Last Word

A muddy dog tale

The man who came to fix the dryer was very complimentary.

“I love what you’ve done with your floors, it’s a great finish on them.”

The floors of my small home are solid concrete. No polishing. No fancy aggregate. No dye.

However, it has two top coats. One is the recommended clear sealer for concrete floors. The other is as dog intended.

The reason I have a home with concrete floors was inspired by the first story I ever did for this magazine. The farmer I spoke to had a very attractive, brown-grey marble-like finish on his concrete floor and I commented on how much I liked it.

“Haha, thanks.” There was uneasy silence. Then he came clean.

“That’s what happens when you don’t seal your concrete and then the dog runs in and out of the house with muddy paws… for 10 years.”

I can confirm that even if you do seal your concrete floors and then allow your dog to come and go, you still eventually end up with this marble effect.

It’s one that won’t form if you mop daily. If it does, it will come off if you get down and scrub until your knees bleed. Well, I assume it does. It sounds too risky to try.

There are all kinds of crazy products you can buy to prevent mudtracking by dogs. There’s a portable paw cleaning kit. This is a long, thin plastic container lined with little brushes that you fill with water ($40 plus shipping). You then carefully insert each leg, one at a time. The Amazon review I liked best said:

“It works ok, but when our dog is severely dirty or muddy, it does nothing. We’re better off using old towels.”

Also $40 better off (not including shipping).

There are dog booties. A wax product you rub onto the paws and lower legs to make them easy-clean. Special ‘mud’ towels which you can clip onto a lead. One reviewer noted they paid a premium for a ‘dog mud towel’ when the same product for golfers is bigger, cheaper, and has a better clip.

But all this constant wiping is pretty close to mopping and that could lead to scrubbing. Oh no, no.

The answer that has worked best for me is absorbent floor mats, on special at Briscoes (on sale, naturally). They are meant to be laid sideways but I have them lengthways. When you have fast dogs, not every paw hits a short mat. At the front door there are two lying end-to-end, with their water bowl at the end of them. Once a walk is over, it’s a straight line to hydration and by the time they get there, they have dry feet.

The most interesting idea I haven’t tried is a microfiber mit with long tassles, the kind you use to wash a car. And you can wash the car with it.

However, this also requires effort when you have 12 legs to wash. It also requires you to stand at the door all day, waiting for them.

Then I spotted the holy grail. Microfiber mats.

You could spend a fortune buying a dog microfiber door mat in a dog bone pattern.

Or you could spend about $30 buying a couple of microfiber bath mats. I’ll just have to wait for that next Briscoes sale.

All this wiping is pretty close to mopping. No.