Common Mistakes to Avoid When Grooming Your Dog at Home

Most dog owners are satisfied with the fun of shampooing and splashing in a pool of water with their dogs. This is just the beginning of dog grooming. One mistake idea people have about dog grooming is that once you have bathed a dog, then you are home and dry. Wrong! Some others know what it involves but would not venture beyond bathing simply because they want to believe going beyond that would be much more than they can handle. Wrong too! If you can just follow some of the tips below, then grooming would be more fun.

Let us start with bathing your dog. While some dogs absolutely love bathing, others absolutely hate it. The case is either way, usually. One thing you must avoid when bathing is water getting splashing on the canine's face or getting into its ears. Cotton balls do the magic with the ears. With the face, care is the word. There are also good shampoos for bathing animals. It is important to pick the right one, as any other type would only end up doing damage to your dog's skin. Warm water and a hand dryer complete the pack. A towel is a good replacement for a hand dryer, only most dogs love the effect of the dryer. With these, you and you can have some fun bath.

Besides bathing your dog regularly, brushing the fur on a dog is also a good grooming idea. It helps to loosen excess hair and gives the dog some shine. It is difficult to find dogs that do not love this. Enhance the shine of your dog's coat by administering multivitamin tablets. If your dog is an old one and is not used to brushing, encourage it with rewards for learning this new one. It would gradually get to love it, trust me.

Now, to some more tricky grooming procedure: nail trimming. This is one part of grooming that even I still find tricky once in a while. The catch about trimming a dog's nails is to cut it so close and yet avoid spilling some of the poor thing's blood. You may trim your dog's nail just once every month with scissors or purpose-made clippers. The job needs a lot of patience and pampering, especially if it is the first time. Try to trim it at the point where the nails start curving. If you go too far beyond that, you would likely have a little dribble of blood which can be taken care of. By and large, try trimming at the point where it curves, or just before it curves. Clean up any bleeding with tissue paper or cotton wool.

Brushing your dog's teeth is one grooming method. It is necessary to clean a dog's teeth at least once a year. Applying mouthwash more regularly is also a good idea. It is advisable, just like with other grooming methods to start at an early age. There are dog toothpaste and toothbrushes, although a used human toothpaste would just be okay. Brushing a dog's teeth requires a lot of patience and care, and over time, your dog gets used to the idea. Just remember, whenever your dog gets a new procedure right, it should be praised and rewarded. It works