There has always been breeds of dogs that need grooming like my own breed Bearded Collies. However, over the past ten years poodle crosses and other crosses of long-haired breeds have become very popular. These dogs need additional training for them to understand and accept the grooming process.
When does your Puppy's Grooming education begin?
All Breeders of dogs coated or not should have done regular handling sessions with the Puppy. If you are buying a breed that needs regular grooming e.g Poodle, Poodle crosses, Bearded Collie, Samoyed, Old English Sheep Dog, Maltease, you would expect a lot of work having been put into your Puppy's grooming education before you take them home.
This video shows one of our 9 week old Bearded Collie Puppies being blow dried in the salon.
Our Puppies are conditioned from a young age to enjoy grooming. We do this with regular session on the grooming that are linked with lots of positive attention from us and treats. Our puppies leave us understanding brushes, combs, baths and dryers. When you visit your Puppy at the Breeders ask them what they are doing before you collect to help your Puppy understand grooming. Your breeder should provide you with information on the best grooming tools for your breed and also information on how to use them.
Pure Bred Poodles will have had their face and feet shaved before they leave the breeder. Therefore, Poodle crosses also need to have a degree of grooming before they are 8 weeks.
When Puppy goes to their new home.
We recommend that our owner's bath and dry their Pups with a low heat dryer every two weeks until they are 16 - 20 weeks old and then to book them in at the groomers. Do not make this a game. Take look at the video above, you are teaching your Puppy to accept grooming and be relaxed, not excited and silly. If you wind them up they will start biting and wiggling, keep the session calm and quiet. Your job is to "Drip Feed Life" to your Pup, not flood them and scare them. Anything your Pup is going to encounter in life they need to have gentle exposure to it as a young dog. All dogs regardless of coat will need to be handled. This can include trimming nails, removing a grass seed, putting eye meds in their eyes and teeth checked etc . Regular short sessions on a grooming table or garden table from week one of collecting your Pup will make on going life with your dog a lot easier.
If your Puppy is going to need regular grooming/clipping then the sooner you introduce them to their groomer the better.
Why are early visits to the groomer so important?
The two main issues with not putting the work in early with your Puppy is they become matted and their first experience at the groomer is a mission to get the coat off. This is not fair on the Puppy or the Groomer. The second issue is your Puppy reaching the age of say nine month and having their first experience of all the equipment that we use. Dogs that end up hating grooming have not had positive early experiences with grooming. You can always tell the dogs in the grooming salon that have come from a young age as they are relaxed and enjoy their time with their groomer. They leave feeling and looking amazing.
Groomers use very sharp equipment!! If your Puppy has not had good early experiences with grooming it becomes very difficult to trim a face of a dog that is not relaxed. Again, positive early exposure to grooming is safer for Puppy and groomer.
Extra Learning - Grooming events?
Maintenace grooming at home is also very important we regularly run events that you can attend with or without your dog to work with your dog to achieve positive grooming sessions. Our events can be found here .
You can also book a 1-2-1 at your home and Madeleine will teach you how to train your dog on the grooming table. If you put the time into teaching your dog this will result in stress free grooming for you and your Dog.
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