# Removing pitch



## pawsnpaca (Nov 11, 2014)

My girl Moxie has never been easy to bathe, but we girded our loins and got her done this past weekend. Then she took her beautiful self into the yard and rolled in pine needles and pine cones. She now has a dozen or so places where her coat is sticky with pitch. 😡 I know I can use something like vegetable oil to dissolve the pitch, but then I’ll have greasy dog that I’ll have to bathe again. Are there any other ways to get the pitch out of her coat which won’t require another bath (please say yes)?


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Olive oil followed by a quick rinse off - reason to have a handheld shower head if you have dogs.

Get dogs in the bathtub once a week or once every couple weeks, gets easier to bathe them (I can't keep mine OUT of the bathtub)


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## pawsnpaca (Nov 11, 2014)

Megora said:


> et dogs in the bathtub once a week or once every couple weeks, gets easier to bathe them (I can't keep mine OUT of the bathtub


All my dogs have been taught to jump in the tub on command. She’s fine if all I‘m doing is an undercarriage wash (which happens multiple times a day in mud season), but the minute she realizes it will be more than that, I have to use a noose to keep her in the tub, even with my housemate feeding her a steady stream of chicken! I do occasionally splurge and have her professionally groomed, but even they report she’s a PIA about the tub. Now my other dog... all he needs is a licky mat smeared with peanut butter and he’ll stay in the tub all day!

So... yes, I’m fully capable of getting her back in the tub... I just really don’t want to have to.... 😉


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

For the squigglers (like puppies), I sit on the edge of the bathtub (I'm talking regular bathtub in the bathroom) and have a firm hold of the pup's scruff while I very quickly hose down. Pup gets a massage. And then again super quick hose down. 

I don't do any treats or other stuff in the bathtub. It's just no nonsense, wash, scrub, rinse - done.

With the dogs being shown - they just have to learn to get used to it without too much fuss. No bribing, begging, etc. Just get it done. 

Bath shouldn't take longer than 2-5 minutes tops. 

We have an alpine hill out back and white pine woods in the front + cottonwood trees all over (think superglue with the pods in spring).


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## Ontariodogsitter (Feb 23, 2020)

Addy is in love with a small Alberta spruce and managed to get pitch on her head and side and legs.
It too k couple of rainy days and about a week of brushing before, before she was back to her beautiful self. I admit she looked quite disreputable for a few days  but all in all basically a self cleaning puppy.


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## Ivyacres (Jun 3, 2011)

Megora said:


> Olive oil followed by a quick rinse off - reason to have a handheld shower head if you have dogs.
> 
> Get dogs in the bathtub once a week or once every couple weeks, gets easier to bathe them (I can't keep mine OUT of the bathtub)



Please take my advice, get your dog used to the tub from the time you bring him home. We didn't do this. When summer came we bathed Honey outside and also let clean brook/lake water clean her fur. That winter we had a year old who was terrified of the tub. We tried everything but still cannot get her into the tub without lots of wrestling and stress for all of us. If I even ask her if she wants a bath, she'll slink off and find DH for protection, it's kind of cute but...


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

Unfortunately, your best bet really is olive oil or mineral oil. I googled this about a week or two ago when Shala rubbed up against a chopped down pine tree in the park as she and her pal were playing. Peanut butter can apparently work, too, but that option did not appeal to me. I put the oil in the cotton pad to limit spread and cleaned off the sap, then put dish detergent and water on a cotton pad and washed it off. But she only had one spot. You sort of have to hold the oil on the sticky stuff for several seconds to let it soften before you rub it out. Personally, I would just do the oil on cotton on all the spots and then just suck it up and bathe her again. It really is the only way she won't be greasy afterwards if it's really all over her.


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## PaulReidGkG (Oct 21, 2020)

Olive oil a good solution


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