Pence Gets a Bath Before the Storms Hit

Hey friends! Riley here with this week’s update! (Or…last week’s update that was sent out late lol)

Pence has had quite the weekend here at home. We’ve been meaning to give her a bath for quite some time and finally got around to it!

Ever since our trip to the UP at the end of 2024, she has been quite the dirty and stinky dog. But we don’t like giving the dogs a bath in winter when it’s so cold out. So while she probably hasn’t minded how she’s felt/smelled, we were definitely ready to get her clean.

The reason we don’t like giving them baths in the winter is because we’ve resorted to only giving them baths outdoors. We think it’s less stressful for them.. at least hopefully. We haven’t even tried to give Pence a bath indoors since we’ve had her. She sheds so much that it would probably clog our drains.

So this weekend it was warm enough outside to take her out back and give her a bath. I don’t know if she’d agree with me that it was warm enough though. The water was FREEZING still. This was the first time we’ve used the hose in 2025.

I was by myself with her, so I had to improvise on how to keep her still while I washed her. Normally one of us holds the leash while the other sprays/washes the dogs. I wrapped a leash around the foot of our fire pit so that she couldn’t run off. While being outside is definitely a better setup for her baths, she still likes to try and run away as soon as the hose starts spraying water.

Aside from a few attempts at running off/shaking all the water off, she actually did pretty well this time! She had the shakes, but I’m not sure if it was from the freezing cold water or her stress.

She definitely doesn’t enjoy the initial or final rinses, but she LOVES the scratches and rubs whenever we apply the shampoo. She started trying to lean into me when I was shampooing her, which was a big NOPE from me. I wasn’t trying to get soaked. Though she did get me with a couple shakes throughout the process.

All in all, it was a pretty uneventful bath time for us. I was surprised, especially being by myself.

One thing that was weird though was Pence after the bath. I unhooked her from the leash to dry her off with towels and she went bananas! She wouldn’t stand still to let me dry her off. She kept running off, trying to get into the house. And when I tried to dry her off on the porch, she leapt around, acting all skittish. It’s something I haven’t seen out of her before. I would think she’d like the drying off process because it’s more scritches. But she was not having it at all. She just wanted back to her happy place on the couch ASAP.

I don’t know if was because she was cold or what. So I decided to let her in and dry her off on the couch instead. She was much better about that.

And now she’s the softest doggo. A complete 180 from before the bath. Our hands and blankets will thank us for awhile. But it’s spring time, which means rain and mud in the backyard. I have a strong feeling there’s going to be some digging/rolling in mud in the next few months, so we’ll see how long she stays clean!

Another one of Pence’s least favorite activities happened this week: more storms. Although we ended up lucking out and not having any severe weather at home, we still had numerous close lightning strikes and loud rumbles of thunder.

Like clock work, after the first rumble, Pence got up off the couch and went to the bedroom. Although she doesn’t seek shelter in the closet like Boo, she lays on the bed with all four legs tucked underneath her. Her body vibrates out of nervousness.

Eventually, she came out to the main couch in the living room and laid next to me for a couple hours. She must’ve felt safe there because she stopped shaking. She never lays on this particular spot on this couch!

After a few hours, she finally settled down and put her head down to rest. She will sleep well tonight, I’m sure.

A brief update on Boo…his top 5 activities of the week:

1. Took shelter in the closet during storms

2. Attended his first gender reveal party

3. Developed a new fear of people playing cornhole

4. Embarrassingly stared at a lady with an eye patch

5. Stepped in gum on the ground and got it stuck to his paw and fur

That’s all for now! Talk soon,

-Hannah, Riley, Boo, and Pence