Dog bathing is one of the crucial general pet care responsibilities. Clean dogs have healthy skin and coat. You might wonder how often should you groom your dog if it has a healthy skin and hair coat. The fact is that all dogs need to be cleaned since grooming has multiple roles such as removing the foul smell on your pet’s hair.
Another reason to clean your pet is to remove debris, scale, and loose hair. Regular grooming encourages the growth of new and healthier hair, which allows your dog’s hair coat to glitter.
Does your dog suffer from a specific skin condition? Your vet might recommend you to clean a pet at particular intervals for the prescribed therapy to function.
So, how often should you groom your dog? Read on to learn some essential scheduling tips for dog grooming.
1. Size of Hair Coats
Dogs with short hair require more regular grooming compared to pups with long hair coats. The short hair coats often have numerous dead hairs that you need to remove so that your canine friend will not leave fur on your furniture and clothes. The Grooming exercise eliminates loosely attached hairs.
2. Vet Officers’ Orders
Dogs are vulnerable to skin diseases such as eczema, hot spots, and atopic dermatitis. Medical experts can recommend that you groom your dog daily before applying topical creams. In other cases, a veterinary might propose that you refrain from grooming your dog for the period that it will be under treatment.
Following a vet’s medication direction is essential for the treatment program of your dog to be effective.
3. The Lifestyle of Your Dog
What does your dog do on a typical day? Does the canine friend spend a big part of the day outdoors, playing on the soil, and running in hot weather? Outdoor playing increases the perspiration rate of your dog. Therefore, pets with an active outdoor lifestyle require more grooming compared to a pup that stays indoors the whole day.
4. Age
The age of a dog might sound controversial concerning grooming frequency, but you should know that modern dog grooming practices are unnatural to canines. A dog that is perhaps more than two years old has completed vaccines and become used to grooming. You are also likely to have discovered detergents that cause allergy in your dog.
On the contrary, if you have just acquired a puppy, you need to introduce it gradually to grooming. Thus, you will groom a puppy less frequently compared to an adult canine, as you also need more time to identify suitable detergents.
5. Overall Dog Health
If your canine has a chronic health issue, you must have wondered how often should you groom your dog. For instance, a dog that suffers from conditions such as arthritis should bath less frequently than a healthy pup.
6. Hair Style
If your canine has a long hair coat, you might need to groom it more frequently as the extended fur traps in warmth that increases the perspiration rate. However, you can clip the dog’s hair coat to reduce sweating rate and grooming frequency.
Can you groom a dog with regular clippers? Yes, you can. Include gauge attachments so that you can trim the hair to a suitable size that you will not have to groom after every two or three days.
Maintaining a short hair means you can save frequent canine grooming that is common to dogs with fancy hairstyles.
7. Dog Mood
If your canine is temperamental, look for lessons on how to groom a dog on your own. It is uncomfortable to clean a dog that bites, scratches, and generally resists grooming. You may consider trimming explosive dog’s hair so that you can clean it less often.
Similarly, you can buy a special seat and bed for a moody dog so that it will not leave hair or a bad odor on your sofa.
8. Availability of a Cleaning Service Provider
In some cases, you might opt to hire a professional dog cleaner if you are too busy to groom your pup or lack adequate experience to do the job.
Professional grooming services also address frequently asked questions, such as “Can you groom a dog with regular clippers?” They also recommend safe detergents, combs, and hair sprays for your dogs.
Nonetheless, you may have to groom your dog as many times as your expert will be available. For instance, you might want your pet groomed twice a week, but the professional is only available once. Then you will need to stick to the expert’s schedule.
Overall, the expertise on how to groom a dog on your own is critical; you might need to tidy up your canine friend to save professional grooming costs. It is also advisable for a dog owner to groom a temperamental dog since the pup would be more contented with a familiar person.
