If you've ever had a dog that decided to pick a fight with a skunk you know that the outcome can be rather unpleasant for your dog, and the rest of the family. I had a german shepherd that was sprayed by a skunk on two separate occasions. The first time I tried the ol' tomato juice bath and even used a de-skunking solution purchased from a pet store, but he still smelled like skunk, although not as strong, for about a week. The second incident happened the second night in our new home. I remembered seeing a recipe in a magazine for a solution which claimed to eliminate the skunk odor on contact. I found myself digging through boxes in the basement at midnight to look for my magazines. I then spent some more time looking through the magazines until I found the article.

After a quick trip to a Meijer store to buy the ingredients I returned home to try out the solution on my dog. After the bath I was happy to discover that the odor had been completely neutralized. The recipe consists of only three very common household items which are probably in most people's homes already. The ingredients are:




All you need to do is wet down the dog with a hose, mix the ingredients together in a container, and then slowly pour the mixture over the dog while rubbing it into the fur. After the dog has been bathed in this solution rinse it down with the hose and the dog will be odor free. My dog weighs 90 lbs and I needed to double the amounts shown above, but if you have a small to medium size animal, the recipe listed should do just fine.

Although the ingredients are not dangerous, care should obviously be taken to keep the solution out of your dog's eyes, ears and mouth. Also remember that hydrogen peroxide can bleach clothing and hair, however, my dog's fur never changed color or even faded.

Credit for this recipe goes to chemist, Paul Krebaum, of Molex Inc. in Lisle, Illinois. The above listed ingredients were published in the August 1995 issue of Popluar Science.

If you use this recipe and it works well for you, please send me a quick email. I would love to add your dog to the 'saved' counter at the top of this page.