I Gave Four Dogs A Bath With A Fancy Wand And Everyone Loved It

Gather ’round for a bathtime tail. ;)

I became a parent seven years, six months, and 20 days ago. My son, Desmond, was born on May 14, 2010, in Virginia to a mother named Chloe and a father named Rocky Balboa. I met him six weeks later on June 26.

Casey Cline

I grew up with dogs, up to seven at a time, and had already been living with a very good girl named Penelope for a year by the time I brought Desmond home. Still, having my own dog changed my life. It instilled in me a whole new level of responsibility and pumped my bones full of unconditional love. It also opened my eyes to the fact that every dog has its quirks — and Desmond’s happened to be a lot of anxiety (and a propensity for eating and digesting used underwear).

Seven years and some 50+ pairs later (roommates, I am so sorry) I’ve learned to keep Desmond away from dirty laundry. But try as I might to find a solution for it, there isn’t a fix for his anxiety. It’s just a part of who he is — and there is nowhere where that is more apparent than the bathtub.

Which leads me to the entire point of this article:

My coworker Ben was looking for a dog owner who would be willing to try the Waterpik® Pet Wand PRO for the sake of content. He went on to add that if there were any chance I had more than one dog, well, that would be even better...

Reader, Ben was in luck.

Outside of the first six weeks of his life, Desmond has never known a world without Penelope, my roommate/best friend’s dog. Penelope is the yin to Desmond’s yang. Where he is always nervous, she is always calm. He doesn’t care about dog toys; she lives for them. His motto is, “Where are you going?!” while hers is, “It’s cool; I’m good.”

Then there’s Reed and Dylan, my friends’/neighbors’ dogs. Reed and Dylan are a lot like Des and Penelope. Reed, like Desmond, is a sweet bundle of nerves, while Dylan is pretty even-keeled.

The set came with five different parts.

Courtesy of Waterpik

The outdoor hose adapter, as the name suggests, makes it easy to use the Pet Wand PRO outside: You attach the adapter to your garden hose, the Pet Wand PRO hose to the adapter, and the handheld wand to the PRO hose. But because I live in New York City, and the winter in NYC isn’t exactly the time for outdoor aquatics, I kept bathtime indoors. Waterpik® also sent a new handheld showerhead that I had already set up, so attaching the Pet Wand PRO was a breeze.

Usually bathing the pups is a two-person job: One person rinses and lathers the dogs while the other coos at them and tries to block their attempts to escape and run around like little wet rats, drenching everyone and everything in sight. But the Pet Wand PRO genuinely made this a much easier process.

For one, the wand and hose aren’t bulky. They’re surprisingly light, so it wasn’t annoying to hold, and I was even able to use them with one hand. There’s a dial that you control with your thumb to adjust the water flow and pressure, so you can change the spray coverage and force easily. The innovative WaterComb™ spray penetrates even thick fur like Reed's, so it can quickly reach dirt and shampoo for a deeper and more thorough clean.

There are two flow settings: the regular spray that uses the full width of the wand and a narrow spray that allows for a more concentrated flow for sensitive areas (i.e., poopy butts). Plus, you can even "pause" the water to a trickle when it's time to shampoo your pup. And if you use the suction cup hook, you can hang the hose up while you lather, so you don’t have to worry about wrestling the hose or having it flail around like one of those inflatable dancing things at car dealerships.

Beyond learning about the different settings, there’s really only one step for how to use the Pet Wand PRO: Put it against your dog’s fur and guide the water down their body for a full rinse. Easy!

Using the Pet Wand PRO was a nice change from the usual hassles of bathtime. Even though our dogs will never be full-on water lovers, they were definitely more at ease with this process, and it was much easier to use than a kitchen sink hose or standard handheld showerhead.

If you have a dog and want to make everyone’s lives easier, I definitely recommend it. And if you don’t have a dog and just came here for the pictures, then what’re you doing? Keep going!

Photos by Lauren Zaser and design by Kirby Darland for BuzzFeed

Your very good boy deserves a very nice bath, and the Waterpik® Pet Wand PRO makes bathtime a million times easier for everyone! Shop for yours now at pets.waterpik.com.