First, stop the licking and identify the product
The biggest risk after a decorating mishap is rarely the paint sitting on the coat — it is your dog licking it off while you fetch a towel. Move him away from the room, put a lead on if he keeps turning to groom the patch, and read the tin or bottle before you touch water. Water-based emulsion and most modern interior paints are the manageable case. Gloss, oil-based paint, varnish, wood stain, and anything that smells strongly of solvent are different: they cling to hair, irritate skin underneath, and matter much more if swallowed.
Note how much coat is covered, whether the skin underneath looks red, and whether your dog has already licked, drooled, or pawed at his mouth. Those three observations decide whether this is a bath job at home or a vet phone call first.
Cleaning water-based paint from the coat
Soak the patch with lukewarm — never hot — water and let it sit for a few minutes so dried emulsion softens instead of being dragged through the coat. Work a small amount of plain dog shampoo into the area with your fingers, teasing the paint apart strand by strand rather than scrubbing with a brush, which pushes residue toward the skin and tangles the surrounding fur. Rinse, feel for gritty residue, and repeat the soak rather than reaching for stronger products. Between toes and in the armpit and groin folds, paint hides and dries hard, so part the hair and check those warm spots individually before you call the job done.
When gloss or chemicals will not wash out
Do not use white spirit, turpentine, paint thinner, nail polish remover, or washing-up liquid concentrates on a dog. Those solvents strip skin oils, burn sensitive skin, and add a second poisoning risk on top of the paint itself. For a stubborn gloss patch on a long or thick coat, the safer tool is blunt-ended scissors or clippers: slide a comb flat against the skin, cut the contaminated hair above the comb, and let the patch grow out. Work slowly on legs and belly where skin is loose and wrinkles under the blade. If the contaminated area is large, close to the eyes or mouth, or your dog is distressed and snapping at the area, stop and let a groomer or vet clinic handle it with proper restraint and clippers.
Signs this needs a vet, not another rinse
Call your vet promptly if your dog has eaten paint or chewed a chemical-soaked brush or roller, if he is drooling, vomiting, wobbling, or unusually sleepy, or if the skin under the paint is blistered, weeping, or hot. Take the product name with you or photograph the label — knowing whether the paint was water-based or solvent-based, and whether a cleaner contained bleach or caustic ingredients, changes what the vet watches for. The same applies if a household chemical rather than paint is involved: bleach splashes, oven cleaner, and drain products can burn skin and mouth in a way emulsion never will, and those cases should be phoned in before you bathe, because rinsing is still useful but the vet may want specific timing and observation.
After he is clean
Dry him thoroughly and watch the cleaned patches over the next day for redness, scratching, or a sour smell that suggests irritated skin needs attention. Keep the decorating room shut, tins lidded, and brushes up high for the rest of the job, because a dog who found wet paint once will investigate it again. Recording the product involved, the patches you clipped, and who finished the rinse in KinsLe's Care Teams means the next person on duty does not re-wash an already sore patch or miss checking the paw you left for later.