Washing your Komondor

Probably the biggest job in caring for a Komondor is washing him/her. It's best to plan ahead. Set a date and time that you want to wash your dog and make sure you have help. Prepare your 'dryingroom' and be sure that you have everything at hand when you start. This 'dryingroom' is especially needed in wintertime otherwise your dog might get sick.

You can use a white dog shampoo or like we do, use old soapblocks (Sunlight is the brand we use) This old soap contain a substance called in dutch 'Lanoline' which keep the hair from drying out. But this soap you have to prepare. You take, a day in advance, such a piece of soap and start grating. The grated soap is put in a bucket with warm (not hot) water. Give this a stir and leave it to rest overnight. The next day this mixture has changed to a mucilage substance. It isn't nice to see but is stick well to the cords.

In preparation of the bath, remove all pieces of dirt, twigs and pieces of grass that you find. Cut the paws clean, no point in washing hair you were going to cut off. And now we can start the bathing. Put your dog in the bathtub and hose your dog wet. If your dog isn't to dirty, you can fill the bath and make your dog lie in it for a while as the coat soaks. Artbel refuses to do so. Do not make the head wet first but work on the body first.

When your dog is soaked, take a handfull of cords and start rubbing in the soap. Systhematically proceed around the body. Start with the dirtiest parts as you can redo them later on. Do not rinse the coat directly after you soap it in. Let the soap work on the dirt. When the whole coat has been put under soap you can start rinsing. Make sure that all the soap is rinsed out as it can cause skinproblems otherwise. When all the soap is washed out, the water that pours off is clear. So do not try the speed up the proces and take as much time as needed. Washing time with Artbel takes, depending on how dirty she is, between 1.5 and 2.5 hours.

After you have finished washing your dog, the time comes get the coat dry again. While your dog is still in the bath, take a bunch off cords and twist them around so the water can run out. Start at the top and work your way down. It is best to redo this a few times. Now take your dog out of the bath or if he is relaxed, you can dry him further in it. Artbel wants out as quickly as possible. To get your dog dry faster you can use this towel, "Pet-Towel". They are sold at dogshows and maybe in your local dogsuppliestore but this I can not say for sure. These towels suck the water out off the coat and you'll have him dry a lot faster. If you use plain towels, you better have a lot off them at hand. All in all you spend at least a half hour at this.

When most of the water is out off the coat you can transfer your dog to your dryingroom. Put some towels or sheets on the floor so your dog can wriggle and shake all he wants. This helps getting him dry faster and takes the work of your hands. Do not let you dog outside unsupervised as he will start to roll in the grass or perhaps dirt. Take from time to time a towel and go over the body again. This proces takes between one and a half and three days.

Final note....
If you wash your dog mutiple times in a short period it will start removing the natural fatlayer on the hair, which will get the hair dirty a lot faster. That's why you better not wash your dog more than 3 or 4 times a year.