It was bound to happen,,,,got skunked!

[mastercaster]

Wish I was talking about not putting an animal/bird on the ground or a fish into the net,,,,but I'm not. Been hunting birds with my gun dogs for the last 45 years in farm fields, forests, and on the Thompson R. sage covered hillsides and and none of them has ever gotten skunked before so when it does happen it's right in the tiny backyard of my townhouse in thew city,,,,,go figure. It happened after 11:00 at night so instead of making up a solution of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dish washing liquid right away, which I have on hand, I just hosed her face down and used the concoction a couple of times the next day. Big mistake,,,,too late, should have done it right away. I'll know better for the next time if it ever happens again.

In any event, it's been about a week now since it happened. Because Sako is a bearded dog, every time she takes a drink or sniffs the dewy grass in the morning her beard gets wet it brings out the skunk smell on her even more so. Oh, joy! The house still has some skunky smell by the front door area, as well, but it is getting better but I bet it'll still take awhile to completely go away.


Last night I thought I'd change up the smell somewhat so I had some barbecued trout that I caught a couple of days earlier for dinner so there was the smell from cutting up the fish, plus the smell of fresh paint (lower floor has just been painted), and of course there was still the skunky smell. Talk about a triple threat! Even though none of those odors is very pleasant the skunky smell still won out as being the worst,,,lol.


Because Sako's coat was due to be stripped to keep her cooler in the summer I thought I'd tackle that this past week. I thought if any of the skunk smell was on her coat beyond her face/neck where she took the hit it would at least remove the hair that may have gotten some of the blast.


Took 45 minutes to hand strip the first side so we took a short break,,,,mostly for me since it's just like plucking ducks which does get tiring on the thumb and index finger when you're doing it non stop for that long. I should have taken her to the park to see what kind of strange looks we may have gotten. Haha :Shock


Before hand stripping:





Half way done:





The finished product:





In terms of the skunk odor, stripping Sako's coat really didn't make any difference. The remaining smell is still in the face, ears, beard, and neck area,,,,not much hair there to remove. I guess I'll have to contend with the skunky smell for a little while longer. Sako looks good, though, and I bet she's enjoying having mostly just her under coat now that a lot of her outer coat has been removed.

Anybody else have a dog that's been skunked before? How long did it take your dog/environment to be totally free of any skunky odor?

[ACB]

I think a dog getting Skunked is the same as getting porcupined, once should be enough for them to learn. My dogs have never been skunked but every dog that I've had all got into a porcupine "once" in Alberta.

[mastercaster]

I think a dog getting Skunked is the same as getting porcupined, once should be enough for them to learn. My dogs have never been skunked but every dog that I've had all got into a porcupine "once" in Alberta.

Both my Brittany spaniels had encounters with porcupines while out hunting pheasants in the Okanagan. Luckily, none of them were too bad. It's been a long time since it happened,,,,both back in the eighties. Luckily, they weren't too bad. If memory serves I was able to take the quills out myself but it happened so long ago i may be out to lunch on that. They may have gone to the vet for him to do it?? I've heard story from some hunters that their dog has been skunked a few times suggesting some dogs aren't as smart as others,,,,lol. I'm hoping this is a one off for my griff for obvious reasons. It's been a bit of stinky week so far.

[Bustercluck]

Did you give your griff a haircut? My brothers dog has longer coat along his back, but I’ve never seen two that look the same.

What do you guys do for porcupines? Can you pull them out with some pliers? How hard do you pull before giving up? I heard they burrow deeper if you leave them in.

[mastercaster]

Did you give your griff a haircut? My brothers dog has longer coat along his back, but I’ve never seen two that look the same.

What do you guys do for porcupines? Can you pull them out with some pliers? How hard do you pull before giving up? I heard they burrow deeper if you leave them in.

Can't recall exactly how I got the quills out of the muzzle of my last two Brittanys since it was more than thirty years ago. The quill has a bit of a hook on it so there's a certain technique you have to use.

My top photo is when my griff has her full coat; the bottom photo is when her coat has been fully hand stripped. You never take scissors or shears to a griff's coat so I have been told. You're right about griffs' coats being different, though. I got lucky with mine because she came from a great breeder who took the dog's coat into consideration,,,,,coarse and wiry (not soft at all), no matting ever, and a minimal shedder. I only run a steel comb through her coat every 6 weeks,,,,if I remember. lol

[ACB]

Both my Brittany spaniels had encounters with porcupines while out hunting pheasants in the Okanagan. Luckily, none of them were too bad. It's been a long time since it happened,,,,both back in the eighties. Luckily, they weren't too bad. If memory serves I was able to take the quills out myself but it happened so long ago i may be out to lunch on that. They may have gone to the vet for him to do it?? I've heard story from some hunters that their dog has been skunked a few times suggesting some dogs aren't as smart as others,,,,lol. I'm hoping this is a one off for my griff for obvious reasons. It's been a bit of stinky week so far.

All the times that mine got into mr. McQuil I was able to get the Quills out myself, I carry a leather-man at all times upland bird hunting. I had a bl. lab f/m she was a bit of a suck when it came to getting hurt like that, when she got into a porky she just ran over to me and layed down and let me yank the quills out, she was the same way if she got cactus in her paw. I had a Bl. Lab M that when he got into one, he must of given it a good bite because he had quills way down on his tongue and I was able to get most of them out but while I was working on him he was biting down on my hand pretty good but after it was over he did apologize for that and gave me a big bloody lick.

[Bustercluck]

This is my brothers griff, right after some prison sex with my pooch. He has a second coat up his back.

[Frank grimes]

My husky got skunked about a month ago. He got sprayed more then once for sure, and I think he had the skunk in his mouth when it sprayed because he was kinda sick for a day or two. We were about 45min from the truck and before we got back he had already rolled in a big mud puddle trying to wash his face. He dove into a bush and the chase was on. I could smell it right away, but he stayed after it for abit, until the skunk ran in a hole. By the time I got him, his entire face and chest and arms were yellow. He still smells abit. I just threw out all my clothes, I had to handle him to get him in the box of the truck. I stripped down and drove home in my boxers. My house smelled for over a week and the dog and my cloths never even came in the garage. He lived outside for about 10days. Had a few peroxide baths and it helped abit, but the oil was really rubbed in, in his nose, ears and muzzle.
he’d do it again to I’m sure.

[ACB]

Ya some dogs just don't learn, someone I know had a small female Yellow Lab that just couldn't get enough of Porcupines I don't know whether she ever learned. We don't have Skunks over on the Sunshine Coast just Civit cats, I don't think that they're as potent as Skunks. I worked with a guy that had a Civit Cat get into his garbage can and couldn't get out, he could hear some scratching noise coming from the garbage can, so he looked inside, and there's the cute little Civit staring back at him he slams the lid down on the top of the can and grabbed it and packed it out to the end of his driveway as he was packing it there he swears he could hear it letting go "puff, puff". When he got to the end of his driveway he laid the can down and took the lid of and gave it a bit of space, he says the Civit came staggering out of the can,...he said he never got the smell out of the plastic can.

[35rem]

I think a dog getting Skunked is the same as getting porcupined, once should be enough for them to learn.

In my experience there are 2 kind of dogs:

1- The ones that learn from the experience and never touch a skunk or porcupine again.
2- The ones that think: " He got me the last time, but his time I am going to get him"

Terriers are often in the latter group..