Puppies may be small--or relatively small-- but those squirming, wagging, romping bundles of energy are anything but easy to groom. Puppies love to be on the move, and may not be particularly thrilled about sitting nicely for a long session of brushing, toenail clipping, and primping. However, because puppies grow, and some grow really big, puppyhood is the best time to establish a regular grooming routine. Just try to trim a full-grown Irish Wolfhound’s nails if he doesn’t want you to do it. Don’t expect to have the upper hand when it comes to physical strength!
Grooming a puppy isn’t exactly like grooming an adult dog. Puppy coats are often different than their adult manifestations will be. Long coats haven’t reached their full adult length. Other coat types take awhile to achieve their adult texture, their double-coated nature, or their mature fullness. Puppies may not need to be groomed as often as adults, but especially for long and curly-coated breeds that will require frequent grooming as adults, getting puppies in the habit now is the best and easiest way to facilitate future grooming sessions.
Socialize Your Puppy to Grooming!
Puppies have certain natural tendencies that can make grooming difficult. They may not like their paws handled, they may not be patient enough to stand still for a long detangling session, and they may balk at the handling of their mouths and ears. However, puppies can learn early that grooming is safe, inevitable…and even rewarding!
You can socialize your dog to grooming much in the same way you socialize him to the world in general: simply by exposing him to the grooming process a little bit each day. A little brushing, a little paw handling, a little ear examining…here’s how.
Baby Steps
Your puppy is a baby, and just like any young, immature mammal, he must learn things in little steps. You can’t expect a 12-week-old Afghan puppy to endure three hours of brushing—and luckily, the Afghan puppy’s coat doesn’t yet require it! But someday, that coat will require long hours of grooming.
Begin grooming your puppy as soon as you bring him home, and while you can certainly adapt a puppy grooming schedule to fit your own needs, this one works well. Don’t rush anything! Whenever your puppy gets nervous or apprehensive about anything you are doing, stop and take it back a step. Little bits of grooming applied consistently, evolving gradually and comfortably into a full-blown grooming routine, will keep grooming positive for both puppy and you.
Accentuate the Positive
Never underestimate the power of positive reinforcement when training your puppy to do anything at all! Positive reinforcement works wonders. What puppy wouldn’t want to sit nicely for grooming if it means lots of praise, treats, and time with you?
It’s easy to take a well-behaved puppy for granted. If grooming sessions become easy, don’t let that be an excuse to stop making them fun. Your puppy may begin to backslide, losing interest and patience in grooming, if you start grooming haphazardly or distractedly or forgetting to praise and reinforce your puppy for good behavior.
Every grooming session, no matter how old your puppy gets, should end with praise and a treat. While early grooming sessions will go more smoothly if you give your puppy lots of small treats throughout, grooming doesn’t have to become a treat-dispensing session every single time. Those early treats help to associate the grooming process with rewards in your puppy’s mind. Once that connection is established, your puppy will enjoy grooming without constant treats.
Also, never underestimate the power of praise.
Bonding Time
The daily grooming session does more than teach your puppy how to let you maintain his hygiene. It also allows for built-in one-on-one time for you and your puppy, something crucial to your relationship now and in the future.
It’s easy to get busy with daily life and forget to spend time with your puppy. Sure, everyone spends time yelling "no!" and taking puppy outside when housetraining seems the central focus of the relationship. After that, it’s common to walk that dog and pet him absent-mindedly while watching television, but many owners never really spend "quality time" with their pets. No, quality time isn’t just for human children! Dogs benefit from it, too.
When you groom your pet, you are focusing all your attention on him. Talk to him, praise him, give him treats, tell him he is a good dog, and teach him how to let you handle his paws, his face, his ears, his coat. Your dog will learn that he is important to you and that you notice and value him. He will begin to see you as the trusted "pack leader" and his loyalty and devotion will develop quickly. Let grooming time be bonding time and you’ve accomplished two very important tasks of pet ownership in one short session per day.
Addressing Setbacks
Finally, every puppy has setbacks, and every groomer has stories to tell, about the Great Dane puppy that was so patient with grooming and then one day, suddenly refused to let anyone touch her nails ever again, or the one about the Poodle who wouldn’t be seen within a mile of a clipper, or the Shih Tzu who decided she had experienced her very last de-matting session.
Setbacks can occur due to "user error"—clipping the quick on a nail, pulling too hard to untangle a coat, or surprising the dog with an electric clipper before it was prepared. Sometimes, however, setbacks occur for no discernible reason. A puppy is suddenly shy of the scissors or the nail grinder or even the bathtub and you have no idea why.
When setbacks occur, back up. Take your dog back to the beginning, and start over. If your dog suddenly fears nail clipping, go back to that very first stage, when you let your dog explore the nail clippers without actually clipping the nails, rewarding all the while with praise, reassurance, and the occasional treat. Introduce the clipper back, slowly, as if you were socializing the dog to nail clipping for the very first time. Do the same thing with the scissors or clippers or comb or whatever else your dog balks at. Remember to progress again slowly, with lots of rewards, keeping the experience positive, especially if your dog has had reason to associate grooming with a negative experience. You now have the job of replacing that negative experience with positive experiences again.
Don’t Blame the Dog!
When your dog has a grooming setback, don’t get frustrated or take out your frustration on your dog. Dogs don’t suddenly resist nail trimming or clipping or bathing to annoy you. They resist it because they have a reason to resist it. Something happened, whether or not you know about it or see it from your dog’s point of view, to cause your dog to fear or resist some aspect of grooming. Blaming your dog won’t help the situation. Patience, consistency, and slow but steady progress will bring you both back to your once-happy grooming routine again.
Excerpted from The Simple Guide to Grooming, Published by TFH Publications. Used with permissions.
