Groom Your Dog Regular

Groom your Dog regularly is essential for all dog breeds since it helps keep their coats tangle-free and lustrous while allowing you to check for parasite infestations and skin conditions, enhancing their general cleanliness. Additionally, grooming your pet might help you and your pet develop a closer relationship.

In fact, even dogs with short, easy-to-care coats require routine brushing, washing, and nail cutting. Dogs with longer coats could also require hair cutting and clipping. While you would want to arrange routine visits with a professional groomer, especially for haircuts and trims, this might not always be possible. So, taking a DIY approach is the best thing you can do. With that in mind, here are a few tips that will allow you to groom your dog at home without a hassle.

Don’t Bathe Your Dog Daily

Most dogs with good skin health only need to be bathed every few months to avoid odour and hygiene problems. Bathing your dog more frequently than this might dry up its skin and remove the natural oils from its coat.

However, you should talk to your vet if your dog smells horrible but hasn’t rolled in anything disgusting. These underlying problems may indicate a skin infection or dental issues.

Tips for Bathing your Dog

• Never use baby or human shampoo on a dog since the pH level of a dog’s skin differs from that of a human. Pick a dog-specific shampoo that is soap-free and mild on the animal’s skin.
• Once your dog is completely covered with warm water and shampoo, gently massage it into its coat. Avoid touching the dog’s lips, eyes, or inner ears.
• If the weather is warm, rinse the shampoo off with warm water before letting your dog shake and air-dry outside. Dry the dog gently by towel-drying its coat in cooler weather or using a blower.

Groom your Dog by Checking Your Dog’s Ears

Remember to examine your dog’s ears closely while brushing them. However, take your pup to your local vet for a check-up if you see any of the changes or behaviours listed down below:

• When you inspect your dog’s ears, it will whimper or yell.
• The discharge from the ears is unusual or larger than normal.
• Your dog makes head movements or scratches its ears continuously.
• The ear smells strange.
• Your dog’s ears are inflamed or wet on the inside.

Ensure Your Dog Enjoys the Grooming Sessions

When you groom your dog at home, it shouldn’t be a burden on them. Instead, they should enjoy it as much as possible. However, when you initially introduce your dog to a grooming regimen, many dogs, especially pups, will require some encouragement and positive reinforcement. So, here are a few tips that will help you achieve such a thing:

• Lay a non-slip mat in the tub before you groom your dog to prevent it from sliding.
• Take things gently and shower your dog with praise and goodies so that it will eagerly await the next grooming session.
• While you brush or wash them, spread some wet dog food on a washable surface and let your canine companion lick it off.

Groom your Dog by Checking the Skin as You Groom Your Dog

Canines typically suffer from various types of allergic skin problems, which force them to itch, leading to excessive licking, scratching, and chewing of the skin. Parasites like fleas, ticks, lice, and mites can transmit illnesses or other parasites like the tapeworm and irritate your dog.

So, make it a routine to examine your dog’s skin after each grooming session. Start by touching your dog’s skin for odd bumps or lumps by running two fingers up and down its coat. Furthermore, parting the coat will allow you to look more carefully at the skin to check for signs of parasite infestations, bald spots, rashes, redness, and soreness.

Don’t Forget the Nails

When you groom your dog, you might probably forget about tripping its nails. In fact, this is what most at-home groomers forget to do. However, trimming your dog’s nails is equally important as brushing its coat.

So, when you hear your dog’s nails clicking on your home’s hardwood flooring, trim them. This will stop your dog’s pain from having excessively long nails. However, you’ll need a few safety pointers before you clip your dog’s nails for the first time. So, go online and search for nail trimming tips and follow them to avoid hurting your dog.

Exercise Caution When Trimming Your Dog’s Hair

Most canine owners choose to get their dog’s hair clipped by a groomer. However, between appointments with a professional groomer, you can cut excessive hair from your dog’s paws or the area around it safely at home. By shaving the hair around your dog’s eyes, you can save it from having excessive hair obstruct its eyesight or rub up against its eyes and hurt them.

That said, wait until your dog is relaxed, ideally lying down. When scissor blades are close to the skin, move carefully and calmly. After you’re done, give your dog a treat to reward its calm behaviour.

Ear infections can be avoided, and airflow can be improved by trimming the hair inside the ears. However, this should ideally be done in your veterinarian’s office or by a skilled groomer.

But don’t forget that using scissors or clippers on your pet might easily result in an accident. So, always use caution when trimming, and seek a professional grooming service if you’re apprehensive or would rather not do it yourself.

Groom your Dog by Brushing Your Dog’s Coat Regularly to Prevent Matting

When you groom your dog at home, it is an absolute requirement to brush its coat regularly. So, regardless of your dog’s breed and size, it will require routine brushing to maintain a lustrous coat. That said, your dog’s coat’s texture and length will define how much you need to brush it. Short-haired dog breeds like Labradors or Greyhounds must only be brushed once or twice a week.

On the other hand, dog breeds with longer coats, like Border Collies and Golden Retrievers, will require more regular brushing. Badly matted hair can hurt long-haired pets. Dogs can get skin infections due to self-inflicted licking or biting at the site of irritation. Furthermore, grass seeds and other foreign objects can conceal themselves behind a matted coat and even penetrate the skin to develop an abscess.

Wrapping Up on Groom your Dog

At the end of the day, to keep your dog clean, healthy, and comfortable, frequent grooming is vital. Grime, dirt, dandruff, and dead skin and hair can be removed by clipping their nails, cleaning the area around their eyes, and cutting their coats to a manageable length.

However, it’s vital first to research your dog because every dog breed is unique and has various requirements when it comes to grooming. Furthermore, ask your local groomer or veterinarian for guidance on how often you should groom your dog and whether there are any dangerous places you should be aware of for their breed.