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My family was doing what we normally do on Sunday night: Watching TV and reading in our family room. It was a nice night and the dogs kept wanting to go outside and play, come back inside and then go back out; typical summer behavior.

The hubby and I kept noticing a not-too-pleasant aroma when the dogs were inside. It was not skunk, we know that fragrance all too well. I thought it might have been more evidence that our dogs belong on the Wall of Shame. But unless they were spewing methane at a rate that would have Al Gore picketing my house for contributing to global warming, I couldn't imagine that was the cause of the stench.

Then Stormy jumped up on the couch with me for a cuddle. Ew. I found the source. He smelled like dirty sneakers and rancid grease. The stinkiest cheese would have faded in the fumes radiating off this ripe dog.

So he was banished from our bed for the night and yesterday my daughter gave him a bath. And to Stormy, b*a*t*h is a four-letter word. (OK, it is a four-letter word, but you know what I mean.)

This pup has always hated baths. In the tub or out in the yard with the hose, makes no difference. His first bath was after he played in the mud as a puppy, so maybe we helped form a negative connotation in his mind: He was having fun and we ruined it.

By comparison, our greyhounds will patiently stand for shampoo-rinse-repeat and almost seem to enjoy it.

By the time we came home from work, Stormy smelled like vanilla oatmeal but was barely on barking terms with our daughter, who was pretty exhausted from the struggle.

Any suggestions on how to make bath time more fun? I am willing to buy him a steady supply of rubber duckies if it will mean he smells fresh.