Cause the deskunking party don't stop! The most recent exciting episode at Bit of Honey included copious amounts of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and Dawn dish detergent (saving wildlife for decades!) in a massive de-skunking procedure. This time it was Miles and Mahzi who had tried to make friends with the skunk doggie-style, resulting in an aromatic dousing of skunk juice.
This afternoon's episode is merely a continuation of an August premier featuring Forrest and his official initiation into ranch life. At the time I had a horse here for rehabilitation who was receiving 6x daily treatments that lasted a half hour each. The dogs and I had all gone out together to take care of his late night treatment at 10pm. I heard a great kerfuffle outside the barn, and as I administered one of the medications I began to smell skunk. The malodorous guilty canine culprit then appeared, and Forrest proceeded to roll in the dirt in the main barn area trying to rid himself of his newest parfume, unappreciative of this barn dog right of passage.
I got him washed using my special brew and routine deskunking concoction, which I also used today on the other two barn dogs. Proof that there are dire consequences for attempting to befriend wildlife.
In case anyone else needs it, the magical recipe is:
1 quart Hydrogen Peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 tsp Dawn dish detergent
It works because you have to completely strip the dog's fur of oils to remove the skunk smell which becomes embedded in the oil. I mix up my potion, wet the dog down (outside!) then suds him up with the brew. I let it sit for 5-10 minutes. I rinse him and do a sniff test. If he needs it (depending on how badly he was skunked) I repeat the H2O2 washing, waiting, and rinsing. Then I do a third wash with a regular dog shampoo and rinse with water. By this time the dogs are pretty sick of the hose, but they seem to have given up any hope of venturing into the garage or house until this process is completed. I do wear old clothes for this, because it's hit or miss whether my shirt and pants will survive the deskunking unscathed and unencumbered with fragrant after-effects.
I use the same mixture. When we lived in Santa Barbara, Shiloh became known as the skunk dog. He was skunked at least 10 times. You would think he'd figure it out after the first three
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