Tips for lifting large dog into a bathtub?

[CrowneDragon]

My big guy needs frequent baths for itchy skin, and he is too unstable and weak to hop in on his own (not that he really wants to… ), and I can’t lift his 90 lbs myself, all at once. Right now I put his front end in and then back end, but that high-centers his belly on the side of the tub and is a precarious position given his poor balance. Does anyone have any tips for this? I haven’t come up with a step arrangement that works, and getting him in and out of the car to take anywhere is just as hard.

Help?

[MistyBlue]

I’ve always had big dogs and quite a few weren’t fans of tubs.

I’ve had a handful of dogs that outweighed me by quite a bit and was able to lift them into tubs (or trucks when they get older) with a body harness.
I’d get a lifting body harness (they do make those) or a pulling harness (for sleds) or even a long body walking harness.
Then use two short nylon leashes and clip one to the harness between the shoulders and the other at the back end of the harness closer to his hind end. When clipping the leashes on, first slide the handle end under the harness between the shoulders, then run the length of the leach through the handle and pull tight like a noose. Then loop the clip end back around and clip onto the harness.
Repeat with the other leash on the hind end of the harness. Bend over and slide both leash-loops made around each shoulder. Stand up and see how high that lifts the dog. Depending on your dog’s height and your own, you may have to tie knots in the leashes to make them shorter so the dog lifts higher when you stand up.

This works for big dogs. I was able to lift 150-175 lb dogs this way and those are more than my weight. But at my height, if the dog was really tall, I could never get the feet higher than the tub, LOL! But they didn’t have a choice and had to get in the tub with me since the were tied to me anyway. :winkgrin:

Hope this helps!

[CrowneDragon]

Wow. OK, so basically you make a leach loop at each end of a harness, slide those over your shoulders, and then lift the dog with your shoulders/back/legs? That might just work! Thought the dog will think I’ve lost my mind. He’s “only” 90 lbs, and I’m 5’8", so this is a very intriguing idea…
Off to look at harness options…

[MistyBlue]

Yup, that’s how I do it.
And 90 lbs is still hard as heck to lift, especially when they don’t want to be lifted. It’s like lifting 2 pissed off bags of feed at once, LOL!

When you get the harness and leashes attached and lifted by your shoulders, the dog should be in a standing position off of the floor sideways in front of you. It’s an easy way to get them in and out of a car or SUV when they’re old or injured. I had to rig that up the first time after a big Malamute I had got hurt and couldn’t get into a vehicle on his own. I couldn’t lift parts of him because he was hurting and would snap. So I came up with that from leashes and harnesses I had around the house.

Worked great for a dog I had that had TPLO surgery too. Couldn’t jump for a long time, so to get around to vets that was how I got him in the SUV. It’s amazing how much lighter they feel when they’re lifted like that. And how much control you have over them. Dogs are too hard to lift with your arms when they’re big. Maybe if we had a great big wing-span for arms, but I’m not in the NBA. :winkgrin:

Hope it helps and works for you! Good luck!

PS, if you don’t mid spending between $60-$120 or so, they make a few different lifting harnesses for big dogs. Orvis makes one with short grip leashes, petco has a sling type one for about $55 and there’s a company called Helpemup.com that makes awesome harness with handle grips on them. I think those are around $120.

[CrowneDragon]

You are very creative! I was able to do an all-at-once lift tonight for his bath because he was cooperative, but when he starts to squirm I always worry I’ll drop him, which would be bad news (and I’m sure he realizes that I’m baaaarely strong enough to lift him and doesn’t feel secure, so isn’t super enthused about the whole ordeal). I will definitely investigate the harness type option, because it seems like it would be much more secure.

[ellevt]

Good thread! My Dane is trained to get in the tub on her own, but I see the day coming when she won’t be able to do that : (

[To_the_MAX]

This is a good thread, I think I might buy one of these harnesses for my Danes just in case. One of my fears is that I’ll be home alone and need to get them to the vet, and I won’t be able to lift them into the car (especially my boy - I think with adrenaline on my side I could lift the female if needed, but the boy is about 50 lbs heavier than her).

As for the tub, one of mine thankfully hops right in, the other one I have to wheelbarrow into the bathroom (she HATES baths haha!) then do as you said in your OP. Thankfully once I get her front feet in she usually gives up and hops her butt in.

[MistyBlue]

To The Max…that’s how I had to figure out how to lift big dogs. My big dog was injured and unable to get into my vehicle. He couldn’t even hop up the ramp that I had for the SUV. :no:
It was hours before I could get him to the vet, no neighbors were home to help lift him. Made his injury that much harder to treat and longer to heal. It wasn’t a good feeling.

I got the idea for the harness lift from a combo of knowing a harness would be easier to grab than the entire dog, but then remembering that military dogs are carried in harness attached to the front of the human and looked up those pictures.

I cobbled something together myself because I had the parts that I thought could work already in my house. But later on I started looking for lifting harnesses online too. Turns out there’s quite a few options, so it’s probably not an uncommon problem with average to small people having to pick up medium to large dogs.

I want to get that 'helpemup" harness at some point because I really like those built in handles and I could also attach shoulder harnesses for me if I need to lift a dog that way too. But the handles look easy to use for short lifts like into a vehicle or helping an old/ouchy dog up stairs. Our last dog, Tucker, was an old boy we took in from a neighbor who could no longer care for him due to family issues. He was fine for a while, but then his hind end started going. The rest of him was 100%, but he was losing feeling/use of his hind end. He as about 60 lbs and I found a sling carry online for him, IIRC it was about $35 I think. That one was great to replace towel-walking. Soooooo much easier with that sling. And the best part of that one is that the hind end sling part could be adjusted to wear over one shoulder like a purse so you could walk normally next to the dog while supporting his hind end with your shoulder. Or you could shorten the strap and lift the dog and carry it like a big fuzzy purse on one hip. That worked great for Tucker at 60 lbs and could work for a bigger dog if the person was taller than I am maybe. But probably not for something as tall as a Dane. Not for carrying, but would be great for towel-walking them and I know as they age they might have issues with hind end support.

It’s tough having the really big dogs, so many of them are such fantastic dogs but their bodies often are their own worst enemy as they age. Hard on hearts of the owners of the big dogs. Hope some of these links help someone…being slightly smaller than average and having had so many bigger than average dogs, I know how tough it can be.

The sling carry I have is the Guardian Gear 4 in 1 lift. It would also work great for rehabbing a dog that had cruciate surgery. My copy and paste isn’t working the last 2 days or I’d link all of these for you guys. (stupid windows 8, decides to just stop options for no reason and then gives them back days later)

[wendy]

why not a ramp or stairs?

[2tempe]

Walk in shower…
It is can expensive fix if you don’t have one already, but a friend of mine recently had one of her tubs pulled out and the area retiled, and redesigned into a walk in. (So that she could wash the dog easier!) I just go in w/ mine and we have a group event.
When I lived back in the North, there was a place near me that did dog grooming AND had a set up where you paid something like $10 to use their tubs for bathing. They were built for easy access to dog and owner.