Country Living & DeSkunking a Dog

There are several things that come with the country lifestyle that I could live without and one of them is skunks. Growing up in New Hampshire, I remember pulling into the driveway late at night and watching those fat little suckers waddle off like they owned the place. Now when it's my house it's not quite as "cute", but the last straw? My dog being sprayed in the face the night before we left for BlogHer. Yup, while everyone else was packing cute shoes or going to sponsored parties they had arrived early for, I was googling "What to do if your dog is sprayed by a skunk?", "Deskunk your pet" and "How to get the skunk smell off my dog?" while my husband was furiously scrubbing our stinky beast. We are just lucky that I had been working on our 72 hour kit and we had enough hydrogen peroxide on hand. Otherwise it would have been a long lonely drive to the 24 hour supermarket and hours would have passed while the stench sunk into his fur.
So whether you have a dog and live in the country or you have a friend who just moved my genuine Skunk Solution kit will be your best friend should your canine companion be sprayed by Pepe. It works by neutralizing the odor rather than just covering it up. Don't believe me? Well, Discovery's Mythbusters proved it works. Ha-ha, one point me.

Remember the best time to learn how to deal with skunk spray is before it happens!

A soapy cautionary tale to other dogs.

Items Needed:
A bucket
2 pint containers of 3% hydrogen peroxide (Costco sells two bottle packs.)
1/4 cup of baking soda (I keep this in a sandwich bag.)
1-2 tsp dish soap/liquid Ivory soap (Make sure it is a gentle cleaner and not a super dishwashing grease cutting chemical laden concoction. I keep a few sample sized packets of Seventh Generation on hand for this.)
Candy of some type
A washcloth
An old towel or two
A dog treat
A cheap leash & collar that you don't care about (We have a piece of rope with a carabiner on it to hook the rope through, it's just to get the dog from the skunk spray location to the bathtub.)

First get the dog inside. It is usually night when dogs get sprayed and you don't need the rest of the skunks family showing up to check out what you're doing if you try to hose him off outside. They can spray up to 13 feet (hence why I'm scared to go to my car at night).

Take your clothes off, if you're nervous to be in undergarments in front of your dog then I suppose you should add a tshirt to the bucket of supplies.

Mix the hydrogen peroxide, baking soda & dish soap. It will fizz a little bit (don't store it in a closed container unless you want to wash your dog and your entire bathroom after it explodes). It's like the second grade science experiment where you make the volcano. Except your house stinks and the dog is whining and you can swear now if you want. Swear a little. It may help.

If your dog got sprayed in the face rinse out his eyes, nose area and mouth with plain water before scrubbing him. Try not to get the rest of him too wet. We found that the solution works best when used directly on the skunk spray. As someone who just had her 2nd baby in less than two years we had an abundance of those little squirt bottles they send you home from the hospital with. These work great.

The washcloth is to scrub the dog with. Burn it when you're done. You want to scrub some of the mix into his/her fur. Then let it sit for 4-5 minutes. Be careful around their face. Unfortunately, this is exactly where the dog got sprayed so we did have to wash him there. I have a cheap pair of swim goggles in our bucket now. If it happens again it will help avoid his eyes. Plus it's a great opportunity to get a picture of the dog in swim googles. Rinse the dog and repeat the process. As a word of warning our dog's black boxer/mastiff jowls were bleached a lovely shade of pink after this "special" bath from the peroxide. I'm sure that it was a great step in the war on gingivitis but he did look pretty goofy for a few weeks.

Dry the dog off with the old towels (put them in the bonfire pile when you're done- or you could be cheap like us, wash them and put them back in the skunk bucket).

Give him the treat. He's been through enough.

Eat the candy bar and congratulate yourself on being so awesome in the face of a stinky emergency. Side note: Does your house smell too? Try putting little bowls of vinegar OR ground up coffee around. Both will absorb odor.

Put a few of these together and give them to your country friends. They make great gifts and I guarantee you one fateful night they will worship your genius and love you forever. As for us? We have several kits on hand. I am just happy to be prepared for next time. 

Good luck my skunked friends!