How important is dog's hygiene for their health?
It's very important. There's a lot of sicknesses and illnesses that can come from poor hygiene in dogs. So dogs can have issues with their skin if they're not being groomed properly. They can form mats in their hair which can cause wounds on their skin. They can get wounds in their paw pads from long nails. Dirty ears can lead to ear infections. There's a lot of different things that can happen.
Dr. Cynthia Orange
Paw Haven Animal Hospital
Would you say that all dogs need grooming?
I would say that. And I would say that not all dogs need a lot of grooming. But even short-coat dogs do need bathing every once in a while. But more routinely, dogs who have hair that grows continuously or nails that are always long. Those dogs are probably a little bit more important to have groomed routinely.
How soon should I start grooming my dog?
So we always recommend starting to groom your dog as young as possible. So around, right when they come home from the breeder or even the pound if you're rescuing your dog from a rescue. As soon as you get them into your home, we're going to start wanting to get them used to grooming. So touching their paws, touching their ears, getting them used to having people handling them in those areas. So you also can introduce them to bathing at a very young age also. That way they're getting used to it and not fighting it as they get older. And we don't want them to ever be scared of being groomed.
If I were to groom my own dog at home, what would I need for that?
So if you're grooming your own dog at home, we generally really only recommend this for dogs who are short coated. Because dogs who are long coat, they require a little more to that with different types of trimmers. But if you want to do your own dog at home, definitely require a brush, nail trimmers. So there are large dog nail trimmers and then there are small dog ones. And certainly if your dog is really tiny or a tiny little puppy, you can probably use a human nail trimmer. So brush, nail trim, those are really the big things that I would have. And then maybe also some ear cleaner, just so you can keep those ears free of any debris. You don't need any medicated ear cleaner unless your veterinarian has prescribed it to you and has instructed you to use it pretty regularly. That is very dependent on your dog. So some dogs only need to be groomed, you know, every month. Like a really short coated dog probably just need to bathe them as needed or brush them pretty regularly. But if you have a dog that has hair that continuously grows, you know, you're going to be wanting to groom them at least every four to eight weeks. We generally recommend you talking to the groomer and asking them on their specific requirements for your breed.
And here at Paw Haven Animal Hospital, what kind of grooming services do we offer?
We do not offer a whole lot of grooming services. And that is because we have amazing groomers around us in this area that we recommend. The one thing we will do here or a few things is we will do nail trims, especially if your pet needs to be medicated or sedated for nail trims. We will happily do that. We will also do ear cleanings, especially if it's medically necessary. We do that routinely also. Every time we do bathing, it's truly if your dog is flea infested or if there is a really extenuating circumstance that we would need to do that. But we do have really wonderful local groomers that we recommend routinely.
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