How to Groom a Dog at Home: 10 Dog Grooming Techniques

You love cuddling with your dog, especially when her coat is soft and clean! But this pandemic situation has made her look a lot more like a feral dog and not at all like a Lady puppy. And there comes the most challenging part! You can’t get her to the groomer. Find out the most effective dog grooming techniques that you can apply.

No matter what kind of dog you have or how often you may visit a professional groomer, you should have some basic grooming supplies at home for your pet, and the right tools can make grooming your dog at home an easy task. During this pandemic, this is the best thing you can do for your fondling. Though many pet lovers successfully groom their dogs at home, still it will take a bit of tricky time and effort to get your dog comfortable with a home-grooming routine. Later on, this will help reduce shedding in addition to further deepening your relationship with your dog.

Dog grooming is essential for their health and wellbeing. You must spend a certain amount of time from your everyday routine for them. And there are always techniques to do the task in a swift and good way. These tips can help you to take care of them by yourself while staying at home. After all, you cannot let them feel deserted, right?

1.Choose the Right Tools

This is the beginning of dog grooming. You cannot groom your dog without having the right pair of tools. It requires experience to adopt the skills of identifying what tools you should be buy8ing for your dog. But here we are giving some ideas that will surely help you to get the zest.

Make sure you use a quality brush to comb your puppy. Choosing the right brush depends on your dog type and its length of hair. You must share these with the shop owner, and they will suggest you the perfect comb for your pet.

You must get a pet scissor. Doesn’t matter your dog has long or short hair; it very often needs to be trimmed. That is how you will make her look and feel warm and pretty.

Well, no wonder you have nail clippers for your pup. We all know that long nails are not healthy for your pet. It will make her uncomfortable, and sometimes she can get sick because of those. For them, the perfect nail clippers must be available at your house. She needs to be clipped every day. This is a very basic routine of dog grooming.

Dog shampoo is a must for your dog’s healthy bath. This part is pretty essential as you cannot use human shampoo on them. Make sure her shampoo is free of hydrogen peroxide, and it’s gentle enough not to give them irritation at all. Before selecting any shampoo for your pet, keep in mind if your dog has any skin problem. If yes, then consult the pet dermatologist to prescribe the suitable shampoo for her.

Cotton balls are another thing you can buy for your pet. You can use them to clean her eyes and ears. You can also keep their inner ears dry with cotton balls.

Wait, do not forget the bath towel! Having a specific towel for your dog will keep them healthy and infection-free. You can buy towels that are specially made for grooming dogs. They are soft and make your dog dry in a short time.

2.Schedule your baths

You must be thinking about why this is an important topic to discuss! Well, it’s not like you have to bathe your dog every day right before you take a shower. Most dogs need a complete full-body bath with shampoo every couple of months to keep them clean. If you do the Over bathing routine to your dog, it might stir the natural oil from her fur and skin, and it will cause her irritation and dry skin. Well, whenever it comes to grooming your dog at home, you can go for the brushing technique. It will clean their dirt from their fur and will make them comfortable.

Another tip for your dog is never using your shampoo because it won’t cause any significant difference to her. It might actually cause her irritation, skin infections. Dogs have different skin types and PH levels than ours. Your shampoo can be too harsh on her, and it won’t be appropriate to maintain its natural skin protection. While doing the bath, you must use dog towels rather than using the same one of yours. It will keep them free from infections and skin rashes.

3.Brushing regularly is essential

To keep your dog coat shiny, tangle-free and healthy, you must brush it regularly. The frequency of brushing will depend on the length of their hair, breeds and the weather condition as well.

Border Collies or Shih Tzus are longhaired breeds, so that means they will need to be brushed every other day. Beagles are short-haired breeds, and that’s why you can brush them every day. Thus they will remain neat and clean. While brushing your dog, make sure you maintain a certain angle or brush and use a good quality brush for your dog.

Brushing will not only remove the loose hairs but also will remove dirt and spread the natural oil found in dogs coat and skin, and it will keep the coat healthy. Even when the professionals are available, brushing by yourself could be a lifesaver technique of grooming your dog at home. It will save your time and efforts to take your dog to the professionals.

4.Trimming Overgrown Fur

If you wish to groom your dog at home, trimming her overgrown fur is the next technique that you must attempt. Get the pet-safe scissors and trimmers, feel the confidence and love for her, then you are ready to do the grooming part. If you have a longhaired breed, this will help her have a clear vision, feel better and keep clean. There is another benefit of trimming her overgrown fur. It will not catch any dirt, debris, unwanted chemicals or anything else.

5.Maintain Oral Hygiene

No matter how clean you keep your dog by bathing, brushing and trimming, you still need to keep it healthy. Oral hygiene is a very important thing to groom your dog at home. Dog’s breath is the least of worries you should have. If you neglect her teeth, it will cause her gum disease or tooth loss. And there comes stinky breath that you must give your best to avoid.

Providing her with a good diet is the major tip for grooming your dog at home. You have to check their teeth and mouth regularly. You can use dog toothbrushes and dog toothpaste to have a good smell. There is another technique, give your dog lots of chewy toys to play with. It will also help her have healthy gum.

6.Good practice of Nail trimming

Trimming nails is the task where you must be thinking about the professional trimmers for your pet. Let’s get a little insight. When your puppy’s nails are too long, it definitely makes her uncomfortable when she works, and also, the nails will curl back at her feet. It will cause her pain and infection.

It is good to give a regular check on her claws and nails. It is best to check her while she is standing. If your pet is an active one and does a lot of work with her claws, it will need more time to grow the nails taller. Otherwise, you will need to trim the nails every week. You can use a trimmer to trim her nails if you have that much understanding with your pet. As it is a task that needs to be done by experts, you can call for a nail trimmer to groom your dog at home.

7.Don’t forget to take care of their eyes and ears

When you are grooming your dog at home, it is pretty common to neglect her eyes and ears. But it is the most important part of grooming your dog at home. So you must make it part of her grooming routine. You just need to clean her eyes gently with soft, damp and clean cotton balls or cotton swabs. If you see any excessive tears or irritation, you better hurry to consult a veterinarian.

About the ears, they also have important organs there, and those can get harmed by dirt or debris or excessive wax production. Without any delay, you note it down to add checking your dog’s ears in your grooming routine checklist. To clean a dog’s ear, you can easily get a dog ear cleaner in the market. Those are specially made for removing visible wax and grime from a dog’s ears. If you find anything unusual such as a stinky smell from the ears, it may indicate ear infections. In such cases, visit the specialist veterinarian.

8.Grooming Your Anxious Dog

Your dog might be the sweet or anxious type; you cannot postpone her grooming session. Your dog needs grooming while at home every day. While facing her anxious and nervous situation, you can apply a few techniques to groom her.

Go slow and steady with your dog. Give her time to adjust to the home grooming session. You can make new time and sessions for grooming your dog at home.

Do a lot of praising and rewarding stuff. You can talk to your dog and try to calm down here. Do some communication, play with her and adore her a lot. And then, you will be able to do the grooming of your dog with comfort.

Keep her in a known environment. While grooming your dog at home, try to groom her in a known and friendly environment. It will ease her and make her less nervous.

Make a grooming routine at the earliest. Grooming your dog at home is a new thing to do and to adopt. To make the grooming process better and smooth, make a complete grooming routine for your dog. After a couple of days, your dog would be more comfortable with the routine and sessions.

Stop forcing your dog to do something. Just do it in a friendly gesture. If she is letting you do it, then let it be. If she is not letting you do something, you better stop right there and try some alternative grooming at home.

If you still find your dog nervous and anxious, try to spend quality time with your dog, talk to her, feed her by yourself, communicate and build a strong emotional relationship with your dog.

9.Clean your Grooming Equipment

As you wish to groom your dog at home, here comes the extra task list. Cleaning the grooming tools and equipment is a must for you. You cannot use them and let them be dirty all the time. You have to clean the dog brushes, scissors, ear cleaning tools and equipment. By doing this, you will ensure your dog’s health. This habit will keep their oral hygiene as well. Also, it will keep the cleaning kit safe for a longer time, which is eventually saving you money.

10.Be Patient, Don’t give up

Doing something new always gives us goosebumps if that is not what we are well known for. Grooming your dog at home is a total new nut that you need to crack by yourself. Get help from the online grooming tutorials, get advice from the professional dog groomer, do a few things, but don’t give up. Your dog needs you in this situation the most. Dogs can sense your stress, so you better stay calm and relax while grooming your dog at home. It is okay if you need help from professionals.

The way you trust your pet, your dog must be able to count on the reliability of your behaviour. It helps with grooming your dog at home. Stick to a predictable routine that follows a series of grooming steps, allowing you and your dog to reach a position of comfort and confidence.