Winter is Coming - How can I look after my Pooch!

With the weather starting to cool down, I am noticing a lot of clients wanting to start lengthening their dogs cuts. We all know that we can get some pretty chilly weather over the next few months and with this comes the dreaded Matting and doggy smell!!

What Can I Do To Minimize?

During this time it is no problems to keep your pooch with a longer cut to keep them warm. The issues that mainly arise are:

* Matting of backside

* Knots Around the ears

* Knots and matting caused by coats

PROBLEM:

This are all very simple items to minimize. Lets tackle the coats and backside first. When putting a coat on your dog to protect them we have to remember that your pooch loves to sit and lay around relaxing. This causes the coat to intertwine and rub, hence matting up. The particular spots are normally where the straps go across underneath and near the legs and where they cross over at the back. If left for prolong time it can also cause your dogs coat to rub out.

Think of how a Horses coat is kept shiny. They have very course hair and they put coats on to allow it to rub the dead hair out. With a dogs coat it isn't as course and the dead/loose hair works into the good coat causing matting to occur underneath the coat.

An example of a coat that has been left on with no brushing

SOLUTION:

This is very simple to minimize. Simply try to take the coats off during the day and give your pooch a nice brush through. Concentrate on the areas mentioned above and make sure you have a suitable brush. If you don't use the right brush for your dogs coat you can be wasting your time. This also will allow you to continue with a longer groom length and not have to shave them back to bare to avoid the problems of matting.

Slicker Brush for long hair dogs Slicker Brush for short hair dogs

(notice the longer pin like bristles) (shorter bristles with protective knobs)

PROBLEM: Knots behind the ears. In the corners where they scratch and their ears rub when sleeping and playing.

SOLUTION:

Again this is simply a matter of ensuring you give your pooch a REALLY good brush out every few days at a minimum. This will help ensure matting is minimal and hopefully allow any little ones that pop up be addressed and brushed out before it becomes a bigger issue.

PROBLEM: The dreaded dog Smell - Longer coat brings more opportunity for dirt and that doggy smell to be noticed especially if your pooch spends time inside.

We All Know that lovely smell that comes after this!

SOLUTION:

This one is a little trickier being that your pooch is probably outside and inside and finding whatever they can to play/rub/run in. Maintaining a healthy washing regime with good quality shampoo AND conditioner is the best option. Try to dry your pooch with towels as much as you can. Purchase some good quality cologne to spray on your pooches coat. Some of these colognes actually have a de-matting helper in them and again once done and as dry as you can get them, Give them a really good brush through. This will help allow air flow through the coat and help dry and separate the hair.

This Is What We Want to have our pooches looking like and it is easy following these tips