Did You Say G-G-G-G-Grooming?

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Did you say g-g-g-g-grooming?
Posted on December 27, 2010 by pawsitivedawgs| Leave a comment

Original Posting December 13, 2009

Most of us enjoy a trip to the hair dressers or beauticians (well, most of the girls anyway!) but many dogs find grooming procedures such as brushing, bathing, nail clipping or detangling terrifying and are miserable during grooming sessions.

Professional groomers often dread grooming certain clients and many pet owners are unable to handle their own pet in order to brush his coat, check his skin or to clip his nails.

The best time to familiarise a dog with grooming procedures is during socialisation but when puppies are only weeks old most people think that they don’t need much grooming. Remember socialisation is all about preparing the puppy for all the things he will meet in adult life which will include handling and grooming depending on the type of coat and breed of dog.

So, let’s start with teaching puppies that grooming is always fun and enjoyable.

Grooming for Puppies

Ideally breeders or anyone in contact with young puppies should have started some socialisation with gentle and regular handling at the very least. Many responsible breeders will have already started to accustom your puppy to standing on a grooming table, being brushed with a soft brush and having his feet, face and tail handled.

Either way intensive but gentle socialisation must continue in the puppy’s new home.

Handling

Every day handle every part of your puppy’s body and reward him for calm behaviour while this exercise is going on.

Use your puppy’s normal kibble for handling exercises but use a higher value treat such as small pieces of chicken for areas that your puppy is not so comfortable with or for extra important areas.

The most important areas to concentrate on during these exercises are the ears, the feet (between each toe too!), the tail and face (including the mouth).

Handling exercises involve lifting your puppy up, putting him down, lightly squeezing each foot and both ears, checking each eye and lifting his lips, pressing firmly (but gently) on all areas of his back and gently handling his tail, moving his coat against the grain with your hands and scratching his underside while turned on his back.

As you handle each part with one hand, deliver small pieces of kibble or chicken for more difficult areas into the puppy’s mouth with your other hand.

This can be done in a most relaxed way – why not sit on the floor or invite your puppy to cuddle on the sofa and carry out these handling exercises.

Handling your puppy like this allows you to check all of his vital bits to make sure everything is in order. It will also help your puppy to cope with vet and groomer visits with minimal distress for all involved.

When working on any socialisation exercise with your puppy always watch for signs that your puppy is overwhelmed, distressed or frightened by a particular situation. It is up to you to prevent your puppy developing negative associations towards everyday occurrences as this may have a greater impact in his adult life.

Look out for your puppy backing up, cowering, licking his lips, turning his head away, panting, yawning, shaking, scratching, trying to get away or any other signals that suggest that your puppy is not happy.

If you continue to push your puppy or think you are helping him to ’face his fears’ you are likely to do more harm than good. Your puppy will probably learn to associate you with the unpleasantness, to fear the situation and will shut down to stop any further interaction. Not too nice so be attentive and responsive to your puppy.

Once your puppy will happily allow you and other members of his immediate family to carry out these handling exercises, start encouraging strangers to practice them too. This is where your puppy is likely to be a little ‘off’ at first so be really vigilant and interrupt things if your puppy is overwhelmed.
As your puppy gets more confident you can ask friends to help out or even passers-by when out walking – everyone loves to cuddle a puppy!!

Socialisation Out & About

As part of your socialisation plan include lots of trips to all sorts of places where you will want your dog to behave when he is all grown up.

Once or twice a week bring your puppy to the vet’s and the groomer’s even when there is no need.

At the vets

Bring the puppy in, delivering plenty of kibble and treats as you go. Have everyone there give the puppy a treat, and even allow them to handle the puppy if he copes well with this.

Remember, veterinary waiting rooms can be a hot bed for disease so make sure your puppy has at least the first vaccine of the puppy series. If you are in doubt carry the puppy in but still allow others to hold and handle him.

Bring the puppy through to a consultation room and place him on the table and on the weighing scales while delivering treats. Allow nurses and assistants handle him while feeding him. Bring your puppy’s favourite toy and have a game.

Practice training exercises at the vets too such as standing for a quick examination or sitting on the weighing scales.

At the groomers

Ask the groomer to lift your puppy onto a grooming table and allow him to sniff grooming equipment while feeding him.

Bring him to the bath and feed him while he stands in the dry tub.

Ask the groomer to run clippers and driers away from your puppy – feed higher value treats while these noises are going on.

When you make your social calls to the groomers practice training some exercises while there. You can teach stand-stays in the tub and down-stays in a crate for example.

Now that your puppy is comfortable with basic handling exercises, with strangers handling his bits and with cooperating at these locations its time to start some grooming training at home before your puppy will need professional grooming.

Grooming at home

Always seek expert advice when choosing grooming equipment and using it on your individual dog.

Did you know that Anne @ Pet Central also grooms dogs for the show ring and even teaches animal grooming to trainee Veterinary Assistants? Feel free to ask us for advice on grooming equipment and technique for your pet – we also run workshops for people who would like help grooming their pet and training their pet to cope with grooming.

For grooming at home you can start in an informal setting such as with your puppy on your lap or on the sofa beside you.

Have your puppy’s brush, comb and nail clippers beside you. Show your puppy each piece of equipment, one at a time. When your puppy looks at or touches (with his nose) a piece of equipment say YES! or click and give him a treat or piece of kibble.

Put the tool out of sight and then repeat. Soon the sight of a piece of grooming equipment means something yummy is coming to your puppy!

The next stage is to let your puppy see the grooming tool (yippee!!) and then touch his foot or face with your other hand. For calm behaviour reward with your marker signal (YES! or click) and a treat. After several repetitions this too will become rewarding to your puppy.

Now you can begin to touch your puppy’s body with the grooming tool and then mark calm behaviour and treat.

Soon you will be able to hold your puppy’s body area and lightly groom the area – build the length of time between treats and voila! grooming fun for pet and person.

Practice this every day even if your puppy’s coat doesn’t require too much grooming.

Pawdicures

Nail clipping tends to be the part of grooming that both pets and people least enjoy.

Again, expert advice is needed just to learn how to clip nails before you attempt to train your pup to enjoy it so get in touch and we will help you.

Here is a step by step plan to teaching your puppy to enjoy nail clipping:

Practice showing the nail clipper, marking then treating several times and then start with nail clipping training.

* Hold your puppy’s foot and nail clipper in the same hand for a two count while giving him something yummy with the other hand. Gradually increase the time you hold on as your puppy begins to cope better.
* While your puppy sits beside you, take you nail clipper and trim some match sticks. This clipping noise often spooks dogs so feed him plenty of tasty treats after each clip. The noise soon signals that something yummy is coming.
* Hold your puppy’s foot in one hand and the nail clipper in the other. Pretend to clip your puppy’s nail by closing the clipper lightly while touching off the nail and then deliver a treat.
* Repeat this until your puppy is ok with this routine.
* You can even place a matchstick between each toe and trim that as your puppy progresses.
* Now, hold the foot in one hand and the clippers in the other. Put the nail inside the blade of the clippers and gently close the clippers but do not clip or pinch the nail. Then deliver a treat.
* Repeat this until your puppy is ok with this routine.
* Once your puppy is confident with this exercise, repeat but this time clip a tiny amount of nail off the very end – only 1 or 2 millimeters. Puppy nails are soft and easy to clip so do not use too much pressure.
* Practice ‘faking’ nail clipping regularly and clip the tips of your puppy’s nail every two weeks. This will keep them trim and allow your puppy to learn to practice and earn treats.

Once your puppy is happy with grooming at home it will probably be about time for his first professional pet grooming appointment.

Make sure to bring your puppy to a groomer that you have carefully chosen and one who will continue with your gentle and gradual socialisation with grooming. Bring along some of your pup’s favourite treats and ask the groomer to regularly reward your puppy for good behaviour.

Hopefully your puppy will be lovely and calm during his grooming sessions and will enjoy the entire experience – as will the groomer!

Check out this blog for part 2 of this post which will cover teaching adult dogs how to cope with grooming, even those who don’t enjoy it or who have had bad grooming experiences in the past.