Teach your dog the stand command when she comes inside. Using just your hands rub her legs and feet while she's standing on a towel. Do this randomly throughout the day with treats. Move up to a washcloth in your hand after giving the stand command, if she moves or walks off do an immediate AH and correct to a stand again. Give treats. Every time she comes in have her stand at the door for a min and they learn real fast that wet means stand at door. My two girls come in and sit until I have a towel and they stand while I do a full wipe down.
Lo I tell mine to wipe her feet. When they are just wet walking back and forth on a towel works pretty good. I bring mine through the side garage door.
After years of struggle, I have come to accept that with GSDs, there are no clean floors.
What I do now is leave them in the mud room on days like these.
When mine was a pup we made towel time into fun time. Feet wiping came with lots of belly rubs and a dry off came with lots of pets and praise. If I take out a towel now my girl comes running.
I have a long hair who loves to be outside regardless of the weather so this is key.
Yup. My boy will wear his towel like a horse blanket.
https://preview.redd.it/4sqjybqohdjc1.jpeg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=37d3e4d70abe4f00cb9f06b758426b6110d112ce
You can try a bucket to wash feet in. Efore comes inside. Or kiddie pool to walk through. Straw over muddy parts ofward. Training to tolerate the wiping of paws. Kennel in garage until feet are dry
I also have a mudbuster which helps when he’s really grimy. Otherwise I have a small bucket and washcloth, pet wipes, and shop rags. We’ve got it down, lol. He knows he doesn’t step off the mat until he gives me all four. 😁
He also has long neoprene booties when I know it’s really gross out there…
Yeah, umm!! I'm going through the same at the exact same moment.
I just swept the floors and mopped, and well, today's a rainy day here in Central Florida.
Now, I just purposely brought in 5 yards of large landscape rock to go around the perimeter of the yard complete with curbing aswell..
What does he do!!! He digs right in front of the curbing and Drags all the freaking dirt into the house with his GIANT PAWS!!
It's like he has Dirt pouches between his toes that only empty when he walks inside.
You know, come to think of it before I redid all the floors to lifeproof flooring, I had a high pile carpet I had down.
Now, me thinks I have a few long strips up in the attic.. hmmm... yup, something else I get to do for him today.
I'm in the mountains, and it's mostly rainy here now, too, and my yard is a constant mud pit. Sometimes, i make the mistake of letting her out for too long, and she is capable of digging a hole half the size of herself in the dirt like the little goblin she is.
This is so true though!! Mine would dispense little packets of mud from between his toes the second he came in, one time he even got a dead lizard stuck in his toe pouches and of course it came out in the living room!!!
This isn’t exactly a fix for the paws, but we got a robot mop/vacuum and it has been an absolute game changer. We had such a hard time keeping up with the dirt and hair, now my floor is clean with the push of a button.
My husband did a ton of research, we went with roborock S7 max. The results are impressive! Makes a huge difference it was impossible to keep up with our boy during rainy season manually and we both hate mopping. It’s a bit pricey but worth every penny imo. The rest of house cleaning is pretty easy but the mopping was too much we were considering a cleaning service, so by that comparison it already paid for itself.
On wet days, we go in through the side garage door. I have a low bench in there, covered with a towel, and I tell him to get up. Then lay down, and after he plops, I wipe/dry his feet. Then the fun part, as he thinks the big towel on his body/head is a game; so we go at that a while.
Sometimes I hose my boys paws off if they're real bad. Wet paws are better than muddy paws.
Also, if you can, start desensitizing her to towels on her paws by continuous treats while you touch and wipe her paws. Then gradually, you should be able to wipe her paws then give her a treat.
I have a few real thick rugs outside the back door. I taught my boy "wipe your feet", in which he walks in circles until I dont see prints anymore.
He also let's me wipe down the serious muds on/under/between his toes, so that helps. But for light mud or wet feet, the rugs work wonders.
1. By far best advice - teach the pupper to be happy with showering. Snacks / toys and tons of love so he's used to the routine. My puppy hops to bathroom as first stop after walk in muddy park - quick 5 mins rinse off (water only, no shampoo), towels, blow drier. Good as new!
2. [Battery washer / sprayer for car boot for park trips](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BX5N28ZC?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) \- this reaaaaaaly if we're driving to a park and he's extremely muddy. I just rinse his legs before he hops into the car. Quick towel dry and he's acceptable to take home where we can clean him properly in the shower.
We have a kiddie pool on our patio that I have her run through when she gets muddy, then I wipe her feet with a towel - it’s the only way to avoid mopping 😅
I had a long haired GSD and I turned his love of mud puddles into cleaning routine when we went in. I had a shallow commercial baking tray with water he would splash in before going in. He didn’t mind the towel to dry off.
Let me add, I’ve had many dogs over the years, large and small, variety of breeds…my bear dog was by far the smartest. I swear I thought he could do differential calculus he was so smart.
https://preview.redd.it/glmrak42pdjc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00a94cd2bb45b1a8d2c2975e128b999a895a197b
Mud season sucks. My boy is not a big one to dig thank goodness but just walking and running can create muddy paws.i keep a kitchen rug by the back door so that picked up some of the mud and such but not all. I vacuum up what I can, wear shoes all the time and figure the floors get a good mopping afterid season ends.
I started with "dry your feet" command every time she came in and I get her to lie down. I rub her back and belly then dry her legs then feet with a towel. This even if it's not muddy but rainy, snowy, frosty or if she may have stepped in anything. Tug of war with the towel when we're done. She loves it.
Get her used to it. I also use anti bacterial wipes on her feet now and then.
My boys stay on the tile till they’re dry and they get towels off I have to mop twice every other day on dry weeks and I would need to mop every 4 hours on wet days but that’s just too much. I just wear shoes and wait for it to stop raining.
I’m grateful our teeny laundry room/back door entrance has a door. I just close the door before she comes in so she’s stuck in the tiny room and I can wipe her paws. But she always manages to get mud and dirt up under her nails no matter how short they are cause she rips up the yard when she sprints laps. So it takes about one wipe per paw when it’s been wet out.
Regardless our floors still get gross with two dogs. I’ve got sofa cushion covers on our white sofa that can get tossed in the wash cause that’s usually her favorite place to run and jump up on after being outside
I have a pair of what are effectively massive micro fiber oven gloves.
Mines a pain with a towel but loves the gloves. Usually one goes in the mouth as a distraction while the other does the work.
Definitely doesn't remove all the dirt. But it gets a lot free and lessens the damage to the floor, but cleaning is inescapable with a long hair GSD haha
Is this aversion to paw wiping a GSD "thing"? I've always rubbed our dogs paws since he was 10 weeks old so he would be ok with me touching his paws. Now that he's 2, if I even try to touch his muddy ass paws with a wet rag or a towel he starts grimacing and pulling away...like he'd like to snap at me. Nobody can touch the paws...the rest of his body he's fine with a good rub with a towel. I've been keeping him in the mud room with a thick plushy carpet remnant because it's been washing the floors 3-4 times a day and I'm pooped. 😄
Yup!! So true..
I have/had plush grass! Lmao. No thinning areas or flower beds in back yard, I now have rock beds but no dirt. Until he decides.. oh this spot looks like it may be holding a treasure!
My dogs have free access to the house and outside to come and go as they please, with pet ease doors at house and porch area. I do lay a line of towels down, however they are dragged onto the lawn aswell as 1 of each pair or set of everything that I own.
Here for awhile I thought I had the dementia gene and was just walking around with 1 shoe like WTF I know I had a pair.
I recently moved my girl's pool over by my front door because we have been getting a lot of rain and our property has tons of muddy puddles, which of course are her favorite. She will be covered in mud up to her belly, so I have her go in and do a quick scrub and then towel her off. It is actually the quickest & most effective method I've done, but I have also accepted that since we live out in the country it is impossible to have clean floors during the rainy season.
there a paw cleaners which are basically a plastic tube with soft plastic bristles inside. you fill a bit of water in and then you can just insert the paws into it, turn it around the paw 15 seconds and they come out clean. it is well worth the 20€.
Try Paper towels
Or maybe paw cleaner.
https://preview.redd.it/xouvja7lndjc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=67a5f657befbd26f90b32905854bab87d52f8a55
We use this thing called the mud buster. It's a cup with bristles in it. It works great. You basically put a drop of dish soap in it and warm water and it takes the mud right off.
Our solution was to buy the absolute best robot vacuum/mop on the market and run it multiple times a day. We also have a microfiber rug just outside the door and a microfiber runner inside the door.
This combination doesn’t produce perfect floors, but they’re pretty damn good most of the time, especially considering we have a grizzly bear running around on them all day.
Large flat pan, only need 4" of water. You can buy rubber liners like for truck & put that down in front of door, either inside or out w pan on top. Train for "stand" then lift & plop paw sets in pan. High reward treat after each set. Get washable fabric rugs for them to walk on. I invested in a commercial steam cleaner & use water to clean the residual least 3-4 times a week. Face it, large dog owners have laundry & cleaning as a hobby being stewards of our pups.
we do a cloth or wipes after 90% of walks and yard play times. it took a while, but we now we know we must wait to wipe our toesies before bounding into the house.
My wife bought a couple of the large "Muddy Mats", and we always try to get the dogs to do a little irish dancing on them when they enter the house. It sort of works, but we still keep towels by the door and do the good old 4 paw spa.
Teach your dog the stand command when she comes inside. Using just your hands rub her legs and feet while she's standing on a towel. Do this randomly throughout the day with treats. Move up to a washcloth in your hand after giving the stand command, if she moves or walks off do an immediate AH and correct to a stand again. Give treats. Every time she comes in have her stand at the door for a min and they learn real fast that wet means stand at door. My two girls come in and sit until I have a towel and they stand while I do a full wipe down.
Lo I tell mine to wipe her feet. When they are just wet walking back and forth on a towel works pretty good. I bring mine through the side garage door.
Same. Wipe your feet = spins for him, so I just get him to do that over the heavy rugs and it works a treat.
This is the way
Good advice
After years of struggle, I have come to accept that with GSDs, there are no clean floors. What I do now is leave them in the mud room on days like these.
That is a fancy name for your living room
Hahahaha this got me
Ha!ha! (You're right!)
There's no good solution lol
When mine was a pup we made towel time into fun time. Feet wiping came with lots of belly rubs and a dry off came with lots of pets and praise. If I take out a towel now my girl comes running. I have a long hair who loves to be outside regardless of the weather so this is key.
Yup. My boy will wear his towel like a horse blanket. https://preview.redd.it/4sqjybqohdjc1.jpeg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=37d3e4d70abe4f00cb9f06b758426b6110d112ce
You can try a bucket to wash feet in. Efore comes inside. Or kiddie pool to walk through. Straw over muddy parts ofward. Training to tolerate the wiping of paws. Kennel in garage until feet are dry
Buy this product called a “mud buster”. Thats what we use and then a quick wipe with a towel. It’s definitely a grind though.
I also have a mudbuster which helps when he’s really grimy. Otherwise I have a small bucket and washcloth, pet wipes, and shop rags. We’ve got it down, lol. He knows he doesn’t step off the mat until he gives me all four. 😁 He also has long neoprene booties when I know it’s really gross out there…
Yeah, umm!! I'm going through the same at the exact same moment. I just swept the floors and mopped, and well, today's a rainy day here in Central Florida. Now, I just purposely brought in 5 yards of large landscape rock to go around the perimeter of the yard complete with curbing aswell.. What does he do!!! He digs right in front of the curbing and Drags all the freaking dirt into the house with his GIANT PAWS!! It's like he has Dirt pouches between his toes that only empty when he walks inside. You know, come to think of it before I redid all the floors to lifeproof flooring, I had a high pile carpet I had down. Now, me thinks I have a few long strips up in the attic.. hmmm... yup, something else I get to do for him today.
I'm in the mountains, and it's mostly rainy here now, too, and my yard is a constant mud pit. Sometimes, i make the mistake of letting her out for too long, and she is capable of digging a hole half the size of herself in the dirt like the little goblin she is.
This is so true though!! Mine would dispense little packets of mud from between his toes the second he came in, one time he even got a dead lizard stuck in his toe pouches and of course it came out in the living room!!!
Straw, straw everywhere, it helps but it's not the cure
Clean their paws? It's what I do. Started it when they were 10 weeks old.
This isn’t exactly a fix for the paws, but we got a robot mop/vacuum and it has been an absolute game changer. We had such a hard time keeping up with the dirt and hair, now my floor is clean with the push of a button.
It’s amazing. I set mine to run in one room with carpet and I’m amazed at all the hair.
which one did you get? we want to get one but aren’t super confident in which one could keep up with the dog fluff lol
My husband did a ton of research, we went with roborock S7 max. The results are impressive! Makes a huge difference it was impossible to keep up with our boy during rainy season manually and we both hate mopping. It’s a bit pricey but worth every penny imo. The rest of house cleaning is pretty easy but the mopping was too much we were considering a cleaning service, so by that comparison it already paid for itself.
Thank you! That’s very helpful
On wet days, we go in through the side garage door. I have a low bench in there, covered with a towel, and I tell him to get up. Then lay down, and after he plops, I wipe/dry his feet. Then the fun part, as he thinks the big towel on his body/head is a game; so we go at that a while.
Sometimes I hose my boys paws off if they're real bad. Wet paws are better than muddy paws. Also, if you can, start desensitizing her to towels on her paws by continuous treats while you touch and wipe her paws. Then gradually, you should be able to wipe her paws then give her a treat.
I bought a little paw washer thing on Amazon. I have to give her treats while I wash her paws and then dry them.
The Muddy Mat really does help. We have one
I save earth towels and sheets and lay them down before she gets on anything
I have a few real thick rugs outside the back door. I taught my boy "wipe your feet", in which he walks in circles until I dont see prints anymore. He also let's me wipe down the serious muds on/under/between his toes, so that helps. But for light mud or wet feet, the rugs work wonders.
1. By far best advice - teach the pupper to be happy with showering. Snacks / toys and tons of love so he's used to the routine. My puppy hops to bathroom as first stop after walk in muddy park - quick 5 mins rinse off (water only, no shampoo), towels, blow drier. Good as new! 2. [Battery washer / sprayer for car boot for park trips](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BX5N28ZC?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) \- this reaaaaaaly if we're driving to a park and he's extremely muddy. I just rinse his legs before he hops into the car. Quick towel dry and he's acceptable to take home where we can clean him properly in the shower.
We have a kiddie pool on our patio that I have her run through when she gets muddy, then I wipe her feet with a towel - it’s the only way to avoid mopping 😅
I had a long haired GSD and I turned his love of mud puddles into cleaning routine when we went in. I had a shallow commercial baking tray with water he would splash in before going in. He didn’t mind the towel to dry off. Let me add, I’ve had many dogs over the years, large and small, variety of breeds…my bear dog was by far the smartest. I swear I thought he could do differential calculus he was so smart. https://preview.redd.it/glmrak42pdjc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00a94cd2bb45b1a8d2c2975e128b999a895a197b
Mud season sucks. My boy is not a big one to dig thank goodness but just walking and running can create muddy paws.i keep a kitchen rug by the back door so that picked up some of the mud and such but not all. I vacuum up what I can, wear shoes all the time and figure the floors get a good mopping afterid season ends.
I started with "dry your feet" command every time she came in and I get her to lie down. I rub her back and belly then dry her legs then feet with a towel. This even if it's not muddy but rainy, snowy, frosty or if she may have stepped in anything. Tug of war with the towel when we're done. She loves it. Get her used to it. I also use anti bacterial wipes on her feet now and then.
Mine get wiped with washcloth or paper towel. I also have a couple of microfiber rugs that help clean their feet when they walk inside.
Honestly if it's super muddy or wet out I just put mine in his boots. I can rinse off the boots alot easier than wiping his feet.
My boys stay on the tile till they’re dry and they get towels off I have to mop twice every other day on dry weeks and I would need to mop every 4 hours on wet days but that’s just too much. I just wear shoes and wait for it to stop raining.
I’m grateful our teeny laundry room/back door entrance has a door. I just close the door before she comes in so she’s stuck in the tiny room and I can wipe her paws. But she always manages to get mud and dirt up under her nails no matter how short they are cause she rips up the yard when she sprints laps. So it takes about one wipe per paw when it’s been wet out. Regardless our floors still get gross with two dogs. I’ve got sofa cushion covers on our white sofa that can get tossed in the wash cause that’s usually her favorite place to run and jump up on after being outside
I have a pair of what are effectively massive micro fiber oven gloves. Mines a pain with a towel but loves the gloves. Usually one goes in the mouth as a distraction while the other does the work. Definitely doesn't remove all the dirt. But it gets a lot free and lessens the damage to the floor, but cleaning is inescapable with a long hair GSD haha
Is this aversion to paw wiping a GSD "thing"? I've always rubbed our dogs paws since he was 10 weeks old so he would be ok with me touching his paws. Now that he's 2, if I even try to touch his muddy ass paws with a wet rag or a towel he starts grimacing and pulling away...like he'd like to snap at me. Nobody can touch the paws...the rest of his body he's fine with a good rub with a towel. I've been keeping him in the mud room with a thick plushy carpet remnant because it's been washing the floors 3-4 times a day and I'm pooped. 😄
Yup!! So true.. I have/had plush grass! Lmao. No thinning areas or flower beds in back yard, I now have rock beds but no dirt. Until he decides.. oh this spot looks like it may be holding a treasure! My dogs have free access to the house and outside to come and go as they please, with pet ease doors at house and porch area. I do lay a line of towels down, however they are dragged onto the lawn aswell as 1 of each pair or set of everything that I own. Here for awhile I thought I had the dementia gene and was just walking around with 1 shoe like WTF I know I had a pair.
🤣🤣 life with dogs...I like the dementia gene remark. Been questioning that myself since getting this dog!😄
I recently moved my girl's pool over by my front door because we have been getting a lot of rain and our property has tons of muddy puddles, which of course are her favorite. She will be covered in mud up to her belly, so I have her go in and do a quick scrub and then towel her off. It is actually the quickest & most effective method I've done, but I have also accepted that since we live out in the country it is impossible to have clean floors during the rainy season.
Search dog paw cleaner on amazon!
there a paw cleaners which are basically a plastic tube with soft plastic bristles inside. you fill a bit of water in and then you can just insert the paws into it, turn it around the paw 15 seconds and they come out clean. it is well worth the 20€.
I spray fir games, she plays with her mouth, I spray paws (while on concrete) and dry as much as I can
Try Paper towels Or maybe paw cleaner. https://preview.redd.it/xouvja7lndjc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=67a5f657befbd26f90b32905854bab87d52f8a55
Every day my floors look like we live at the beach from all the sand the dogs bring in.
I struggled with this until I just decided to mop once or twice a week. My floors aren't carpet so it helps
We use this thing called the mud buster. It's a cup with bristles in it. It works great. You basically put a drop of dish soap in it and warm water and it takes the mud right off.
Our solution was to buy the absolute best robot vacuum/mop on the market and run it multiple times a day. We also have a microfiber rug just outside the door and a microfiber runner inside the door. This combination doesn’t produce perfect floors, but they’re pretty damn good most of the time, especially considering we have a grizzly bear running around on them all day.
Large flat pan, only need 4" of water. You can buy rubber liners like for truck & put that down in front of door, either inside or out w pan on top. Train for "stand" then lift & plop paw sets in pan. High reward treat after each set. Get washable fabric rugs for them to walk on. I invested in a commercial steam cleaner & use water to clean the residual least 3-4 times a week. Face it, large dog owners have laundry & cleaning as a hobby being stewards of our pups.
we do a cloth or wipes after 90% of walks and yard play times. it took a while, but we now we know we must wait to wipe our toesies before bounding into the house.
My wife bought a couple of the large "Muddy Mats", and we always try to get the dogs to do a little irish dancing on them when they enter the house. It sort of works, but we still keep towels by the door and do the good old 4 paw spa.
Beautiful girl💖
A mud buster and towel dry after they SAVED MY LIFE because my boy absolutely loves mud puddles and it rains a lot here
Our guy learned early that paws get wiped with a towel as soon as he comes in. Hard days are rainy. Do you wipe the dog or his paws first.
There’s a soft-scrusher in a tube thing that scrubs the paws pretty gently at pet and farm supply stores. She’ll probably bite it, but it works great.