[YorkOfTheShire]

I have discovered that Gypsy likes her bathtime...a lot. We bought a Rubbermaid container and designated it as her bathtub, and she splashes, bats a ball around the surface of the water, pokes around, etc, while being bathed. When she's being blow-dried she likes the scratches we do to separate her hair as she's drying and she'll get all excited.

The problem with this is that after her bath and blow-dry...when we put her on the floor to play, she chucks an absolute fit and will tear off in the direction of the guest room (where we put her tub). She'll whimper at the door for a long time, regardless of how much we try to distract her with toys and treats. She gives us the "abused" look during this time, like we are beating her or something - it's horrible.

Too many baths are not good for a puppy's skin. Even water by itself will remove valuable oils from her if she's wetted down non-stop.

So does anyone have ideas on how to break her of this? We have tried treats. We have tried a lot of toys. We've tried scratches and rubs and she wants no part of that, she just wants the tub. Eventually she gives up and she'll play, but it takes a while. By the time she's done chucking a fit we have very little play time with her because she's tuckered out from the bath, but more tuckered out from the following hissy fit.

I even tried a spritzer and spritzed her with a tiny bit of water to see if that would suffice - she hated it, it only pissed her off.

This is totally new turf to me, as our other two hate bathtime and dry time and are pushing us to hurry up and get them the heck OUT of there in record time, every time. This is not something I would ever expect from a dog. A human toddler - maybe, but not a dog.

Ideas welcome