It doesn’t matter how well your hunting dog is trained or how much game is right in front of you if your dog has a run-in with a skunk. Not only is the hunt disrupted, but the ride home can be miserable – both for the hunting dog and anyone else who happens to be riding with him.
Letting the dog swim in the lake won’t help either – skunk spray contains a oil that clings to your dog or anything else it touches with the tenacity of a tick. Without neutralizing the oil in the skunk spray, the odor will hang around your hunting dog for days …
Most of the time-honored folk remedies for ridding your dog of skunk odor just aren’t that effective. There is one, however, that seems to do the trick.
According to “those in the know”, this remedy seems to be one of the best: a mixture of 3% hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dish washing soap, followed by a rinse of vinegar (apple cider or white) mixed with water, then a plain water rinse. The hydrogen peroxide, when mixed with the baking soda releases oxygen which breaks down the chemicals in the skunk spray. The dish washing soap helps dissolve the oil and the vinegar acts to neutralize the remaining odor. It is a good idea to keep a full bottle of both hydrogen peroxide and vinegar, a bottle of dish washing soap, a pound of baking soda and some protective gloves in a plastic or metal pail. The baking soda should be stored in a vacuum sealed plastic bag to keep it dry. With everything stored in the pail, it doesn’t take up much room and you’ll always be ready if your hunting dog gets sprayed by a skunk.
To remove the skunk stink from your hunting dog, first put on the gloves to keep as much of the smell off of you as possible. Add 1/2 cup of peroxide to 1 cup of baking soda in your container. You can double or triple the batch, depending on the size of your dog and how badly he got sprayed. Mix the peroxide and baking soda into a paste with your gloved hands. If you’re using dry baking soda and 3% peroxide that’s still good, you should get a nice foamy mixture. This chemical reaction releases the oxygen to do it’s work. It is also why you have to mix this concoction up after the dog is sprayed; it has to be fresh. Blend an ounce of dish soap into the mix. You can do this by hand and squish is around – you want to get the mixture smooth and a little runny. Avoiding the eyes, massage the mixture into the dog’s coat. You should concentrate on the chest, face and neck, since these are the areas most likely sprayed by the skunk. If you get the mixture in the dog’s eyes, flush with water immediately. Leave this stuff on the dog for ten to thirty minutes, again depending on how badly the dog was sprayed. Rinse with a mixture of water and vinegar. You can
substitute a package of Massengill douche for the vinegar, but the vinegar seems to work just as well, with fewer chemicals. The advantage to using Massengill is that it comes in packets, which can be stored with the baking soda in the plastic bag. Repeat the application, if needed. Rinse again, this time using water only.
Also, Petco sells a product called NATURE’S MIRACLE SKUNK ODOR REMOVER that doesn’t require rinsing and is said to work real well. It can, however, take multiple bottles to get a large dog smelling like a dog again and each bottle is $10+. The other problem is the only place I’ve seen this product is PetCo and it could be a long, stinky ride to the nearest Petco. If you’re going to use this, you might want to have a couple of bottles per hunting dog in the truck.
Though neither of these will totally remove ALL the skunk odor, it will remove most of it and allow you to get your hunting dog home without gagging the whole way.
SAFETY NOTE: Do NOT mix the home remedy listed above up ahead of time or try to store the left-overs. The mixture must be fresh to be effective and storing the remaining mix in a closed container could result in the build-up of explosive gasses.
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