mary

How old are the children?

Deep soakers are nice but have an inherent risk of slip fall getting in/out - Additionally they would be a back breaker trying to bathe a lil one or a dog - may be easier to get in the tub w/them then to bend over the tub

Dog nails will not hold up on an acrylic tub -

I would rec the Kohler Villager - cost is reasonable, cast iron is the best material for a tub and it won't be too deep to lean over bathe a lil one or a dog -

gl

Our friends in Minnesota did a dog shower. It is tiled on the floor, and up the wall just one row of tile. It is the size of a square shower base....maybe 36x36. It has a handheld sprayer.
It is in their mudroom/laundry are by their garage entrance.

The did not add tile walls or door yet, and used it for the dog and muddy boots, etc.

They like the fact that there is a coat closet next to the shower area. So if they needed to do a universal access shower if an older relative needed to move in, they could grab the closet space and have that right on the main floor of the house.

Not sure if this idea would work for you at all, but I do think it is very smart design.

If you do a tub/shower in your kids bath, I would expect the cast iron to be a harder finish more suitable for the dog. Plus I think they stay nicer once they start to age. I would also do a curtain instead of a door so that you can sit on the edge of the tub for both dogs and babies.

From what I've read here on the Garden Web, the Villager is too shallow, and due to this fact, it requires an overflow valve.

I ended up by ordering the Kohler Mendota in cast iron as I am replacing a builder's special fiberglass/tub surround.

I have grown children, but I wanted the flexibility of having a nice soaker tub and to be able to wash the dog or children if they were to stay with us.

You can do a search here on Kohler Villager and you'll see lots of comments on that particular tub. The price point is attractive--no doubt about it.

I recently replaced a small cast iron tub with a larger acrylic tub. I used to bathe my dog in the cast iron tub, but I will not be allowing her in the acrylic tub. Her nails would likely scratch the tub. Instead we bathe her outside in a plastic child's splash pool. She rarely requires a bath so we can just bathe her in the wading pool outside in the warm weather. (In fact, it is recommended not to bathe her breed frequently as it strips the natural oils from her coat that protects her from weather - even though she is an indoor dog.)

Thank you all for the great insights. Our kids are 12 and 13, but I do remember the baby days and was thinking of future owners.

Re dogs -- Julie, what a great idea! You have me eying the utility sink in the mud room and figuring out how to transform that spot for a shower .... not going to happen any time soon, but it's a great idea.

Thanks to all for the info on acrylic and dog nails. Pricklypear, you're right, dogs generally don't need to be bathed that frequently. In fact, our collie goes to a groomer every once in a while. But he tends to stink due to a digestive condition, and sometimes needs "emergency" bathing. But the truth is, we do have one more bathtub in this house. It's also acrylic of some kind, but it's cheap, in the basement, and not something that has to be pristine.

I'm still stuck with a 30" width, though, and that really limits my tub choices. On to search Vikrell and cast iron!

If you're fairly settled on having the ability to bathe the dog in the tub, another option might be trying out dog boots. I've never tried them, but if you find some that have a rubber sole (and you can get them on the dog), that might protect your tub.

Bathing dogs in a bathtub? Never heard of that. That sounds messy and destructive. We have a golden retriever and only use the garden hose outside on the driveway for washing. In the winter, we only wash if it warms up a bit outside, otherwise we may do one trip and pay for a wash/trim over the winter.

Yes, it is messy! LOL! Maybe we're babying our dogs too much; not only do I make the water warm, but to reduce the "trauma," I don't even run the shower (just pour buckets of water). They really get the Spa treatment! I don't think they would like a cold shower, except perhaps in the worst of the summer heat.

Yeah, time to call the groomer ....

The key to bathing dogs in an acrylic tub--or any tub for that matter--is to line the tub with an old sheet or any sheet for that matter. The sheet should prevent the nails from scratching the tub, but even more important from my plumber's point of view is that it will prevent the dog hair from going down the drain.

I used to use two different hair catchers in the drain simultaneously to keep the hair from going down the tub drain. I would then empty them out frequently as we were washing the dog. At the time we also had sliding glass shower doors that protected the room from the inevitable shake off.

When it's really hot outside, we allow the water in the bathing wading pool to sit out in the sun and get warm (just like I used to do as a kid). If the water still seems too cold (maybe it's not quite hot outside yet), I'll boil some water on the stove and carry it out to the tub.

We have a dog tub in a small utility room under our stairs. It's just an inexpensive acrylic tub, shorter than the standard 60" because that's all the room we had, mounted on a platform at waist height. There is a sprayer head instead of a normal faucet, and there are large eyes (as in hook and eyes but no hooks) screwed into the long wall for tying a leash (in a slip knot of course).

My husband thought I was nuts for putting a raised tub in the basement but, well, we had the space, and what's the point of owning instead of renting if you aren't going to personalize your house. ha. (And it does make bathing a dog SO much easier on your back.)

Well...for bathing babies and toddlers, I'd want a standard shallow depth tub. Not a deep soaker. Same for a dog.

When the kids get a little older and want to take baths, I still woudln't want them to have a deep soaker. Often we'd just put a couple of inches of water in the tub and my kids would "splash and play" while they "bathed".

When my kids were older and bathed by themselves, they just showered. Boys, girls? Didn't matter, they simply showered.

So my bottom line? For durability with kids (who might drop things in the shower) or for dogs, I'd vote for cast iron.

For practicality of me bathing small kids, hands-on? I'd want a shallow "standard-depth" tub.

For young kids "playing" while bathing? I'd still just want a standard-depth tub.

If you teen wants an occasional "deep soak" bath, then let them come into the master bath and use the adult's tub.

As always, Mongo has many pearls of wisdom