Grooming

What needs to be cleaned?

The four areas of focus are

Fur

Nail

Ear

Tooth

Comb, Cut, Clear and Clean

The grooming solution rests on 4 Cs -

Which stops discomfort and disease

Comb, Cut, Clear and Clean,

Make your pet presentable and pristine.

Comb the fur,

Thus, fleas and ticks you deter.

Cut the nail,

To make a walk feel like smooth sail.

Clear the wax,

For the itch in the ear to relax.

Clean the teeth,

And keep the sabre shining in its sheath.

Your dog will also clean by licking,

It's a dog, that we need accepting.

Grooming is cleaning and cleaning is a must for dogs are attractive hosts for fleas and ticks. These parasites can cause serious damage to your dog and may spread the disease to you. We comb to keep our hair and head in order. Well, the dog has hair all over its body. So, the first grooming tool is a comb followed by a brush to take care of your dog's fur. Then comes a tick and flea repellent powder. An occasional bath with a shampoo is a must to drown the pests and parasites finding residence in the recesses of the fur. Check meticulously the area behind the ears, the head and the neck. These are the favourite feeding ground of the parasites. Look for tell tale signs which would be the black grain like residue left behind at the root of the hair. If you adopt a stray dog from the roadside then first give it a thorough bath in tepid warm water with a liberal use of anti-flea dog shampoo.

Frequency of all these depends on the dog's exposure to the habitat of the parasites like the grassy outdoor. More the outdoors, more the combing and bathing. The power goes with the comb and the shampoo with the bath.

The next thing to take care of are the nails. Nails need to be trimmed at regular intervals. Only the white portion needs to be cut for we don't want to hurt. Learn from an expert before you try it yourself for you won't want your dog to bleed.

Another thing that needs regular attention, is the wax inside the ears. A little rub and a gentle nudge by a tissue paper, wrapping the index finger, helps to clean the wax.

Tooth is another area. We can use a regular toothbrush and a little regular tooth paste without any added flavour or we can go for chews and teeth cleaning dental sticks.

And then if you have money to spare then there are professional facial packs costing a fortune available in the market. Those packs won't do much good to your dog except pampering your ego and making you feel good about yourself. The pet dog grooming industry is aggressively trying to make the dog's needs resonate with human needs by providing human like grooming services at an exorbitant cost.

May be your dog will love you much more if you roll on garbage and allow it to accompany you rather than forcing upon it an expensive facial. I strongly feel that it would do good neither for the dog nor for us, if we try to impose our needs on the dog. We may love the dog with all our heart, but that doesn't make the dog a human being. I am not asking you to love it less. All I am trying to focus on is the fact that my dog’s happiness doesn't lie on a facial but on a walk through an uncharted and unsmelled forest. Grooming should be directed towards that end. The grooming industry will gain immense wealth, if we all feel that a facial is essential for the dog's happiness and health. A dog's grooming needs can be taken care of in the home setup and there's no need of a parlour or a saloon.

Grooming Kit Essentials