Good news pilin' up! (Felix update, redux)
In my earlier Felix post, I mentioned at the bottom that I was worried about jeopardizing our progress by giving Felix a bath, which I was thinking would entail muzzling him and wrestling with him the entire time.
The dog is clean and the peace was not broken.
In the past, Felix was always really submissive in the tub. A dog with whom one had to be kind of careful in general was suddenly pliable in his bath. I could cut fur, comb him (not generally allowed), and he would let me, and even nuzzle my face when it came close enough, as long as there was water in the tub and/or running.
So I decided to gamble on the good times. I didn't do a normal tub bath, because then if he rebelled, I would have a sopping wet, soapy attack beast on my hands, about whom I could do nothing. Instead, I picked him up to do a mommy shower, thinking that if he attacked, I could hoist him up, like I do when he attacks going up and down stairs, so that he'd only have access to my scalp, at worst.
May I note that holding a 30 lb. animal in your arms, juggling a shampoo bottle, and shampooing said animal, trying to get the whole beast, is tiring? My arms were shaking by the time we finished. He's clean though. I even got the witch hazel into his ears. I tried toweling him off standing at one end of the shower, with the water still running, because normally the towel is strictly verboten, and you have to spread it on the floor for him to roll on instead. I was able to do a fair bit of drying that way, and then set him down on the towels spread out for him to dry the rest of the way.
I feel like a victorious goddess.