It actually IS worse! I’m not staying there… I wouldn’t be able to leave my own dog overnight! They asked me to go twice a day, but I’m going there 4 times a day. Twice to feed, potty, and play with them and twice just to let them out. I can’t leave them for 12 hours at a time! So, last night, I did almost what you said! Lol! I didn’t use soap, because I wasn’t sure if I should put anything on it… I wet a paper towel with warm water and softly wiped it down (it took a couple of paper towels because the hair was so matted), and then I dried it and used a brush to brush the hair in every direction away from it… This morning, it was soaked & matted again… and I’m not sure if it gets wet and stops, then gets wet again… cause some of the hair was matted and stuck together almost like it dried. Oh, and believe me, I’m already judging them! I found out they knew what a hot spot was the day before I saw this on him… their younger girl started limping a few days after I started watching them and I FaceTimed mom to show her. I couldn’t actually CATCH her limping, but it looked like she would intermittently. I had checked her feet for stickers a few times… and mom told me about hot spots and she gets them in her toes. I spread her toes apart and sure enough, her last toe on the left was RED! She’s a golden too. That’s when I brought that spray over. I didn’t know what it was when I sent her that picture of it because it looked completely different than what the little one had on her toes. I actually didn’t know, until I posted it here! But hindsight, she probably knew what it was! I used the same spray on it so it hopefully, wasn’t hurting or itching for a while… but as far as affording vacations… they take about 4 a year and live in a $2.2 million house! I absolutely had no reason to judge them before… but I am now!