The Importance Of Grooming

 

 

Grooming is not just about maintaining  your pets level of cleanliness, and it's not just about keeping your pet looking good.  The importance of grooming is about maintaining both your pet’s appearance, and maintaining their physical health.  To do this, it’s best to get your pet familiar with the brushing and grooming process when they are young.  Wait too long or ignore doing either, and your pet may not be so easy to manage during grooming, or may develope health issues later on.  Issues with their skin and coat, or difficulties dealing with ear cleaning and nail trimming become much more diffcult to manage.

 

Brushing and grooming is especially important for long-haired dogs, which require more intense grooming as compared to short-haired dogs. It takes more time to brush their long fur and they need to get used to staying still during the grooming session.  Regular brushing though, is beneficial for all kinds of dogs no matter what breed they are, helping to remove dead hair, dirt, and dandruff.  Brushing also helps to bring out the natural oils in the dog’s fur.  As you brush, the natural oils are spread all over your pets fur, giving their coat a healthy sheen.  

 

Another benefit of brushing is that it allows you to check your pet for any abnormalities. This includes skin problems such as fleas, ticks, dry patches, or issues with their nails, teeth, ears, or eyes such as infection or inflammation. When found at an early stage, these problems can be treated right away, before they have a chance to become more serious.  Left ignored and they can develope into a much more serious problem.  Matted hair has a way of hiding health issues your pet may have - often times only discovered during our grooming process.  Frequent brushing and regular grooming helps keep your pet happy and healthy, and helps you save on vet bills.  Your dog should be groomed every 4 to 10 weeks depending on breed or the lifestyle of your pet.  

 

KEY STEPS TO GOOD GROOMING

 

- NAILS

Nails should be kept at an appropriate length.  If they are too long it causes their toes to curl up, making them uncomfortable and leads to arthritis in their feet.  Nails can grow so long they curl up around and grow into their pads.   

 

- EARS

Routine ear cleaning helps to eliminates mites and dirt which can cause problems.  We can inform you of conditions we see that will affect your dogs health, such as infections. 

 

- GLANDS

Periodic expression of the anal gland will help prevent infection and impaction.

 

- SKIN

During the bathing and drying process we can observe many issues such as ticks or fleas, hot spots, rashes, dryness and flaking, tumors and other abnormalities. Extreme odors are often noted indicating problems that have been ignored, and that should be seen by your vet.

 

- HAIR

One of our more important tools, is our high density forced air dryers. Our dryers break loose the undercoat so that it can be removed and helps to break up mats in the longer breeds.  This process enables the skin to breathe and unblocks pores to promote a healthy shiny coat and removes excess unwanted hair.