Groom your own dog, save money!

Do you want to find a new way to bond with your dog, and save some money in the process? Do your own doggrooming!  

Brushing your own dog

I start off with this topic, because this ALL dogowners should know how to do correctly, even if you dont groom yourself. Brushing is extremely important! If you don't know how to brush all the way down to the skin, your dog will mat right into the skin and this is not only very painful to the dog, it can cause severe skinsores underneath the mat or even hotspots cause the skin cant breathe.

The rule is, if you cant run a comb through the entire coat down to the skin, your dog is not brushed out yet. 

Yikes, where do I start? Well, you start at the bottom and work your way to the top, layer by layer. It's easiest if you lay the dog down, maybe in your lap, maybe on the floor, maybe on the grooming table, but you lay the dog down. With one hand, fold the coat at the butt up on the thigh and then brush layer by layer in the direction the hair grows. Take your time though. A slicker brush is very useful and very popular, but the bristles are sharp and pretty painful to the skin so make sure the bristles aren't too sharp cause they can cause a brushburn. Using a regular brush works, but it does not take the hairs as tightly. I prefer bristle brushes with buds on the tips. They are pretty hard to find but they are out there.

Mats and tangles

If and when you find a mat, gently pull it apart with your fingers to somewhat split it up, spray detangler spray on it and carefully brush it out. Hold two fingers at the base of the mat so it does not hurt the dog, we want this experience to be pleasant to the dog. If it is a severe mat, you can carefully cut it in lines down towards the skin, but not too close, you really don't want to cut the dog. If it is even severer than that or you just don't want to take the time to get it out or even the dog is not very happy with it, it is kindest to cut it out. Fold the mat to the side, take a small scissors and hold it level to the dog, blade sideways to the mat. Get the blade in between the skin and the mat just a few hairs at the time and make sure you can see the blade between the hairs, and cut those. Then you work your way through under the mat hairs by hairs. You can also use a clippers but you are more in control of what you are doing if you use this technique. Make sure you fold the mat away as you go to really see which hairs you can cut. If you cant see the hairs at all, you have two options. 1. cut through the mat and try to brush out the rest or 2. use the clipper machine.

The dog should always be completely brushed out before the bath! Otherwise the mats will only become worse from becoming wet. Same goes for rain, you really want to brush out and blowdry the dog completely dry.

If you want to avoid mats alltogether, keep the coat too short to tangle. But if you want your dog fluffy you better make this a habit. If you run the comb through the dog every day you will catch all tangles before they become mats. The armpits is usually the worst place because of the heat and rubbing of moving. A clean coat will tangle less, so unless you have a wirecoated breed and it's a breed that easily mats up you gain on giving it a bath regularly. A cocker breeder and shower on youtube said that if it tangles on day four, you bathe it on day three. Most longcoated breed mats really badly when they shed the puppycoat around 9 months to a year and for a while thereafter.

Saving money? But the grooming items are so expensive!
Yes this is true. But good quality items will last for years and years! More info about grooming different coats and grooming supplies will be in a later post.