundry detergent in the towel… But nope, he just doesn’t like getting a bath, and always makes a big fuss as he’s drying off.

Yup. Lorenzo really hates getting a bath, but more than that, he hates being groomed at all. He does like being clean and smelling nice, and whenever I tell him "Lorenzo, you stink!" you can see him get bothered as he rubs his face with his paws as if he’s trying to wipe off the smell – it’s pretty funny to watch, actually – but the process of being groomed is probably his least favourite thing in the world.

It used to be that he’d run and hide in a corner or hide under the bed whenever we’d go so far as picking up his comb, but now he’s developed a sixth sense and somehow he just knows that we’re about to comb him before we even grab anything. Lorenzo always listens to me even if he won’t listen to anyone else, but this is the only time he won’t relent and come to me when I call him. And whenever Michelle goes to get him, he doesn’t hesitate to growl at her – as if anyone could ever be scared of such a small, skinny dog!

So as a result, unfortunately, even though Lorenzo easily looks the nicest of our three dogs after a bath, he’s usually the dirtiest and smelliest of the three. it’s hard to not feel bad for him, so rather than torture him with regular grooming, we often just end up grooming Javier since he actually likes it and will come looking for more. At the same time though, Javier also gets dirty a lot easier (perhaps since he’s so low to the ground? or maybe since he’s always running around in the backyard?) so he does need the grooming more often anyways.

it’s been a while now since Lorenzo has been fully combed and gotten a bath (let alone a haircut), and he’s long overdue. Getting him groomed is hard though – for both him and us. In fact, more than a couple times I’ve toyed with the idea of taking our three dogs to a "professional groomer", but I don’t think They’d like that too much since they’re already very used to having us do it all. Besides, I wouldn’t want to deny us the satisfaction of being rewarded for our efforts – having our prince look like a cute, fluffy, white cotton ball, almost even regal… I can’t wait!