Does anyone here color their light-colored dog?

I know there are special products on the market for pets to color thier fur/hair, but I just use plain old food color and water. Last year I color Gigi's hair pink for Halloween to be cotton candy. She came out so cute and it's so easy and safe to do. The color will last through quite a few baths, too.

Today I'll be coloring her hair gray. I'll be using black food color to do it. I wish it would come out black (my first poodle was black), but it always comes out lighter than the color you apply (for example, when I colored her hair pink, I used red food coloring to achieve the color). I'll post pictures after she is colored and groomed.

For anyone interested in doing this, start with clean, dry hair/fur (this can only work for light-colored dogs/cats). Do this outside because they will shake and get that food color everywhere. Fill a spray bottle almost full of hot water (don't worry, when you spray them, it'll come out warm) and add as many drops of food color as you want to the water. The more drops, the more intense the color. Now, put a loose collar and leash on your dog and go outside. As quickly as you can, start to spray your dog with the spray bottle full of water and food color (wear gloves and old clothes, because it'll stain your hands and clothing). If you're dog is big, have someone help you with a second bottle. Once your dog is covered with the solution, let it sit on their fur/hair for 15-20 minutes. This is the hard part because they want to run and play. I let Gigi play once with the color on, and she got her paws real muddy...not a good idea.

Once the time is up, do not rinse out the color. If they are still real wet, get an old towel and gently press out the excess water. Otherwise, bring them back into your home or where ever you groom them and start to blow them dry. That's it! Easy peezy!!

Off I go to make me a gray poodle!

Aaaaccccckkkk! Okay, scratch that. I mixed two full bottles of black food coloring with the water in the spray bottle. TWO FULL BOTTLES!!! While I sprayed the mixture on Gigi, it was coming out jet black. Yay! (or so I thought)

After letting it sit on he hair for 20 minutes and taking her back inside to blow her dry, I noticed the color was looking rather grayish green. My suspicions were confirmed when my daughters came into the kitchen where I was blow drying Gigi and busted out laughing. Poor Gigi. By the time I was done drying her, she looked teal green. I don't understand why this happened, but I will never do that again. The pink came out great with the red food color, but the black was a disaster.

Oh, well...maybe she can go as the Hulk for Halloween.

So you had a light haired dog and wanted them to be black, is that what your saying. That's a new one for me, because no I have never done it. In fact, in my climate (I live in Arizona) my family got to the point where they no longer wanted a dark hair dog, especially a black dog with a thick coat because it led to the dog suffering in the summer months. So we have always welcomed a light hair dog, in fact even when we had a black dog we didn't try to lighten his coat for any given reason, considered shaving him during the summer though. Might I suggest you find a good dog groomer who maybe able to fix your dog's hair color. Look online and do some research to find one in your area who is trustworthy.

Actually, I used black to give her hair a gray color because whatever color you use of food coloring is supposed to come out much lighter. Like when I used the red food color to get her to come out pink. Shaving a dark haired dog who spends most of its time outdoors in the summer months in Arizona would expose him to sunburn, so I wouldn't advise doing that.

I decided to give Gigi another bath today to get out the color and it is practically all out (thank God!). Next time I get the desire to see her a different color, I will definitely take her to my groomer. They just charge so much to do it, but at least it would be done right and I wouldn't have all the mess to deal with.

Hey Sandooch. I just wanted to share this with you. Perhaps it can inspire you for your next theme.


Source

and there's the famed Panda theme.



I've heard this was the hype a couple of years ago.

Oh my gosh! Those pictures are awesome!! I especially love the panda ones (my daughter's favorites). If I saw that dog walking down the street, I'd think a panda had escaped from the zoo. lol See! Now they got that fur a beautiful black. I wonder what they used on them and how they kept the black from bleeding into the white fur.

And that tiger one looked like it took many hours to do, too. So cool!

Those pictures are so cute! I personally would not dye my dogs hair. I know what hair dye does to hair due to over-dying my own But I had a neighbour who used to dye his dogs white hair to make it a blonde/cooper colour. He said it was pretty expensive but it looked really good. I guess things like these are personal choice on the owners and how they prefer to see their dog. Personally, I wouldn't dream of it. My dog has the cutest white hair

(10-17-2012, 06:55 AM)bellahpereira Wrote: Those pictures are so cute! I personally would not dye my dogs hair. I know what hair dye does to hair due to over-dying my own But I had a neighbour who used to dye his dogs white hair to make it a blonde/cooper colour. He said it was pretty expensive but it looked really good. I guess things like these are personal choice on the owners and how they prefer to see their dog. Personally, I wouldn't dream of it. My dog has the cutest white hair

I just wanted to make sure you understood that I would never use human hair color to color my dog's hair. That would be animal abuse in my book. Totally not safe! I only use food coloring and it is safe and non-damaging. I do love Gigi's white hair, too, but once a year or so I get in a crazy mood and like to change it up a bit. The color really doesn't last too long either; in a few washings, it's all out. I haven't used anything but food coloring, but I'm sure that the special hair color for dogs is totally safe for them, too. I'm not sure if they dry out the coat or not.

I wouldn't try this.. though it does look cute.. the tiger is really good... but I guess that is real hair color.. not food color.The panda style does look cute but aww.. they could have hurt the poor puppies..
I have actually never considered this idea before.. I guess that these are personal preferences. My dog hates me using a spray gun or a hair dryer.. so she may never ever like it even if I wanted to do color her.

Sorry, I don't agree with dying a dog's hair. Better to dye a stuffed animal's hair. I don't agree with dying children's hair nor dressing them up as beauty queens and putting them in pageants. Children are not dolls.

I allow my dogs to be, well, dogs. Dogs are not dolls. They are living, breathing animals and need to be treated with respect and consideration.

I would be inspired if you showed me photos of stuffed animals with different dyed fake fur, etc.