Help with skunks

[pamha]

A friend who lives in a country/farm area has had her dogs sprayed 3 times in the last 2 months. Her older dogs mostly know to avoid them, but have been getting caught in the general area when her new younger dog (age about 3) is apparently aggravating the skunk(s). I thought dogs generally learn to leave them alone after getting sprayed once? She is getting *very* tired of bathing them all and descenting the house each time and is concerned that the skunks will be breeding soon- not sure how many there are or if its been the same one each time.

The only thing she can think of is using live traps to get them off of her property, but she has a lot of mostly feral cats living in a barn that are just as likely to get caught as a skunk.

I was hoping someone with skunk experience might have some better ideas, both to get rid of the skunks and in training the young dog to leave them alone.

Thanks!

[bendyfoot]

I have some experience with skunks.
First of all, where are the skunks denning? Typically they'll dig dens against some kind of structure, like a porch, shed or other building. The thing is, with any kind of critter, if you trap and remove the ones there now, and don't do anything to make the area inhospitable, new ones will move right in pretty quickly. If you know where the dens are, here's what you can do (note: this may not be practical if we're talking about a large barn with no below-ground foundation or anything, but in any case

Find the offending area. Dig a one by one foot trench around the porch or shed or whatever. In that trench, lay 1" welded wire mesh in an "L" shape, so that it's going vertically against the side of the building, and horizontally away from the building. Replace the dirt. If you're concerned that the skunk is in there still, put a wadded up bunch of newspaper or other soft material in the hole, and monitor it really closely...if they're active where you are this time of year, you'll be able to tell when he's gone out, the material will be moved. You could also wait until after the breeding season and do the same animal-proofing with the wire later on if you're concerned about that having started already. The wire trick will keep a lot of burrowing critters out of the area.

How to keep the dogs away from the skunks? Leashes are the only thing I can think of, to be honest.

[catladytabby]

you can use 1 quart 3 percent hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cups banking soda
i teaspoon liquid soap
the work it into the coat and risen natural way of de-skunking on both cats and dogs

[coppperbelle]

I have only used it once in my backyard to deter a groundhog that was eating my flowers and bothering my dogs. It worked but if I remember correctly it has to be reapplied after it rains.
I bought it at a local hardware store.

The other option is have a man go out and leave his "scent" around the perimeter of the property.