I cannot stress enough the importance of properly socializing your puppy. It is VITAL that your puppy experience a wide range of situations, people, and other dogs while it is still programming its brain. As soon as you bring your puppy home and have his first set of shots (or when the vet gives the OK), you should start taking your pet with you wherever you can get away with going with it.

After a few socialization sessions, you should make arrangements to meet with a professional groomer. Don't drop him off for a grooming during the first visit... just take him in, let the groomer hold him and talk to him, and maybe even give him a little treat. Talk to her about the grooming requirements for his breed, and perhaps set up his first appointment.

The first time your puppy is groomed, he should get a bath, nail trimming and ear cleaning. If he is very furry, you can also ask that the groomer trim his feet, sanitary (potty) area, and if needed, in front of the eyes. I don't recommend doing anything more extensive than this the first time or two. If he is very afraid, you'll need to work with him at home and bring him back in a couple of weeks for another session. Repeat this procedure until he's comfortable with the process before going ahead with a full haircut. It could take three or four of these sessions... be patient, though... it's worth the wait.

Your groomer and your vet will recommend that you play with your puppy's feet a lot. Both of these people will be trimming your puppy's nails its whole life and don't want to have to wrestle with it, or possibly even stress it out, every time they see him. By playing with his feet a lot, you desensitize him to having his feet touched. But there is more to grooming than just trimming the nails... the following is a set of lessons designed to familiarize your pup with the grooming process at home so that when he does go to the groomer (or to the vet for shots), he will be more at-ease while being handled by a stranger.

Create a location where the only thing you do with the dog there is grooming-related. If you don't have a grooming table, I recommend putting a bath mat on top of your dryer. You're not likely to spend much cuddle-time with your pet on top of your dryer, so it will always be 'strictly business'. Have a small stash of tiny treats ready. You are now ready for your lessons. Master each lesson before moving to the next one. And be patient... some puppies don't 'get it' as fast as others.

Put puppy on the mat. Pet him. If he sits still, or at the very least doesn't try to jump off, praise him like crazy and give him a treat. Repeat this exercise until he will sit still for you every time you put him up. Don't put him down until he has done what you want, though, or he will learn quickly that the way off the dryer is to be obnoxious.

Hold a paw in your hand. Don't squeeze or pull... just hold the paw gently in your hand. If he lets you, praise him and give him a treat. Work up to being able to hold all four paws (one at a time). Again, don't give in if he fights you. Tell him 'no' in a firm voice (no need to shout it, dogs are rarely hard of hearing), make him do his 'sit still' exercise, then go for that foot again. Reward even the tiniest display of tolerance to foot handling.

Squeezing the toes. This is basically just an extension of Lesson Two. Count the toes by squeezing them gently one at a time, with your forefinger under the pad of the toe and your thumb over the top... as if you were going to trim the nails (but don't do that yet!). Again, reward for progress.

Hold the face. Simply put, cradle your puppy's head in both hands, facing you, and have him be still for it.

Hold the muzzle. Grasp your puppy's muzzle with your left hand (or whichever one you don't write with) and have him be still for it. If your pet has a beard, once he masters this, you can teach him to have his beard held under his chin to hold his head still.

Do the muzzle/beard hold with the one hand and just pet your puppy's head and face with the other hand. Touch ears, eyelids, nose... everything.

Do the muzzle/beard hold with one hand and touch your puppy's head and face with a foreign object (not a brush yet)... perhaps a toy, or a remote control... when he masters this, graduate to something that vibrates or makes noise. Desensitize him! Eventually, if he has a furry coat, he'll have to have clippers around his head, and they make noise!

Cleaning the ears. Do the muzzle hold thing, open an ear flap, and gently swab the outer ear with a cotton ball moistened with ear cleaner. Do this for both ears. Do not pluck any hair in the ears yet! Wait until your puppy is used to being groomed first, then have your groomer or vet show you the proper hair-plucking procedure.

For short, slick coats, you'll need a rubber curry brush such as the Zoom Groom. For longer or fuzzy coats, you'll need a wire slicker brush and a metal comb. Start lessons by just brushing over the back from the shoulder blades to the rump. As he learns to tolerate this, gradually move down the sides, then to the chest area, then do the legs (remember the paw-hold lesson) and finally the head and neck. Follow the slicker brush with the metal comb just to check for tangles (don't pull hard). If at any point you discover tangles in your puppy's coat that don't brush out very easily, you should see a groomer... it is not a good time during the training process for YOU to try to demat your puppy, as this can be painful if not done properly.

Finally... toenails! Have your groomer or vet show you where to cut if you aren't already familiar with this process... then, using the same hold you used in the toe-squeezing lesson, gently trim away the nails. Give him a treat after every toenail successfully trimmed (make sure they're small treats... he might have as many as 22 toenails if he has double dewclaws in the back!).

Do these lessons on a daily basis, and remember to NOT move on to the next lesson until your puppy has mastered the first. Even once your puppy has mastered all of these lessons, you should still go through them all about once a week. For each lesson, start with Lesson 1 and continue to the lesson you're working on currently so that he doesn't forget what he has already learned.

Your groomer (and your vet) will appreciate the hard work you've put in to table training your puppy at home, and your puppy may not realize it enough to appreciate it, but it really will make every grooming session in a salon easier on him as well.

Happy Training!