Basic Dog Grooming Steps

 

It is another beautiful Saturday morning. Waking up late during the weekend is such a bliss. As your pooch jumps into your bed to give its daily morning routine of facial kisses, you suddenly smell something sour and pungent. When you open your eyes, you realise with dread that your dog needs a grooming session badly.

Dog Grooming Basics

Dog grooming is not just about bathing the dog. You also need to have the right tools to properly do it.

Make sure you've got the basics: dog comb or brush, clippers, shears and a hair blower. Of course, don’t forget dog soap and shampoo. Make sure you know the condition of the pooch you’re about to groom before you use a scented one as it may irritate those who have sensitive skin or are under treatment. If you want to add style, having different blades will also do the trick. 

My first client was Kobe, a 1-year old Pekinese and her fur-mom wanted a Lion Cut. A lion cut resembles that of a wild lion’s: thick head, shaved body and legs and a tail with a pom-pom. Just imagine Simba from Lion King.

To achieve this, the blade that I used is an Andis 40 to remove hair particles on its paws, 10 for the anal and tummy part and 4 for the body and legs. You can touch the head part using shears.  

Now, that we have the things we need, let’s start grooming!

1. Brush the hair with a comb or brush or a dematting tool. 

The first thing to do in grooming is to comb the dog’s hair. This will take away sheddings and untangle matted hair.

2. Shaving Time

When shaving, it is best to start with the body. Followed by the legs, then the neck and the head. Be careful when shaving the neck and head part. Take care to not hit the eyes when you go through the ear and make sure you pay attention to the direction of your clipper. it should be like combing your hair from top to bottom.

3. Bath and Body Works

After you're done with the haircut, it’s time to bathe the dog. Lather the shampoo or dog soap to the dog's coat and make sure that it's not going inside their ear or eyes. For the face, you may use a sponge or a face towel to clean it dry. When you apply the shampoo or the soap you could also give the pooch a massage to relax them. There is a dog shampoo and soap that requires you to leave it untouched for certain minutes. It’s best to follow this advice for better results. Rinse it thoroughly afterwards.

4. Blow it dry

Once you're done bathing it, it's time to do a blow-dry. This is done not just by focusing the blower on the pooch, but also using a comb as you blow-dry it. do not focus on blowing on hot air, alternate it to cold periodically as you brush the dog. Move it in a direction from left to right like you're fanning yourself.

5. Happy Brushing Teeth

For brushing, some dog grooming shops or dog spas offer this. Just make sure you bring your pet's toothbrush.

6. Ear Cleaning

For ear cleaning, I use the Epiotic of Virbac. This is so nice to use as you just need to put this in your pet's ear, massage it and it will do it's magic once your pet starts to shake it off. The dirt will just naturally fall once you’re done.

7. Nail Clipping

For nail clipping, don't cut it too short like we do to our nails. If they have white coating then you would see its root. Make sure you don't hit that as it will result in bleeding as well as dog trauma. In case you hit that part make sure you have a styptic powder within reach. Below is an illustration on how to properly cut your dog's nails.

Source: https://tractive.com/blog/en/good-to-know/dog-nail-trimming-how-to

8. The Final Touch

After you dry it and finish the other retimes, it's time for the final touch. For this step, you can use your shears to cut excess hair. Sometimes I do another run of shaving then use shears to form it. Once done, you can put some dog powder or a dog cologne to add a long-lasting scent.

There will also be instances that your client will love you for the result and there will also be a client that will hate your work up to the bone. Take one of my experiences with Lulu as an example. The owner wanted to have Lulu’s hair trimmed but the thing is, her hair is matted all over. I had to think whether to do it by patch, which will result in her looking like she has hotspots, or to shave her throughout. I decided to shave her using blade 10, which will leave 1.5mm hair length. As I do this process my Andis clipper keeps on overheating but I was able to finish it through. The result:

The owner got mad even if I have explained that this pretty girl is heavily matted all over and it will look odd if I leave some hair and just remove the matted part since it is already up near the skin. The only thing I did wrong was I did not call her to ask for permission that this is what I’ll do. So I do understand why she was disgusted.  

When all else fails…

You can always try to groom your dog and style it the way you want at home but if it all fails, such as the case with this:

Then you can go to your favourite dog spa or dog salon to fix the mess and make it look like nothing happened.

When you choose a dog spa or a pet grooming centre for your pooch, remember that it is not enough that the one doing your dog is a professional dog groomer or the greatest pet stylist in the world. Compassion for animals must be seen right away as this will assure you that your pet is in good hands. Proper pet handling must also be observed at all times especially when it becomes mischievous. Grooming is not as easy as it seems, as it can take 1-3 hours depending on the mood or behaviour of your pet.