Regular grooming your dog is very important. It keeps your dog healthy, manageable and clean, and it will also help in preventing yeast infections which is caused by tangled hair, ear infections from excessive build up of wax, periodontal diseases which is caused by not caring of teeth etc. This article will help you how to groom a dog.
1. GATHER ALL NECESSARY SUPPLIES BEFORE BEGINNING TO GROOM A DOG :-
Before beginning to groom, you should make sure that you have all the necessary supplies which you will need to clean ears and eyes, brush teeth, trim nails, bathe etc.
2. ALWAYS BRUSH YOUR DOG FIRST :-
You must start grooming your dog by brushing your dog’s coat first as the coat hair will become manageable and more long when wet. If coat care is neglected then you might have to cut or shave out the mat so, in this way, the bacteria does not grow between it. Harsh brushing can also pull the skin from your dog’s muscle, so beware! Short – haired dogs will need to be brushed over with a glove or curry brush whereas medium to long – haired dogs might need special tools like a pin brush, slicker, or an undercoat rake. No matter what you use, but you adequately remove loose hair and also distribute the oils throughout the body, from the skin. When you start brushing his coat, you can begin it on your dog’s neck and then moving down from his body, under his abdomen and then tail. When you finished brushing then you can give praise him by giving a treat.
3. FOLLOW WITH ANY NECESSARY CLIPPING OR OTHER GROOMING THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE BEFORE BATHE :-
You can trim his hair as it will waste your time in shampooing and drying his large amounts of hair. Other things that needs to be done are as follows :-
- EYES :- It might be a simple matter of pulling eye waste away from the irritating spot, in the corner of his eyes. White – haired and long haired e dogs might require special attention in order to make sure that all dirt is out of coat. A healthy eye should be completely clear and shouldn’t show any signs of unusual discharge. You can ask your vet to trim out the hair around your dog’s eyes which can actually cause tears strain but don’t try to attempt it by yourself.
- EARS :- A clean ear might hold some wax and should not have any kind of smell to it. Warm any cleaner in a container of body temperature water before putting it in his ears. You can apply some ear cleaning solution in a cotton ball and then you can simply swab away wax and dirt from his inner ear. After this, gently dry his ear out with a new cotton ball. If his ears looks red, swollen, dark or blackened, irritated, show signs of sores or smells very bad then call your veterinarian as this is definitely not normal and might be signaling a disease or an infection.
- TEETH :- Now it comes to brushing your dog’s teeth, you can buy toothpaste which is specialized for dogs but remember always not to use human toothpaste as they might swallow it and then they can become sick.
- NAILS :- Nails can actually grow to enormous length which can cause pain if nails are left uncared. You can regularly clip his nails if you want to keep them short, In order to clip their nails, trim a small amount of nail away with a nail clippers of dog.
4. BATHING YOUR DOG :-
I have already written this article about how to bathe your water, so you can go through my previous article if you want to know more details about it.
Add lukewarm water in the tub then put your dog in it. You can start washing his face with a wet cloth. Wt the dog thoroughly by using bath sprayer. Then work shampoo in by your one hand, make sure to clean one section at one time. Now, be sure to froth all the parts of your dog including, sides, back, chest, belly, neck, legs, tail and feet. Do not use human shampoo for your dog as most of the human shampoos are usually on the acid side and therefore is not suitable for your dogs.
5. DRYING YOUR DOG :-
If your canine friend has a very short hair then you are done but if he has a long – haired coat then keep reading.
- Now, blow dry your dog as best as you can don’t dry him out completely as you do not want to dry out his skin. You might need to dry his coat while brushing if you have a dog with long hair.
- Dogs with curly hair like Bichon or Poodles then you will need to dry him thoroughly otherwise, the hair will be revert.
- During blow drying your dog, make sure that is on the cool setting, it might take longer than usual but it will be worth it as there will less chance of your dog’s skin and hair drying out.