Dog Grooming

Some care needs to be taken when bathing your dog. You must use shampoos and conditioners that are produced for dogs. Do not use the shampoo and conditioners that you personally use as some of the chemicals in these are a known irritant to animals.

Where you bathe your dog mainly depends on the dogs size, small to medium dogs can be safely lifted up and put into the bath. Larger dogs can be bathed outside or even put into the shower!
You must also think of your own health and well being as well as your dogs, for example if your dog is heavy and you think that you will struggle to lift him in and out of the bath or if you suffer from a back problem and are worried that you may injure yourself further by lifting the dog or stretching over the bath to reach the dog, bathe him outside or in the shower.
I have a large dog and in the winter I bathe her in the shower. The shower head is detatchable and has a long flexible pipe which makes it easier to rinse the shampoo from the hard to reach places. In warmer weather, I bathe her outside. I take two or three buckets of warm water outside to use with the shampoo and rinse off the shampoo with a hosepipe.

First of all rinse the dog well, washing out any excess dirt or mud taking care to avoid your dogs face and ears. Then work in the recommended amount of shampoo, bringing it to a lather and then rinse off, again taking care to avoid the ears and face. Your dog should now have a nice clean coat!

The dogs face and ears are best cleaned after cleaning the coat as most dogs do not like their faces sprayed with water and there is also a chance that the shampoo may get into the dogs ears or eyes.
To clean the dogs ears you should use a cotton ball soaked in warm water to remove any dirt and use a dry cotton ball to dry the ear. The dogs face should be done in the same way but with a little shampoo on the dampened cotton ball and then use a wet cloth or flannel to rinse off the shampoo.
When you are happy that your dog is clean, rub him with a dry towel and then brush or comb him through, getting rid of any tangles. You can then let him dry naturally or use a Dog Dryer
to dry him through!