Dog Perfume, What?

I have a friend, well-meaning, if somewhat misguided who was taking care of a particularly rank dog. The evidence of the smell itself inspired me to advise said friend on multiple occasions to take his dog to the vet when he proclaimed he had no idea why Sparky smelled so bad.

One day, said friend asked me if they made perfumes for dogs–you know, because they make perfume for everybody and everything else. And, he reasons, everything else is scented and the dog was smelling worse and worse. Sparky, to his credit, gave my friend a big floppy dog smile and wagged his tail at the suggestion that he tried some Eau de Mutt.

Perfumes for pets exist. I didn’t tell my friend this because there are a few things I don’t believe in scenting: New born babies and animals being two of those things. It didn’t surprise me much that pet perfume or fragrances formulated for pets exist out there. What did surprise me was that anyone would spray perfume on their pets to begin with–and often times, these people wouldn’t think twice about squirting Fido with a bottle of Britney Spears Fantasy, never mind a supposed specially formulated pet fragrance.

Now, I’ve never had the urge to spray down my canines or felines with scent whether it was made for them or not. Here’s why: your dogs and cats have a significantly keener sense of smell than you do. My dog could smell coconut oil whenever I moisturized my hands with it. To me, the coconut oil didn’t smell like anything. Imagine how strong perfume smells in the bottle and magnify that by 100x. Imagine that time someone who bathed in fragrance walked by you and it felt like they were ramming their perfume down your throat and that’s why I wouldn’t spray my pet with perfume.

While you might appreciate smelling like your juice of choice, Fido probably wouldn’t like it much on himself. It’ll likely irritate his nose, possibly irritate his skin, annoy him, and who knows what else. Perhaps the adverse effects could be even more serious. Besides, a fruity floral scented dog just sounds silly to me.

So please, keep the perfume off of your pets.

As for what was wrong with Sparky? Turns out he needed some dental work done and a good bath after a trip to the vet. Now he smells like a dog should. No perfume would have solved that.

4 thoughts on “Dog Perfume, What?

  1. Any products we buy for our cat are unscented. Actually, I try to buy most products (that aren’tperfumes) unscented. But since Rusty spends a lot of time on my lap he gets some traces of perfumes that I’m testing. He doesn’t mind. But I would have never done it on purpose!

    • My dog likes to sit close by when I’m trying on samples and occasionally stick his nose in for a sniff. Judging by his interest levels, he appears to be an Annick Goutal dog!

    • Me neither. I usually make sure my dog is clean and I check his teeth now too. My friend’s dog, had problems with his teeth and that caused him to smell. He’s all better now though. 🙂

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