Paw N Me

Hey there everyone! I hope all is great on your side! I’m doing great, fantastic Monday! =)

I wanted to share how to groom your dog or dogs.. well the way I actually groom my Bambi as well as my friends and families dogs.

First things first, make sure your dog is calm.
You don’t want him or her too excited and making potty mistakes everywhere.
(You know your dog best so I cannot tell you how to keep him or her calm) Unless they are a new dog into the home… you shouldn’t be grooming them in the first place until you get to know their personalities a bit better.) *smile*

Second, make sure to have all your supplies.. actually this should have been first huh? hehe!
Supplies needed: Shampoo and Conditioner(upon request), nail trimming clippers(NOT SCISSORS!), a large enough towel that can soak the water from their fur as well as the towel being 3-4 times the size of your dog, if not get several, a comb or brush, toothbrush and toothpaste, eye wipes(upon request.. washing your dog does the job as well), dog perfume if you’d like, and last but not least you! =)

Third, after you have gathered all the supplies you need, make a choice on if you’d like to bathe them or shower them. Bathe meaning the tub filled with water, or shower with a retractable shower head. I prefer the shower head because I can get around shampooing all around my dog, bathing works, but harder to get the shampoo all over the dog.

Then, you want to make sure the water temperature is warm enough, not too hot and not to cold, dogs skin are sensitive and not like humans so if you think a HOT shower will be good for them, it actually isn’t because it will cause their skin to chaff (dandruff in human term). You want the water to be not too cold either, they can catch colds. (Yes they can if you keep them long enough with the cold running water).

You want to bathe/shower them first before you clip their nails and brush them and what not.
RECOMMENDATION:
There’s a shampoo called Bio-Groom, a hypo-allergenic tearless shampoo & conditioner. Tearless so that if you do end up washing around your dogs eyes, you don’t want to make them cry because I know you wouldn’t like getting soap in your eyes either, THEY BURN!!!

After you have done the shampoo and conditioning step, dry them off by gently squeezing the water off their fur(if they have a lot), then get the towel(s) and start patting them down. You may want to use a blow dryer, but the ones that are pretty silent and on LOW heat. It also prevents the dogs from catching a cold. Air drying their whole body takes a whole lot of time, and imagine if we had hair like theirs all over our body and air drying it, it would take hours! =P

After all the hard work is over, now its time to clip their nails. Now, if you are inexperienced with cutting dogs nails, let me just tell you, it’s not too hard. Just make sure your dog won’t jump or move his paws around. Help  your dog get in a comfortable position on your lap. Take his back paw one at a time first and hold his paw as if you would hold someones hand to put a ring on their finger. Gently and I really mean Gently squeeze the paws so that the nails could spread open and as it has opened, please grab the nail clippers and clip downwards. Dogs have a exact place where you can tell to trim the nails. You should be able to see their blood line in their nails. Do not cut CLOSE to them, cut AWAY from them, but not too far where it would keep their nails too long. It’s always better to cut them longer than shorter, but everyone makes mistakes so if you happen to make a mistake, there is a solution that you can put on their nail called a stopper. I posted a picture below of the powder that you can buy for less than $10 at any local pet store as well as the awesome nail clippers for approximately $13 dollars.

Those nail clippers are called Bamboo and the powder is called a kwik stop styptic powder.
Now, trimming the nail part with the clippers, just like how the above picture shows you of the nail trimmers, hold it just like how it’s shown and downwards clip your dogs nails.

To touch up the final grooming process, don’t forget if they have fur, to brush them =)
Here’s a picture of a comb I recommend, it doesn’t hurt the dogs skin and is great for smooth brushing.

Keep in mind, this can brush larger breed dogs as well as smaller breeds.
Now really finalizing the grooming process, if you’d like there is dog perfume (which is up to you as the parent.)

I hope this helped most of you 🙂
Also, my last suggestion, do not “cut” your own dogs hair unless you are experienced, trimming their fur is fine but I highly suggest you take them to a professional groomer. I took some grooming courses myself so I learned how to groom my own dog, but for those of you who hasn’t had any experience, it’s not as easy as it looks. You may cut the dog accidentally if you do not becareful, and trust me, you cannot always be too careful right? 🙂

Good night everyone, it’s past 1 in the morning and I am exhausted!! Workaholic can you say? By the way, sorry about my late post. Work = Long hours.