Puppy Love Powder Deodorizing Powder and Dry Shampoo.

I love when ingredients do two or more jobs at once and that is certainly the truth with my first ingredient in Puppy Love Powder Deodorizing Powder and Dry Shampoo.

Colloidal Oatmeal

Of course oatmeal has been used for hundreds of years for  treatment of itchy spots caused by eczema, poison ivy, bug bites and other skin issues.

Recently, scientists studied why this might be and they called one active substances in oats “Avenanthramide”. Wikipedia cites a study ( J. Vollhardt, D.A. Fielder and M. Redmond) that suggests this substance plays a major role in the reduction of itching and redness in skin.” It is thought that oat extract can reduce histamines hence reducing itchiness and redness.

Even if your dog doesn’t have any itchy spots, oatmeal is a fantastic ingredient to use when trying to deodorize and clean your dog. Oatmeal absorbs oil, a lot of oil and it is oil that often makes healthy dogs smelly. Especially water dog who are more prone to having a strong doggy smell.

What is cool about oatmeal, if your dog happens to go into the water, oatmeal has a natural saponin which cleans dogs naturally. If he doesn’t go into the water, the oatmeal absorbs the oils and naturally sloughs off, leaving your dog cleaner.

Even more cool is that if your dog licks the oatmeal off, it is perfectly safe (as is all the ingredients I have chosen to include in my deodorizing powder.)

Diatomaceous Earth

The fun with two for one (or more ingredients continues with my second ingredient in my Puppy Love Powder Deodorizing Powder and Dry Shampoo, Diatomaceous Earth! Oh let me count the brilliant ways DE works!  First, the most obvious. Diatomaceous Earth is soft, silky and perfect as powder because it is almost entirely Silica. Silica is found in many powdered foods but also in those little bags included to keep things dry. Basically Silica is a great absorber so it is perfect for powders. Not only does it absorbs the oil on those oily water dogs, it keeps the powder dry from the elements as an anti-caking agent.

What is more is that the DE I use is food grade and will not hurt your dog if he licks it off. In fact.  some people eat Diatomaceous earth to rid themselves of parasites.

The most fun benefit Diatomaceous earth offers is how it kills fleas.  Wikipedia states that it is : used as an insecticide, due to its abrasive and physico-sorptive properties.[8] The fine powder absorbs lipids from the waxy outer layer of insects’exoskeletons, causing them to dehydrate.[9] Arthropods die as a result of the water pressure deficiency, based on Fick’s law of diffusion. … Medical-grade diatomite is sometimes used to de-worm both animals and humans, with questionable efficacy.[10][11] It is commonly used in lieu of boric acid, and can be used to help control and possibly eliminate bed bug, house dust mite, cockroach,ant and flea infestations.[12][13] This material has wide application for insect control in grain storage.[14]

Bentonite Clay

Moving on to another favorite ingredient of mine, Bentonite Clay. How I love this stuff!  First it is a great adsorber, meaning it literally attracts things to it, especially moist and oily things making it a wonderful way of reducing a dog’s smelly oiliness.   Bentonite clay is used in so many natural products today, great as toothpaste, as an additive to soap and as an powerful antioxidant .

According to Mountain Rose herbs :

Bentonite clay carries a strong negative charge which bonds to the positive charge in many toxins. When it comes in contact with a toxin, chemical, or heavy metal, the clay will absorb the toxin and release it’s minerals for the body to use. Bentonite also helps get oxygen to cells as it pulls excess hydrogen and allows the cells to replace it with oxygen instead.

I use Benton clay in my tooth-powders for their mineral properties as well as the way clay cleans (soft but firm). When formulating my Doggy Powder,  I knew I had to include Bentonite clay.

I first made my Doggy Powder because people were buying my deodorizing powder I made for people for their dogs,. I wanted to make sure that was healthy for their dogs and started researching.

Lemon Verbena and Lavender

First understand, I LOVE DOGS. I was, at the time, deeply in love with my aging dog Charlie. He hated a few things.

1) Loud Noises
2) Baths
3) Perfumes

As he got older and more frail, I felt more guilty giving him baths. As I developed my doggy powder, it was crucial that my elderly Charlie accept the smell of the powder with little or no reaction.  I tested several smells with him. When confronted with a smell he didn’t like (almost always a “fake” smell) he would act like he had been dusted with some horrible compound.

So, I let him choose which “herbal” to use. He liked Fennel most but he’d eat it. He’d anything with it on it. So I didn’t go with Fennel. When trying Lavender and Lemon Verbena, he didn’t want to eat it but he also wasn’t desperate to get it off of him either.

Both Lavender and Lemon Verbena smell good to us but also, Lavender is good to calm dogs. I chose  Lemon Verbena because it often deters dogs from licking and also is a good insect repellent.

I like to imagine that my powder is almost like my dog running through nature and coming home to me healthier, happier and fresher than he was before.