Brush, brush, brush your dog . . .

Posted on Mar 30 in Small Dog Groomingby Jeff K.Print

Brush me!

photo courtesy of brief gasp@flickr.com

Brushing your dog: Yawn! I know, who cares? It’s the same as flossing. You know you should do it regularly, but like most people, you never do it enough. Your dentist thumbtacks posters from the American Dental Association in his office showing grotesque images of the teeth and gums of poor souls who did not floss regularly. You think, “Hmm. Maybe I should floss more often,” but do you? Well, do you?

If I say failing to brush your dog regularly can lead to mats in the fur; or skin lesions, rashes and pustules under dirty and tangled fur, would it make a difference? If I told you how miserable it is for your dog to have his fur de-matted or detangled, would you brush your dog more often?

Scare tactics rarely work, unless they are extreme and immediate. Let’s face it. Your dog will not be in clear and present danger because of a lack of brushing. Instead, let’s look at the benefits. It’s a fairly short, but important list.

Aside from avoiding matted and tangled fur–a major benefit–regular brushing also:

• Causes your dog’s coat to shine for two reasons. 1) Brushing removes the dust and dirt that dulls your dog’s coat. 2) Brushing stimulates the oil glands in your dog’s skin. The oil coats the fur and gives it a shine.
• Removes loose hair from your dog’s coat before it can decorate your floors, furniture and clothing.
• Clarifies your role as a leader in your dog’s life. A lot of behaviorists mention this, but it rarely gets tied into the simple act of brushing. When you lay a gentle hand on your dog, the act of handling clarifies who is in charge at the moment. In nature, dominant dogs touch and maneuver less dominant dogs. When you brush your dog, you are calmly asserting yourself as the dog’s leader. What is even better is the contact you make is predictable and routine. If your dog resists the act of brushing, two points are true. 1) You are not the accepted leader in this case; 2) You are not brushing him/her often enough to make the act predictable and routine, because dogs thrive on predictability and routine.
• Brushing your dog at home gets him/her used to idea of grooming. This makes a trip to the grooming shop less of an ordeal for the dog.
• The simple act of brushing a dog reveals lumps, bumps, sores, and other curiosities on the dog’s skin. I know this is dabbling in scare tactics, but the fact remains, the groomers at our shop have turned up a few ugly surprises on dogs during the brushing phase of grooming. Usually, the discoveries we make are benign. Even so, early detection of skin problems makes examination and treatment by a veterinarian much more effective.

In a future article, I’ll have some pointers on how to brush your dog gently and effectively. I also plan to do a short video on the subject.

Before I close, I want to take just a few sentences to explain why this article is not about intentionally crossbred dogs, as I had promised in the article preceding this one. I did the background research, as always, on the subject of intentionally crossbred dogs and found two themes to the work. The material I found was either biased in the extreme to match the agenda of the author, or the material was a mash-up of contradictory statements. In either case, I did not feel good about writing anything you could rely upon, given the sketchy background data. I may get back to this subject after I have taken more time to filter through the garbage to find something meaningful and trustworthy.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Related posts

• Poodles Do It (0)