Can anyone guess?
Hydrogen peroxide!
Does everyone know why?
SKUNK!!!
Probably everyone knows this, but I still hear the occasional person mention tomato juice as a skunk odor removal. All tomato juice does is make such a mess that you might temporarily forget that your dog stinks.
And everyone knows that skunks only come out at night, right? So that is most likely when your dog will get sprayed by a skunk.
And who really wants to go out in the middle of the night or very early in the morning to look for hydrogen peroxide?
One of the first time one of my dogs got skunked was shortly after I moved here. I didn’t even have a fence. I had come home from a night shift, and it happened. I had to leave my dog outside, yelling at him “YOU STAY THERE” while I drove off in search of H2O2.
About 4:30 this morning, Bess let out an alarm bark. She considers herself the early warning system for Noah. Because sometimes he sleeps very soundly. Anyway, the next thing I knew, Noah barked, followed by that horrible rotting flesh smell….
I actually managed to kind of sleep until 6am, and then the search was on for hydrogen peroxide. Under the kitchen sink? Nope. How about the bathroom cabinet? Nope, but I did straighten up under there. Maybe. Just maybe there would be some out in the laundry dungeon. BINGO!!!! I was so glad to see that ancient bottle of H2O2.
Here’s the formula, in case you haven’t heard of it: 1 bottle of hydrogen peroxide (2 cups,) 2 Tbsp baking soda, and 1 Tbsp dish detergent (like Dawn.) Mix well, and wash the skunky parts of your dog with this. Try to let it sit on your dog for a few minutes, and then rinse very well. Don’t put any leftover solution in a closed container and save it. Evidently it will explode.
Anyway, we are now all clean and relatively smell-less. It was actually very fortunate that I had decided to give Noah a bath yesterday. It was easy to identify where he stunk and just wash those parts.
Have a sweet smelling weekend everyone!
debby weighs in 
Actually, I didn’t know about this, and we DO occasionally have skunks in our neighborhood, so I appreciate the advice and the recipe (and the explosion caution, LOL).
This is the time of year around here when the skunks are always out when I go out to run. They love that 4:30-5:30ish time frame – just dark enough to dig around in yards and parks. It will be that way until they hibernate as it’s now dark when I go out. It’s usually also the reason why I stick to running in the road vs. the sidewalks this time of year. However, sometimes I have to get on the sidewalk and I ran right up on one this morning because I was so busy watching his buddy that I had just noticed. You’ve never seen someone dash so fast in their whole life!
I’ll have to remember this recipe – had a friend ask me the other day if I knew the best way to deskunk a dog.
Oh my, I can’t imagine. Interesting though, I realized I haven’t seen any sign of or smelled a skunk since we moved into the condo. Maybe they don’t live on this side of town! LOL!
We have skunks that spray really close to our house a couple times a week. So close that it smells like onions. Yuck! Good think Pixie doesn’t go outside.
I’ve never experienced direct skunk spray , but I weirdly think the scent is interesting. Of course, from the distance of my car-windows up.
I’ve never heard the exploding leftovers bit! My “recipe” is from a skunk researcher and is almost the same except specifies 3% Hydrogen Peroxide, 1/4 c baking soda and 1/2 T dish soap. I’ve never had to try it though as Bobbin and Snippet are indoor kitties. Good to know it really works! Even better to know the precautionary statement. Now, go out and smell the roses. 😉