Nadi: before and after the dreaded BATH

There are quite a few words that my dog knows. Like a lot of dog owners you have to be very careful around her if you ever say the word "walk" and it would be wise of you to spell it out if you are ever in a sentence that just happens to include that word. Because if you do say "walk" and have no intention of taking her one one, she is going to hound you until you eventually either relent or you give her a treat to take her mind off of it.

That is one of her big keywords. She has some other ones that bring about a sense of dread in her mind though and one of those words is "bath." She knows this word and I don't know how she learned it because it is not like I talk to her about baths all the time. But when I say the word she kind of ducks her head down and looks away. It's funny to me when she or any other dog does this. It's kind of like the childish notion of if you don't look at the monster, it will go away.

_{There she is working on her breakdancing moves}

Although she doesn't know it, Nadi has at least some control over how frequently baths actually happen. When she spends a lot of time grinding her face into the ground for reasons unknown to me, she has a much greater chance of making herself stinky. Also, when we go on walks since she is a low-rider, if she chooses to walk among the tall grass, which she frequently does in the search for the perfect place to poo poo, she will make herself dirty. I try to mitigate this by wiping her down with a wet wipe when we get home but of course, she doesn't like this process either and will drag her belly across the floor in order to get that cleanliness off of her.

The past 3 days have been lazy ones because I got a pinch of food poisoning and was laid out for a couple of days with zero energy. Nadi never met a nap she didn't like so she was just lying there in her dog bed next to my bed and well, since she already was a bit stank, this just multiplied in the warmth of her fluffy bed.

So I was there one night dozing in and out of slumber when I decided that she was getting a bath the following day.

I informed her of this while we were together on the sofa watching TV the following afternoon.

I have about a 50-60 square meter apartment so hide and seek isn't exactly a long game here but she went to go hide as best she could anyway in this strange place in my apartment. It's not like she would actually ever refuse to get in the tub... she if very compliant. When I call her name once I get the water turned on and I am kneeling next to the tub, she walks right up to it and sometimes will even put her front legs up to help me get her in there. She knows the hates what is on the other side but after 10 years of this process, she knows that it is coming and there is no reason to resist.

You can tell by the sides there that she actually was quite dirty. Most of this is on her feet legs and underside because the streets of Vietnam are anything but clean and she brings a lot of it back with her. I'm still trying to find a good sweet spot of a routine for how to clean her up after we return so that she doesn't have to take baths very frequently.

With the stink successfully drenched with soap and water, I let her marinate for a bit while I wait for the smell to sink in. I have no idea if this works but the real reason is because i'm not young anymore and being in the crouched position for long periods of time hurts me.

Once I get her towel dried, she starts to wag her tail once I step back to hang up the towel because she now knows that it is time for "zoomies" where she runs all over the apartment getting the little bit of water that remains on her to every square inch of the apartment. Then when it comes time to get the hair drying involved, she also never resists.

I think that over the years that Nadi understand what an acceptable level of dry it and she will start to whine and resist if we surpass that amount of time. I am amazed that she is able to figure this out and it must be smell or some other sensation related because it's not like it takes the same amount of time every single time.

Then, once the dryer turns off she gets super excited and will normally attempt to take her enthusiasm out on one of her many toys. The decision making process is quite humorous because I can see that she is overwhelmed with emotion and has a tough time making that choice of who to attempt to destroy with her little rice teeth.

Believe it or not that scrap of brown in front of Nadi used to be a stuffed animal of sorts. It is called "Foxy" and it used to have a head. It is definitely her favorite for taking out her joyous rage on. Then comes the treats. She gets two treats for enduring a bath session and I think that is part or perhaps all of the reason why she is so compliant when we are going though this process.

A few hours later we were back on the bed and I guess that little session really took it out of her because she was all tuckered out and was snoring within 8 minutes of lying down. I really do envy a dog's ability to switch off and go to sleep almost anytime or anywhere. I guess it is because of the fact that other than baths, Nadi doesn't really have a lot of things to worry about in a day.