No one can say or claim that taking good care of your dog is a piece of cake. Unless you can delegate everything to beauty salons, dog groomers, and other people, you know how much trouble and fuss can be raised over showers or nail clipping. And even if you get other people to do these things for you, it still takes time to drop off and pick up your dog afterward, not counting the money spent. In this article, we would like to focus on the more rewarding way of grooming pets – when you do it yourself. There are certain areas and things that you could tweak, improve, and avoid doing altogether. Here are 6 frequently done mistakes that people still make when they groom their pet dog.
They don’t let the pet get comfortable
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Dogs need to be comfortable and accustomed to the noises and feelings that grooming can bring. This is why you need to be patient with the way you introduce new tools, like hair cutters, thermometers, etc. All of these things can and probably will cause the pup to become anxious. This isn’t a good fit when you’re trying to make them collaborate with you and stay in place. Take out some time from your day and give a couple of minutes for the dog to get comfortable with the water, the tools, and the environment that you’re going to be in. A treat is always an easy way out to make them behave, but nice words, petting, and gentle playfulness are also helpful.
The use of regular or heavily scented shampoos when bathing
This is more common with inexperienced dog owners/parents. New people are so in love with their pet that they overlook, forget, or simply do not know some essential things of vital importance, with relation to grooming. For example – even though you and your pet both have hair and skin, the structure and features of human and dog hair/skin differ so much that human shampoos are a very very wrong choice. They can be downright awful in a way that they can force the hair and coat to lose all of the oil and moisture which is harmful and dangerous.
Bath products with too much perfume are also a big no-no. First of all, dogs have a supremely strong smell. Everything that’s heavily scented can seem nice to us, humans, but a dog might see it like a totally abysmal and irritating product. Besides, nice smells in perfumes are almost always related to the addition of chemicals. Chemicals that can irritate and harm the pups’ skin. Unscented dog shampoos are the way to go here.
They don’t do it thoroughly enough
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Seems pretty self-explanatory. However, it isn’t, really. Most dogs have a really dense fur and if it isn’t freshly trimmed, you could have difficulties trying to spot things like ticks, warts, wounds, inflammation, etc. This is why you need to inspect them thoroughly during every wash and it’s also recommended to do so after each time that they were actively playing in tall grasses or after you see them behaving strangely.
Not doing a thorough enough job boils down to either being inexperienced, acting careless or not having the right tools and equipment for the job. Make sure you’re hands-on with grooming because it is directly related and linked to the health of your dog.
Not cleaning the ears
Strangely enough, people, although their hearing is much less sensitive, clean their ears more often than they do so for their dogs. And yes, we do it for personal hygiene and aesthetics just as much as for health benefits, but you shouldn’t overlook your pet and you also must tend to his/her needs when it comes to their ears. Together with a smell, hearing is the most important sense to your pet. If he or she feels pain in the ear, it’s a lot worse for them, then it is for us. And we all know how bad ear pain is.
Thus, make sure you properly clean the ears of your dog and that you do it regularly. It does ensure maximum prevention of ear infections which can get pretty nasty due to poor or rare cleaning. There are many cleaners available for sale but you could also get a vet’s recommendation for one of those.
They use clippers instead of grinders
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This is a more technical mistake that not a lot of people actually know, is a mistake. Well, actually it isn’t a mistake per se but you’re actually risking a lot more while using the clippers and probably not doing a good enough job.
High-end grinders allow you to trim the nail easier and safer than with the clippers. Clipping or cutting is risky because you can end up cutting too much of the nail which is just horrendous, but it does happen every so often. In addition, clipping does only shorten the nail but it won’t smooth it out. It’s still uncomfortable, rough, and sharp. A grinder cuts and smoothens the tip. You can even play around with the guided trim angles to shape nails. Click here if you want to know more in-depth info about why for dogs, grinders are a better choice than clippers.
They do it too often
Didn’t expect this, right? Well, not everyone but some people do mistake proper care for grooming as often, as they can. In a perfect world, dogs need bathing (with shampoos, etc.) every 4-8 weeks, depending on their skin/fur condition and their activity levels. You can wash them with just water much more often but don’t use products more than once a month (unless recommended by the vet).
Other procedures won’t do anything bad if you do them often (nail grinding, hair brushing, etc.). However, it’s tedious for you and not too beneficial for the dog as those treats that you give to them afterward, can stack up.
Finally, frequent grooming is an expensive time and money-wise. You needn’t spend too much money on it. Expenditures can be limited or minimal. The most important thing is to just generally care for your pet and try and groom and care for them in a way that’s good for them and of maximum convenience for you.
