Removing Skunk Smell From Your Dog

I will never forget the first time my dog was sprayed by a skunk; the smell was so intense I literally thought we had an electrical fire in our home. My poor dog was walking around sneezing, yet I had my husband in the attic looking for the fire. I can laugh now, but fresh skunk smell can take your breath away.

Once we realized it was our poor dog that smelled, we put her in the tub to bathe her beard. Of course, it would be our full-bearded Bouvier to be the dog sprayed by a skunk, and it was midnight. Poor girl, I shampooed her long beard and mustache with anything I could find, and it still stunk.

Getting Rid of Skunk Smell

Since this happened at night, we tried a homemade skunk smell removal recipe at first. It removed ¼ of the smell, but Nature’s Miracle removed the rest of it. Afterwards, a faint skunk odor would still be present whenever she got wet from playing in the rain. However, my sense of smell is my superpower. I can track like a Bloodhound.

How to Make Your Own Skunk Smell Remover

After bathing my poor dog several times with dog and human (I know I’m not supposed to, but it stunk so bad) shampoo, I grabbed my computer and searched online. A simple de-skunk recipe popped up over and over, so I gave it a try. Seriously, it was the middle of the night and our house smelled awful; I had to do something.

Recipe for Homemade Skunk Smell Remover

In an empty bottle, or large bowl in our case, mix the following ingredients together:

• A bottle (1 quart) of 3% hydrogen peroxide
• ¼ cup of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of liquid dishwasher detergent (we used Dawn)

Squirt or pour the skunk smell remover over the skunked area several times, making sure to avoid your dog’s eyes. We used a cup around our dog’s muzzle. Rub the mixture into the coat, especially for long-coated areas.

Next, shampoo the mixture out of your dog’s coat. Apply a tearless dog shampoo and rub thoroughly into your dog’s skin and fur. Rinse and repeat by shampooing your dog’s coat again just to make sure this mixture is completely removed.

Nature’s Miracle Skunk Remover

Once stores were open the next day, I popped in and grabbed any product that promised to remove that awful smell. Apparently I smelled like skunk too because the young cashier wrinkled her nose, as I embarrassingly paid for these products and slinked out the door.

There were a couple of products that worked pretty well, but Nature’s Miracle Skunk Remover did the trick for us. Follow the directions, don’t dilute the mixture, pour it straight onto your dog’s affected coat and allow it to sit. Rinse and repeat. You’ll probably need to repeat the process 3-4 times to remove the maximum amount of skunk smell.

Don’t Let It Happen Again

An important step is to make sure skunks don’t spray your dog again. When this happened, we lived in an extremely rural area and the skunk refused to move. She made a nest adjacent to our backyard and was determined to raise her children there too! If you’re lucky, the skunk that sprayed your dog is miles away by now.

Well, I wasn’t going out there to chase the skunk away, so I placed sturdy exercise pens (portable metal fences) diagonally 10 feet from her nest, which is the furthest a skunk can spray. Then, I covered these portable fences with old outdoor carpet, so the dogs couldn’t see her. And yes, our dogs ran to the fence every time they went outside, but she didn’t spray them. After a week, she moved on. Maybe we were loud neighbors.

I’m sure you’ll never forget your first encounter with skunk spray! 🙂

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