there are some states where it is illegal to dye animals. Florida is one of those states. The law in FL was made many many years ago back when people used to dump chicks and bunnies into vats of unsafe dye to color them for the holidays. Whichever chicks and bunnies survived the dunking were sold.

Morgan is one hot little punk!

I have a bunch of pet-safe dyes I am planning to use at some point. I am thinking about trying something for Valentines Day. Maybe dark red on the tail, and fading to natural on his body.

I think putting clothes on pets is exactly the same as dyeing them, assuming you use a safe dye. I would guess some dogs would even prefer a dye job to wearing clothes.

Thanks for saying this. It's exactly what I was thinking!

Seriously? Go look at the warnings on some of even pet safe dye and tell me you still feel that way. Clothes dont cause pain.

I would never put dye in Lucy's hair.

I've thought about doing something like that to Muffin because she's creamy white, but I'm afraid I'll regret it.:shocked7q:blush:

When I was little about 8 yrs old.These 3 punk rock girls with pink, purple and one had all different colored hair would walk by my house after school. My friends and I would make fun of them and say things in "valley girl" talk.:angel2::embar: We're lucky they didn't beat us up.;):D:eek:

Anyway, I really liked the light pink hair and I thought I wanted it when I was older.:cool: Thank God all my friends were more preppy than punk rock... I can't imagine having had pink hair now.:p

Obviously, if the dye causes the pet pain, I would be against it. But dying a dog's hair is not the same as what they do in a human hair salon. Some people just use food coloring. A couple people here have dyed their dogs' fur for Halloween or some other occasion, and they all said if anything, the dogs loved the extra attention they got.

I can't say for sure, but I would guess a "vegetable" based dye couldn't hurt...and of course one doesn't rub it into the skin - it's only applied to the hair. Also, the dyes I am aware of (with admitted limited knowledge) apparently slowly shampoo out over time (4-6 shampoo's ?? as I understand it).
And I thought a lot of show breeders "enhance" their dogs' hair? What do they use? I wouldn't think those spray colors as I know that's very stiff and rubs off.
I would agree checking the ingredients would be important.
Dogs have been being dyed around the world for decades so I doubt it could be too harmful.
A pink maltese would be cute. I saw some tv show where everything the lady had was pink...including her dog.

That was probably Cesar Milan. :) I remember that episode. I thought he was going to rip her a new one about having a pink dog, but he didn't say a word.

If you MUST dye your dog's hair... A lot of kids dye their hair with jello. I would not use the sugar-free kind because artificial sugars can be toxic to dogs and you know they're going to try to lick it off. I'd also worry about getting it anywhere near the dog's eyes.

I don't think you can do much about the dark hair except perhaps change the tone of it a little. You can't remove the existing color without a bleaching agent like peroxide, which I think would be just too dangerous to use on a pet. So you would be adding a color on top of the existing dark color.

Funny this topic should come up tonight because I just told my hairdresser two hours ago that I'm going to stop having her color my hair because of the toxicity of the chemicals. A couple of years ago there was a study showing that hairdressers have a higher incidence of bladder cancer than the general population and linked the combination of dyes with peroxides to a carcinogenic chemical reaction. That's been running around in the back of my mind since I read about it. I don't think you want to expose your beloved pet to that kind of risk, let alone allergic reactions to dyes or just plain itching from dry skin.

Maybe you could settle for photoshopping color onto a photo of your dog? Come to think of it, I might give Tallulah a photoshopped dye job for Valentine's Day.

Hitting, ignoring and not feeding is abuse - spending time with your dog, colouring your dog's fur is not abuse. If the dye is vegetable based (no chemicals) it will not damage the fur at all. People should be allowed to enjoy their pets. It may not be for everyone but for anyone who wants to do it - give them a break! How many people that are against this practice have pierced their babies ears?? Each to their own!!:)

To each their own. I personally wouldn't dye my yorkie. I googled dogs with hair dye and there were some pretty impressive dye jobs like teenaged mutant turtles, tigers, clown, peacock, etc. I think those were for holidays or competitions. Some of the homemade dye jobs weren't very tasteful so in that instance I wouldn't want my dog to look like that.

Have you at all considered that a pink mohawk went out in the 80's?