Leverage the dog roll

Dogs like to roll in stuff, right? And it’s never good.
Goose poop, deer droppings, doo-doo of whatever kind they find or worse yet, anything from flesh to flowers that is in a fragrant state of decomposition.
“No!” I’ll yet at Sensi as soon I see him drop his head down, preparing to roll right in the yuck face first.
I usually say it in just the nick of time to avert a dog bath. Lucky for me, Sensi listens.
There is a way to leverage the dog’s desire to roll in a way that isn’t horribly disgusting and also serves a benefit. Though, I’d say its more akin to a dog rolling playfully in the grass than squirming around in some foul smelling piece of doo-doo.
Because of Sensi’s allergies, he’s had a lot more baths in his life than most dogs. I used to bathe him once a week. That’s a lot of practice to make a routine perfect, and we’ve got it down pat.
He’ll stand nicely in the bathtub while I get him wet, lather him up and then rinse him off. Once I’ve pulled the curtain close on the tub, I tell him to shake and he obliges. Then I reopen the curtain, towel him down pretty good and invite him out of the tub.
This is the part he likes — it’s his towel time.
At some point in our bath routine, a towel used to dry him off was left laying on the carpet. This is how towel time got started. He took it upon himself to roll on the towel — nipping it with his teeth to move it around, diving head first into it and squirming around on his back like he’s Zest-fully clean. (Not that we use Zest on him — we don’t.)
Everyone gets a kick out of watching him do this. He’ll spend a good 10 minutes drying himself off.
Last night, he refused to go outside while it rained and poured. Hours after his normal potty time had passed, it finally let up a bit for him to go out.
He wasn’t out but for a couple minutes until a big boom of thunder sounded, cueing up another downpour. Sensi got caught by surprise and was drenched, poor thing.
He came in, looked around for something to dry himself off on and finding nothing, peered up at me for help. I headed to the bathroom, grabbed a couple towels and what do you know? He was practically begging for me to throw those towels down.
So there you have it. The often dreaded dog roll can be used for some good.