Dog Grooming Basics Tips and Techniques

Keeping your canine companion well-groomed is much more than just smelling and looking good. It is about keeping your dog medically fit too. Dog’s basic grooming need involves brushing, bathing, nail trimming, and haircuts. In this article, I will explain you some easy but important tips and techniques that will help you to groom your dog in effective way.

• Brushing hair

Brushing not only helps to prevent the irritation of skin by removing dead hair from the dog’s coat before it mats but also removes ticks and fleas from the hair of dog. For assistance on what type of brush to choose for your canine companion, we have listed some ideal brushes that are meant for this purpose:

• Choostix premium double sided brush
• Double sided grooming brush (L)
• Premium double sided grooming brush (L)
• Double sided grooming brush (M)

You should brush your pooch as often as you feel is needed, but the longer your dog’s hair, the more often you will need to brush. Dogs with very long hair may need the brushing on daily basis, while the shorthaired dogs may need it on monthly basis.

You should always brush outward from the skin of your dog and never toward the skin from the ends of the hair. Misting the coat of your dog with a grooming spray helps the brush glide smoothly through any mats and snags.

• Bathing

Just like human being, dogs also need bathing. But, dogs do not need frequent bathing as human do. The breed type of your dog and the environment in which it lives largely determines the ideal frequency of bathing. In case of bathing, a good rule-of-thumb is once a month. It is also recommended that you should not bathe your canine companion more than once a week.

You should not use bath soaps, which are meant for human, on your pooch. While giving bath, you should use best quality shampoo that is formulated specifically for the dogs. It is always a good idea to use those shampoos which can also protect your dog’s hair from the ticks and fleas. For your ease, I have listed some good dog shampoos:

• Bayer Bolfo anti tick and flea shampoo for dogs
• Glenand natural oat meal and aloe vera shampoo for dogs
• Wuff Wuff foam shampoo for dogs
• Virbac Clinar-M
• Petcare Notix Propoxur shampoo for dogs

• Pedicure

You should trim nails of your dogs from once a week to once a month. But, the activity of nail trimming is often feared by both dogs and owners.

Do you want to trim your dog’s nail safely? Know how to trim dog nails

You should always use best quality nail cutters which are designed for the purpose. A rotary trimmer can be a safer. If you are not comfortable with this process, you can have this job done by a qualified professional.

• Scissors and clippers

Most of the dog owners prefer to leave the dog’s haircuts to the professional groomers. This job really takes in depth knowledge to do properly, especially for the dogs with long, continuously growing hair.

But, with some efforts you can also become an expert at cutting the hair of your dog. Here are a few tips for doing the hair cutting job of your dog properly:

1. First you should bathe your dog using a good quality shampoo that suits the skin type of your dog (read the first point of this article)
2. After that towel dry and brush
3. Now, use scissors that are meant for this purpose
4. You can use electric clippers for cutting on the bulk of the body of dog
5. Make sure to keep the blades of both scissors and electric clippers sharp. Keep in mind that the dull blades are dangerous.
6. You should choose a quiet and isolated place for trimming the hair of your dog. Sudden visitor or a startling noise during the complete process may cause the dog to jump, which is dangerous for the both of you.