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Dog wash comes to town
By CRISTINA GARCIA
Special to The Sun
Published: Sunday, September 14, 2008 at 6:01 a.m.
CRISTINA GARCIA/Special to The Sun
Sophie Wasik gives 7-year-old Golden Retriever-Lab mix Casey a bath Saturday at the new Suds dog wash
in southwest Gainesville.
A dog-washing machine developed in Australia made its debut in Gainesville
on Saturday.
The device, now in place at the Scrubs car wash at 3135 SW 42nd St., can have
your pet washed, rinsed and dried in a matter of minutes, according to Mike
Wasik, 43-year-old co-owner of Scrubs dog wash.
“Weekends are more popular because people have more time,” Wasik said.
Scrubs uses a tub called a K9000, which has a clear covering that lets you keep
your dog in place in the tub.
The tub is in an enclosed dog-washing area that is surrounded by a white
picket fence, giving dogs the chance to run around after their wash.

2. Ten dollars buys you 10 minutes in the dog-washing station. If your pet
requires a longer bath, you can add money or tokens, purchased at the
adjacent car wash.
The machine can wash dogs from a 4- to 6-pound toy Pomeranian to a 55- to
75-pound Labrador retriever, Wasik said.
You wash your dog by placing it in the tub, then using a hose-like device,
called a wash gun, that applies water and a soap-free shampoo and
conditioner called Tropiclean, which the owners said doesn’t wipe out
flea/tick-control medications such as Frontline or Advantage.
Much like at a car wash, the wash gun has a lever that allows you to regulate
the amount of time you use shampoo, conditioner, rinse or flea and tick rinse,
then a second hose-like device that lets you blow-dry on high or low settings.
Once you’ve finished blow-drying your dog, you resume using the wash gun,
which lets you disinfect the tub for the next dog wash.
Chris Koenig, also co-owner of Scrubs, said a self-serve dog wash is a new
concept — so new, he says, that there are only two others like the one at Scrubs
in use nationwide, one in Georgia and another in Texas.
Wasik and Koenig live in the area and say they saw a need for it here.
Jill Lerman, a veterinarian at Jonesville Animal Hospital, said the benefits to
such a dog washing machine are that it’s user-friendly, convenient and that it
doesn’t remove flea/tick medications.
She said it’s helpful that the dog wash allows you to wash your dog using warm
water, and she applauded the dog wash’s non-threatening entry point, which
she said should ease most dogs’ sense of confinement.
Owners don’t have to worry about the dogs jumping out of the tub or the wash
area, she said.
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