I remember trips to the cottage as a kid with Brin, our first family dog. Like Tobyn, he was a Bernese Mountain Dog, complete with a heavy black coat of beautiful fur. He wasn’t much for swimming, but he enjoyed wading about near shore, lapping at the water and cooling down. And every year, without fail, he would start to smell of warm vomit mixed with expired bleu cheese after a few days of these wading escapades mixed with hot weather. It was truly wretched, made worse only by the knowledge that we had another 18 hour car trip across the prairies ahead of us, and we would be trapped with our affectionate and furry source of wretched olfactory sin for every minute of it.
My father started to purchase large bottles of heavily perfumed salon shampoos and suds Brin down in the lake on our last day. This resulted in a slight improvement, as the warm vomit smell was blended with chemically floral and fruity scents (it should also be noted that Brin’s coat was very lustrous for a few days as well). And so we would set off, back to Alberta, resigning ourselves to a day of floral tinged rancidity. Ahhh, the memories.
This specific shampoo bar was inspired by one my Aunt Karla and Uncle Randy had for their chocolate lab, Kady. It had a cute, amusing name, and from the looks of the ingredients list, it was a good bar of handmade soap. Together the sudsed Katy from nose to tail in the lake, and she wandered off, shaking, a clean and happy dog.
When I first started thinking about this recipe I ran through a bunch of ideas for essential oils, but in the end I decided to forgo them altogether. Dogs have such sensitive senses of smell that it seemed sort of mean to perfume them up. And, if you’re going to be using this bar in your local lake or river, the fewer ingredients, the better.
The final bar is a simple, hard, cream-coloured bar. You could easily use it as an unscented soap or shampoo for yourself as well, truth be told—there are no “canine exclusive” ingredients in it 😉
I no longer recommend this formulation due to the high pH; check out this newer formulation instead!
Pooch ‘Poo (Dog Shampoo)
25% olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)
25% refined coconut oil (USA / Canada)
30% beef tallow
15% unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada)
5% castor oil (USA / Canada)Per 500g (1.1lbs) oils:
Use SoapCalc to calculate your final amounts of oils, lye, and water based on the size of batch you want to make.
Follow my standard soap making instructions. Once you reach a medium trace, add clay. Pour the soap batter into your mould. Cover, lightly insulate, and let saponify for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, remove the soap from the mould. Slice, and let it age for at least three weeks before using. Enjoy!
Sounds like a nice recipe that won’t hurt them 🙂 Thank you for not putting EO’s in it, especially tea tree. I am still seeing so many people using that unsafe for dogs ingredient in their dog products, and am glad to see that you don’t!!
Thanks, Jeanna!
Nice easy recipe. Do you think that with this recipe you could add neem oil to the shampoo for its bug repellant qualities? Perhaps 1% of the oils- reducing the Shea butter by 1%.
For dog shampoo, I have been told one needs to add in at least 5% neem oil for a little bug protection. I know I made my sisters puppies neem soap at 30% that they ended up using on themselves and their puppies as it keeps mosquitoes away from my sisters, and all the ticks and lice from the puppies (these two sisters live in farmland/forest/ water country) and I use it as well and live in a river/ocean area and get no bug bites (but mine also has clove, rosemary and lavender and other mozzie essential oils to for added mosquito repellent- I loathe bug bites and now work with tiny humans who carry gosh knows what skin issues in a country where they don’t bathe often)
The neem soap will also keep skin issues at bay, help to prevent fungus and viral issues (namely ringworm) and repel pesky bugs of many kinds.
And to be honest with you Ms Marie? I plan on putting neem in practically all my soap recipes during my next soaping season. It may smell worse than a Taco Bell… but it is pure magic!!!
Thanks Penny for the advice! Luckily bugs don’t usually like me, but it’s better safe than itchy 😉
Lucky you!
Very cool, Penny—more inspiration for that new bottle of un-used neem oil in my cupboard 🙂
I don’t see why not 🙂
Woo-hoo! My canine companion thanks you. He will be so happy not to smell like Aveda products in three weeks.
Woo! (or woof!)
This came at a great time Marie. My brother has been asking for dog shampoo, I don’t have the time right now to figure out a recipe, and this one sounds so nice, simple, and healthy. Thank you.
Awesome! Hope he and his pooch enjoy this 🙂
What superfat did you use? I typically run about 5-7% in my people soaps but I have no idea what is appropriate in a soap for dogs! I’ve been apprehensive about making a soap for dogs-lots of soapers feel that the pH of handmade soap is too high for pooches, but lots of others make and use it. I have friends with dogs who will “beta test” it for me. I appreciate you posting this simple recipe-it’s not all that different than my standard one! As a variation, I may try dropping a little shea and add some neem oil.
I stuck to a 5% SF for this one. If you’re concerned about pH, why not encourage the dog owners to wrap up with an acidic rinse like an ACV rinse? That would counter that quite nicely 🙂
I never made soap but can’t wait to try your recipe.
I’ve read that dog’s skin has a different pH than humans, so dog shampoos should be in the neutral range, around 7. Have you measured your recipe’s pH? My dog is a big strong guy with a sensitive skin.
Hi Camille! All true soaps will generally have a pH higher than 7, up to about 10—this is because soap is made with something extremely basic (NaOH or KOH).
to make liquid soap for dogs, could you just use the liquid paste?? You think that would be dog safe? I have been using dog shampoo in the bars to use it up….BUT my one dogs sheds so much that the bar is disgusting. so I was thinking that maybe the liquid soap would be a better option.
This would also call for less neem than in the bars and of course ready to use asap 😉
Hi Anna! I can’t think of any reason why not 🙂
You can certainly use a wee bit of neem oil for fleas … pennyroyal can also be good in small quantities, but should be avoided if your dog or indeed you yourself are pregnant (as it can trigger uterine contractions & ultimately abortion)
To Camille – if you check back – given your pooch has sensitive skin, if you’re comfortable tinkering with recipie (and hopefully Marie you don’t mind me suggesting this?) you might look at adding something like aloe powder or colloidal oatmeal – or even subbing the water out and using something like oat/goat milk or aloe juice instead as they can be more soothing on sensitive skin. (Speaking here as a soaper, ‘ex’ vet & ‘mum’ to one of the world’s itchiest dogs!)
You’re correct about dog skin pH … they tend to run a little more alkaline than ours (typically anywhere from 6.2 up to about 8 from memory). I do use my own bar soap on my dogs with no issues (bigger problem is when the shampoo is too acidic) – but in that respect a liquid is probably better as I’ve found it’s easier to play with pH using things like citric acid to make it more acidic.
And Anna (really hijacking now…sorry *blush*) have you ever tried using something like a ‘Furminator’ before bathtime? It strips out all the dead and ready to shed hair and makes things so much easier!
Thanks, Laura!
hey Marie
well i loved your florid writing style so much that I sent it to my friend who wants to be a writer!! I mean the dog/car/holiday story. Not everyone can write but you can. I love the freedom of expression in your blogs.
Jeanette
Down Under even further than Oz
NZ
Wow, thank you so much Jeanette! You’ve made my day 🙂
Can you use this on cats too? Is there a good recipe for cat shampoo?
As somebody who has never owned a cat I have no idea, other than I don’t think I’d ever want to give a cat a bath haha.
I have been using a diluted oil/serum which I learned of a few years ago on my ridgeback to combat ticks: a few drops of rose geranium and rosemary in a light carrier oil like almond or even olive oil. I rub a few drops on my hands and swab him around the neck ears and down his back and tail area with awesome results. This year I forgot to put it on him before sending him out to play and the poor guy had a fat tick lodged in his ear. Before running for the tweezers which I have to heat up to dislodge it, I reached for this serum and as soon as I stroked the dog with it, the tick started backing out!!! I swear by this stuff! Works great, a little bit of eo to a ton of carrier oil and barely a good petting with a few drops blended in my palms and viola, we are tick free and horrible toxic dog med free! So, this said, I am grateful for this recipe, but I will definitely be adding some rose geranium and rosemary to my soap. Not so much that it smells perfumey for me, but enough to keep him tick free!
Oh, and fyi, I use this on myself too. I hate ticks! We have been using this for 3 years now without I’ll effects for either of us.
Thank you for sharing, Verica! Ticks are disgusting, and having known a few people who have suffered from Lyme’s, they terrify me. I will have to give this a go. I do think it would probably be best for you to save your EOs rather than putting them in soap as the soap/shampoo will be rinsed out entirely, taking the essential oils with it, and likely leaving no tick repellent benefits behind. With how pricey rose geranium can be, wasting it would be rather sad 🙁
Not to mention Rosemary is highly toxic to dogs.
My mother’s dog developed severe seizures by her use of it in a diffuser.
Save your fur babies – don’t use dangerous EOs
I don’t have Tallow available to use, what oil would you substitute for the fat?
Hey Danica! I wrote a whole blog on this 🙂
Hi, this may sound a little weird but I would like to use this soap on my bunny-he’s an inside bunny, but when I take him on walks he gets SUPER muddy. He is one of those rare bunnies that enjoys baths, and I figured making a natural soap like this would make bath time a whole lot easier (and better smelling). If it works I would like to gift some to a few fellow bunny-owners, and I just know they would turn their noses up at tallow (unfortunately, as a vegetarian it seems like such a good idea since it’s going to waste anyway). I read your post about tallow, but I’m still a little confused (major newbie here). Do I simply replace the 30% tallow with 30% cocoa butter, or do I need to switch up the percentages? Also, would anything change if I infused the olive oil with calendula or chamomile? Sorry one more thing, would you wash a baby with this soap? (trying to judge how gentle it is). Thanks so much, sorry for being a pain!
I responded to most of this on your other comment on a different post 🙂 Infusing with herbs won’t meaningfully change anything SAP-wise. If you want a tallow-free soap that uses cocoa butter, check out this recipe for some ideas of percentages and what not.
This soap is still going to be very basic because it is soap, and will burn if it gets in the eyes, so I might not use it on a baby as they are pretty unpredictable and pretty crap at closing their eyes on command 😛
Yes thank you, I didn’t realise, silly me! Thanks for the reply 🙂
Instead of beef tallow can lard be used?
Yup!
Hello Marie. Which essential oil is safe for dogs to add to the soap?
From the post: “When I first started thinking about this recipe I ran through a bunch of ideas for essential oils, but in the end I decided to forgo them altogether. Dogs have such sensitive senses of smell that it seemed sort of mean to perfume them up. And, if you’re going to be using this bar in your local lake or river, the fewer ingredients, the better.”
I do not recommend adding any essential oils to this product.
Lye (sodium hydroxide) is too high in pH for the dogs skin. They have fewer skin layers so this will cause skin irritations like dermatitis, rashes etc
That is why I’ve upgraded to this formulation in recent years 🙂 Thanks for reminding me that I need to mark it as old and re-direct people 🙂 Happy making!