How to Make Your Own Dog Shampoo

Dog shampoo is expensive but before you reach for that human shampoo as a substitute to wash your dog with, consider this easy recipe for homemade dog shampoo. The ingredients are inexpensive. More importantly, this shampoo is good for your dog's coat and skin, whereas the majority of human shampoos are not at all good for your dog's coat and skin due to the different PH levels.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 1/2 cup Joy Dish Detergent
• 1/4 cup Water
• 1 Tbs. Aloe Very Gel
• Empty Liquid Hand Soap Dispenser
• Bowl
• Funnel

1. Rinse out an empty liquid hand soap dispenser. You will thank me later for the easy pump action while you have a wet dog in the tub and you have to work with just one hand free. It's also a great way to recycle!

2. Mix the Joy soap and aloe vera gel together gently with a spoon in a separate container. Slowly add the water. Shaking or mixing too fast will only cause it to become a bubbly mess that's hard to properly mix.

3. Using your funnel, pour the dog shampoo into the soap dispenser. If you have extra (or wish to multiply the recipe), pour some into empty shampoo bottles.

4. Mark your dog shampoo containers. It won't hurt anyone to use this as hand soap or human shampoo but they may get upset that what they are using isn't what they had expected. Besides, this is Fido's shampoo - paws off!

Tips & Warnings

• If you must, you can use the Joy dish detergent diluted with water in a pinch.
• Do not substitute the Joy for other forms of dish detergent. Joy is the only soap PH balanced properly for dogs.
• Do not use lemon or any other citrus based soap on dogs. It will cause their coat to become brittle and break.

Resources

• Ironwood Kennel - Author's Coonhounds
• Guide to Ethical Dog Breeding - by Janet Ford

[Sheltie]

on 9/6/2009 Sorry about the multiple comments. Tried to get this to go to facebook and it did not work.

[Sheltie]

on 9/6/2009 Sounds like a great idea for shampoo. Will definitely give it a try. Joy is such a good product and being the proper PH is wonderful.

[Sheltie]

on 9/6/2009 Sounds like a great idea for dog shampoo. Joy is such a good product. Will definitely try this recipe for my Shelties.
Thank you!

[Sheltie]

on 9/6/2009 Joy dish detergent is such a good product, never thought about it for dogs. A great idea for my Shelties.
Thank you!

[Sheltie]

on 9/6/2009 I use Joy for dishes and it smells so good, never thought about it for dogs. A great idea and I will give it a try. Thank you