If you are new to own a dog in your house and you don’t want to mess the dog, your rooms and your belongings, this article may help. Dog owners like you are must pay attention not only for the food but also the hygiene of your dog and grooming is the thing you should do to take care of your dog.
You might wonder why dog owners must groom their dog, so you can read about it here. Basically, there are three main important aspects of grooming. They are the basic equipment, the routine, and the steps of how to do the routine. Below are the details of the 10 facts worth to know about dog grooming for beginners.
The Basic Equipment
1. There is a special comb for each kind of dog.
Short-haired dogs like Terrier, Shepherd, Beagle and more are best combed with a fine-toothed comb while you can use medium-toothed comb for medium-haired dogs such as Daug, Papshund and Docker. If your dog has long hair, the wide-toothed comb is the best.
2. There is even a special comb to remove ticks and fleas.
Ticks and fleas in a dog is common, however you must immediately remove them if you have seen one to prevent uncomfortable itch for the dog. The comb is usually has fine narrow tooth. You usually can get it in the pet shop. Worse case, your dog can get skin infection by scratching its skin to bleed. Since the ticks and fleas are sucking blood, the worst case is that your dog can be malnourished. So buy that special comb asap so that if you start seeing those crawlers on your dogs you can immediately kick them out. You can also read 3 Most Common Fleas That Will Affects Your Dog
3. There are toothpaste for dogs.
Just like us, dogs need to brush their teeth to prevent bad breath and plaque which lead to tooth decay and gum infection that can put your dog in pain. Some dogs need to brush their tooth daily, but you can brush your dogs’ teeth twice a week. What kind of diseases can you get from dog saliva?
The Routine
4. The minimum phase to bath your dog is once a week.
Sounds too much? Actually the most ideal time for taking your dog to bath with shampoo is once a week especially f your dog is extremely active, live in dry or tropical place and play in the outside more.
5. Anal glands or sacs expressing are extremely important, you have no choice.
Wait, what? you might think. But yes, this is one fact you need to face and DO to express your dog’s behind if you find your dog is smelly while you have just took it to bath. This because your dog cant poop properly due to lack of fiber in most of the dog foods in the market. However, most dog owners would likely to pay the professional rather than to do it by themselves for any reason.
6. Dog owners must clean their dog thoroughly, including cleaning their dog eye tear stains.
You must groom your dog thoroughly, starts with trimming the nails, clean the ear, clean the hidden skin surface, brush the teeth, express anal sacs, comb the hair and as important as the other, you need to clean the eye tear stains using wet clothes or tissue paper.
The Steps
7. Dog owners must have grooming schedule for their dogs.
You might think it is easy to remember “once a week” or “twice a week” schedule. However, sometimes we lost track and not sure when the last time you groomed your dog because a week pasts too fast and it just feel like yesterday. So you must at least mark your calendar after grooming your dog. You must read about the 6 Common Dog Diseases That Are Contagious to Human.
8. You can do anal sacs expressing by yourself.
Oh yes, you can DIY the anal sacs expressing if you want to save some dollars. Simply use your thumb and forefinger of your left hand and hold the dog with the right one. Place around the dog anus and push gently like you would push your eyes. Feel the thing of a cherry sized inside the anus and you will find the sacs and carefully push until the smelly liquid is out. Do not continue if the liquid is too solid or bloody and immediately go to vet.
9. Some dog owners don’t want to declaw their dog nails for the dog-right movement, however declawing is important.
The title really explains a lot that declawing is important. The proper nails length to declaw is about one to two millimeters from the paw skin so it won’t hurt the dog.
10. Hair clip is needed while untangle matted hair.
Use small hair clips to put aside the unmatted hair of your dog so you can focus on combing the matted hair only. Start from the very bottom of the matted hair.
Those are the 10 facts worth to know about dog grooming for beginners and hopefully helps you a lot. If you are not sure what to do, go to vet so the professionals would explain everything. You might also want to read 6 Easiest ways of caring puppy at home for beginners.