[ INTRO ].

Squeaks and I made a new friend yesterday! Her name is Cassie, and she’s a puppy!

She loves to play fetch, go for walks, and roll in dirt. It’s so exciting to make a new friend, and we had a great time playing with Cassie in the mud. But after we were done playing, Cassie really needed a bath.

So we filled up a bathtub with warm water and soap to wash away the dirt from Cassie’s fur and get her nice and clean. But after her bath, Cassie’s fur smelled kind of funny. [Squeaks squeaks]. Yeah, she was pretty stinky.

She hadn’t smelled nearly as much before her bath, which seemed weird because normally, soap and water make things stop smelling. So if Cassie was all clean now, shouldn’t that have made her smell better? Squeaks and I wanted to make sure she was okay, so we did some research.

And it turns out, almost all dogs smell after getting wet — even if they just had a bath! That’s because of what’s in their fur. A microscope is a tool that lets you zoom in on something really closely to see tiny things that would be too small to see otherwise.

And if you use a powerful microscope to look very closely at a dog’s fur, you’ll find that there are lots of small living things in their fur. We call these microbes, which just means tiny living things. These microbes are so small, we can’t see them without help from a microscope.

Some of the microbes in the fur are yeast, a type of fungus. Others are bacteria that help keep a dog’s skin healthy. [Squeaks squeaks worriedly]. Don’t worry, Squeaks, we don’t need to get rid of these microbes.

They are a lot like germs, but they don’t mean that a dog is sick or hurt. They’re good germs! Microbes actually live all over the place — we just can’t see them because they’re so small.

Most of the microbes on Cassie’s fur won't bother her, and some of them can even be very helpful. But microbes sometimes leave things behind. You already know that when big animals like you and me eat food, we leave behind anything our bodies can't use when we go to the toilet.

Well, microbes do the same thing! Except without actual toilets, of course. We call what they leave behind waste, and there are bits of it wherever they live — including in Cassie’s fur.

It’s so teeny-tiny that we don’t notice it at first, or its smell. But then something happens that makes it more noticeable. [Squeaks has an idea: the bath!] Exactly! The water in the bathtub got the waste all wet.

Lots of things are smellier when they get wet. Just think about what happens when you leave wet shoes lying around! Water helps smelly things move around more, get into the air more, and get into our noses faster.

So when we gave Cassie a bath, we got rid of the dirt and mud on her fur coat, but we also stirred up all of the stinky waste. That made it easier for us to smell, even though Cassie was much cleaner. [Squeaks squeaks a question]. Good question, Squeaks!

There are actually some really easy ways to get rid of that wet dog smell really quickly. First, if your dog gets wet, you can dry them off with towels or a hair dryer set to blow cool air. That stops the water from spreading the smell of the waste.

Plus you can give your dog’s fur a cool hairstyle at the same time! Cassie smelled a lot better once we dried her off. There’s also special dog shampoo you can use to give a dog a bath, without as much of the smell getting into the air. [Squeaks is relieved].

I’m glad that Cassie is clean and healthy, too, and I’m so excited to learn more about the microbes that live all over our world. Maybe we can do some more research later. But first, I think Cassie is ready for another game of fetch!

Thanks for joining us! If you want to keep learning and having fun with Squeaks and me, hit the subscribe button, and we’ll see you next time here at the Fort! [ Outro ].