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This is a recipe I hope you never have to make, but if the day comes when a skunk sprays one of your critters, this truly does the trick.

Skunk-B-Gone from ZestuousWe have two puppies, Speculoos and Diesel. Speculoos is named after my favorite Belgian cookie. We were told by the pound that she was a corgi. A few months later, we rescued Diesel. The shelter told us he was a Blue Heeler/Dachshund mix. Boy were they off.

We had DNA tests done on both of them ~ it’s so easy and really cool. You swab their cheeks and ship the swab off to the lab. About 4 weeks later, you get a family tree for your pup.

SpeculoosOur beloved Corgi turned out to be a Chow/Dachshund/Alaskan Malamute ~ we like to call her a Dach-Chow.

DieselOur little Heeler turned out to be a Chihuahua/Shiba Inu ~ we call him a Shibuahua.

The pups are great, but they are very curious, so my husband decided to put out an electric fence to keep them out of the garden. I didn’t like the idea of shocking the dogs, so I made him test the collar on himself first. Surprisingly, he agreed and tazed himself, and I gave in.

They became trained very quickly, so we removed the wire and just left the flags. For some reason though, Spec decided to test the flags this week. She would creep up to them never hearing a beep and would walk right on through. So…it was time to lay the fence out again.

We put it out around 7 p.m. last night. She got zapped once and learned her boundaries…or so we thought. At about 11 p.m., both pups were outside and they started yelping and hollering. I was so freaked out. I just pictured Spec running back and forth through the electric fence. Fortunately, it wasn’t that at all.

Oh no…instead this cat-like critter charmed my dogs with her tuxedo-like ensemble. Just when Spec and Diesel thought it would be fun to chase this stylish little cat, she deceived them with an eau-de-stink! How rude!

We have a few skunks in our area…along with deer, lizards and other rural animals…and I’ve often wondered what I would do if we crossed paths. Unfortunately, I only wondered and never really prepared for the inevitable.

So last night, we pulled the dogs away from the skunk. There was no odor at first, so we thought we were safe. Then, I leaned my face down to Diesel’s back and WHOA!!! He was tagged. They both were.

What were we to do? It was so dark outside, but we couldn’t bring them inside without a plan. Oh, and I didn’t have gallons of tomato juice ~ a remedy that I heard works. I thought I was going to have to pop open the two cans of diced tomatoes and can of tomato paste in the pantry. I even considered pulsing the pint of cherry tomatoes I have.

Before raiding the kitchen, I went to the Internet and learned that skunk spray is oil-based. I know how hard oil stains are to get out of clothes…so how was I going to get it off a dog. This was going to call for a dissolvent.

There were a few sites out there that recommended the following combination. I grabbed a stainless steel bowl, squeezed in about a teaspoon of liquid dish soap, dumped about ½ cup of baking soda from the box, poured in the rest of the bottle of hydrogen peroxide I had and filled the bowl halfway with water.

I slushed it around as the hubby got the dogs to the shower. Then, I cupped handfuls of the liquid and rubbed it all over them.

I flashed back to high school ~ the time when I would spray peroxide on my hair to get it blonder. Were my dogs going to turn blonder? At this point I didn’t care…at least they wouldn’t be pink from tomato juice.

After a thorough 5-minute scrub, I rinsed them and used regular dog shampoo.

I couldn’t believe it. The smell was gone. I thought for sure when I woke up in the morning, the smell would come back and their fur would be white or oranger…but nope. They just smell like fresh little troublemakers who charm my heart everyday.

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Skunk-B-Gone

Ingredients 

  • 1 tsp. liquid dishwasher soap
  • ½ cup baking soda
  • 2 cups hydrogen peroxide
  • 4 cups water

Instructions 

  • Mix all the ingredients together, but don’t worry about measuring. You won’t have time to pull out the measuring cups, if your pet gets sprayed.
  • Pour the mix onto the animal’s back and rub in all over the body for about 5 minutes.
  • Rinse.
  • Wash your pet with their regular shampoo and rinse.

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Did you try this recipe?Be sure to rate it, leave a comment and save it so you can make it again. Show off your awesome results on social by tagging @zestuous

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Christie Vanover

About Zestuous

Hi. I’m Christie, the head cook and award-winning competitive pitmaster for Team Girls Can Grill. I have won multiple grand championships and have dozens of top ten category finishes. People know me as the girl who is forever hovering over a grill, smoker or campfire with tongs in one hand and a glass of wine in the other.


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5 Comments

  1. My dog looks just like yours – ( the one that looks like a Heeler with a different face color than body). She was adopted in Illinois and now lives with me in California.

  2. I found your site when I was looking up what possible kind puppy my dog could be , our what we thought was heeler , Basenji mix looks just like your dog !

  3. I found your website after getting a DNA test back for my dog (who looks like a heeler/German shepherd mix) and finding out that she’s really a dachsund/malamute/rotty/healer/corgi. I’ve been google image searching combinations of those random breeds and just wanted to say that your Dach-Chow is adorable!

  4. If you’re reading this your canine buddy has probably had a close encounter with a ticked off skunk and you are wondering how you will ever get that skunk smell out of your dog.

  5. Wish I’d had this info back when my dog was sprayed in the ’80s. I actually did end up crushing two 28-ounce cans of plum tomatoes (no tomato juice in my pantry that night either) onto my poor skunk-sprayed pup. (The tomato remedy is highly overrated by the way.) The internet is a great thing. Thanks for sharing – I’ll keep the recipe on file.