Alberta Dogs
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Preparing your Puppy for a Lifetime of Grooming by Marlene Parish Puppy owners have a lot of things to do to prepare their puppy to a lifetime of living with their human friends. One area that can get overlooked is preparing the puppy for a lifetime of grooming. While this may not matter as much with a short-haired dog like a Labrador retriever, it matters a lot if you have a dog with a perpetually growing coat like a Poodle or a Shit Tzu. A well-mannered dog on the grooming table is much more welcome at the grooming shop. It can also save you money and decreases the probably of an accident. You pay the groomer for the time it takes to get your dog groomed. If the dog jumps around the table and the groomer has to spend time making the dog behave the grooming bill goes up. If the dog bites every time the groomer gets near the dog's feet, then either the groomer will refuse to groom the dog, add in danger pay, or charge you extra to compensate another person to hold the dog. If a groomer gets her hands wrecked she can’t work until they get better, so the groomer will not take many chances. Even muzzles do not solve the problem. The groomer has to be able to get it on, and a dog swinging around to bite is frustrating to work with. Lets face it, a dog that is biting is an unhappy dog, and who wants their dog to be that unhappy? Even a dog that just worries and is not aggressive is a grooming challenge. I groomed a dog that flattened like a pancake on the table. It meant I could not do a quality job of grooming the dog. I had to support the dog’s weight and trim at the same time. I felt bad for the dog because she was so upset. The only reason I didn't charge the owner extra was she is a really nice person and she understood her dog would not come out looking like a star. Another consideration is the equipment used by the groomer is sharp, and accidents happen. If the dog jumps around the odds of an accident goes way up. The dog suddenly moves the wrong way and gets nicked by the clippers or a pair of scissors. Not only do you have an injured dog, you may have a vet bill for stitches as well. Teaching your dog to be well-mannered for grooming starts when the dog is just a few weeks old. When I had litters of Standard Poodle puppies they had their faces first shaved at four weeks. By the time they left my home they had had their faces, tails and feet shaved and their nails trimmed two or three times. My own Standard Poodles were show dogs and I kept that routine up weekly or biweekly until they were ten or eleven months old. They also got a weekly bath and blow dry. As adult they have never questioned grooming. As an added bonus I can take them to the vet lay them on their sides and the vets can do what they need to. Even if I was not maintaining a dog for the conformation show ring I would do a lot of grooming on a puppy. I would trim the dog’s nails weekly until the dog was six months old. This convinces the dog you have a right to trim those nails and handle his feet. I would thoroughly brush the puppy every week, and insist on being able to brush legs, face and tail. Past the six month mark I would get in the habit of monthly nail trimming and brush as needed. If you have a breed that needs regular clipping like a Shih Tzu, Bichon Frise or a Poodle, take them into a grooming shop to get a bath and tidy by three or four months of age. The dog will not need it much, but it will desensitize the dog to the grooming equipment like the blow dryer and the clippers. I would repeat that again at age six months. Some grooming shops have special puppy grooming programs, so ask. Most puppies do not mat or need much trimming, but a groomer can convince a four month old puppy to put up with things. A dog is nine months old will fight it much more. This is especially important with the terrier breeds that tend to have a lot of fight in them or a spooky puppy that needs to build confidence. You may never get the same attitude to put up with grooming if you wait until the dog is a year old for the first groom. Be prepared for the coat change that happens on many breeds when they enter adolescence. A puppy that has never matted will become a mess seemingly over night. During this period it is easiest to shave off all the puppy's hair and keep him extremely short until this passes. It seems to take three months to as long as a year. Once the adult coat comes in then you can enjoy longer hair on your dog with less work. If you choose to keep the hair during coat change, be prepared to brush your dog a lot. Your groomer may also be able to recommend products to use to decrease matting and make the hair easier to manage. With the double-coated dogs, such as a Shetland Sheepdog or a Pomeranian you also have your work cut out for you. These are breeds you can manage at home or else take into a grooming shop for assistance. The challenge with these breeds is to get the undercoat out so it doesn’t mat. As puppies these are ones you particularly want to train them to lie on their sides quietly for brushing. It may seem impossible to you that your bouncing puppy can be trained to do this, but it is true. By the time my Standard Poodle puppies were five months old they would lie quietly on their sides for an hour of brushing and blowdrying. My friend has a Keeshonden and she spent some time showing it. She had a revelation while watching the breeder of her dog brush her own Keeshonden. She realized she put up with too much irritating behaviour from her own dog and started insisting her dog lay still for brushing. Recently even with my own dogs I realized they were not behaving as well as some of my clients at the grooming shop. It was time to adjust their attitudes about standing still. You can insist too. Then it becomes much easier to get the brushing done while you are talking on the phone or watching TV. Even short-haired dogs like Labrador Retrievers or Boxers need regular maintenance. I recommend regular nail cutting and some baths for them as puppies. They also face a lifetime of nail cutting, and when they get into the mud as adults you will have much less of a struggle to get the bath done if they have some puppy baths. It will also help with handling if there is an emergency and the vet has to poke and prod your dog. Alberta has many wonderful dog groomers to help you maintain your puppy. Check out our page of dog groomers to find one near you.
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