Dog Grooming Basics: Eyes, Ears, Teeth, Nails, Feet, Coat, and Bathing
Frequent and thorough pet grooming not only keeps your dog healthy and happy, it also helps identify potential health risks so they can be treated before serious problems develop.
Regular grooming is one of the best ways to help prevent yeast infections and skin irritation caused by excessive matting, ear infections caused by wax buildup or excessive hair around the ear canal, periodontal disease from uncared-for teeth, and ingrown nails or sore pads caused by overly long toenails.
Groom the Whole Dog, Not Just the Coat
A real grooming routine includes brushing, mats, eyes, ears, teeth, nails, feet, pads, bathing, drying, and knowing when the job is better handled by a professional.
Use the Right Tools
Grooming goes better when you have the correct brush, comb, nail trimmers, shampoo, towels, ear cleaner, and safety supplies ready before you start.
Inspect While You Groom
Grooming gives you a chance to notice discharge, odor, mats, soreness, cracked pads, bad breath, redness, swelling, and other early warning signs.
Keep It Safe and Calm
The goal is not to force your dog through a grooming marathon. The goal is clean, comfortable, safe grooming that builds trust.
If your dog is fearful, painful, aggressive, severely matted, elderly, disabled, medically fragile, has infected ears, painful teeth, nails curled into the pads, or skin sores, do not force the process. Grooming should help the dog, not create a fight, injury, or long-term fear response.
The first step in preparing to groom a dog is to ensure that you have the proper tools available to complete the job. This generally includes cotton balls, Q-tips, a slicker brush, a de-matting comb for long-haired breeds, a toothbrush with dog toothpaste, quality shampoo and conditioner, towels, nail trimmers, scissors, and perhaps a muzzle depending upon the temperament and disposition of your dog.
Brush Before You Bathe
Always ensure that you brush your dog thoroughly to remove any loose or dead undercoat, matting, or foreign debris from the coat before wetting it.
If you are finding it difficult to remove matting by brushing alone, you can take a pair of scissors and slide one half of them between the mat and the skin, then work up and away from the body in a saw-like motion to cut the mats into small pieces that you can then brush out.
If you are still unable to remove the matting, then you may have to cut it out entirely by pinching the mat between your thumb and index finger, pulling it out away from the body, and using the scissors to cut as close to the bottom of the mat as possible.
Remember that if you do not remove the matting before wetting your dog, the mats will swell and become completely unmanageable. If matting is allowed to remain on the dog for prolonged periods of time, bacteria can begin to grow between the matting and the skin, resulting in yeast infections as well as a host of other problems.
For short-haired dogs, you will more than likely be fine using a curry comb or groomer’s glove. Medium-coated dogs, such as Australian Shepherds and Golden Retrievers, usually take more specialized grooming tools such as an undercoat rake, pin brush, and coat conditioners.
Once you have thoroughly brushed out the coat, it is time to complete the rest of the pre-bath grooming tasks. Use the guidelines below to assist you.
Dog Grooming Inspection Checklist
Work through the dog from head to toe. The images belong with the sections because they show the exact kind of things you are looking for.
Eyes
You want to first do a quick inspection of the eyes to ensure that they are clean, clear, and that there is no irritation present. You are also looking for unusual discharge, excessive squinting, redness, and anything else that appears abnormal. If the dog is getting older, you may notice the lens of the eye has, or is beginning to have, a cloudy or grayish appearance.
This is not unusual and is generally the result of cataracts. Although it may be something that you should talk to your vet about, it is not always an immediate concern, as many dogs continue to live productive and healthy lives with cataracts.
You should also remove any eye gunk that has built up in the corners of the eyes. For long-coated dogs, this may be an arduous process. One way to save yourself some time is to use blunt-tipped scissors to remove the gunked-up hair from the lower inside corner of the eyes. This will also help prevent it from building up there in the future.
There are also special products available on the market that are designed specifically to remove tear stains from white coats. They are not expensive and, when used properly, can be highly effective.
Ears
This is one area that, as a groomer, I feel is overlooked way too often. Ear infections are not only painful for your dog, but expensive to fix and generally entirely preventable with a little home maintenance or grooming.
A clean dog ear should not contain excessive wax, and it should not have strange odors coming from it. The ear canal should also be free of excessive hair.
Poodles, Shih Tzus, Maltese, and similar breeds often have a problem with hair actually growing deep inside the ear canal. This hair then gets coated in wax. As the old hairs detach from the roots, they are sealed in place by the wax while new hairs grow in. The process is repeated until a waxy, hairy, ear-infection-breeding plug is in place.
At that point, removal is a very unpleasant and painful experience for the dog, but one that has to be done nonetheless. The only way to accomplish this is to pull it slowly, piece by piece, with ear powder and forceps or tweezers. Again, this could have been prevented with regular grooming or even basic maintenance.
Prior to the ears actually getting to this point, you want to examine the ear canal for excessive wax buildup and use a commercially available dog ear cleaner to remove it.
This process generally involves applying a few drops in the ear, massaging it for 30 to 45 seconds, and then using cotton balls and Q-tips to wipe clean the inside of the ear. Fuzzy hairs growing inside the ear canal can be plucked out by hand or with forceps and tweezers.
You should also trim the hairs around the bottom of the ear and the ear canal opening, as well as the hairs on the underside of the ear flap, to allow adequate air circulation and prevent the creation of a hot, damp place where bacteria and other nasties thrive.
Teeth
It is a fact that a large percentage of dogs have some form of periodontal disease. A dog with poorly maintained teeth is at a higher risk for health problems as they continue to ingest and digest plaque from their teeth.
As plaque and tartar build up on the teeth, it causes inflammation of the gums called gingivitis, which also leads to bad breath. Dogs with serious dental issues will often stop eating. Another problem is that bacteria from the teeth can enter the bloodstream, where it may spread to the heart, kidneys, and liver, causing a variety of serious health problems.
You should try to brush your dog’s teeth at least twice a week using dog toothpaste. Avoid using human toothpaste, as it is generally not appropriate for dogs. There are a number of products and tools available on the market to make this a fairly straightforward and painless task.
PetsToothBrush is one such tool that is essentially a surgical glove with toothbrush bristles attached to the ends of the fingers. You simply apply toothpaste and scrub away. If you notice tartar buildup and you are brave, you can purchase a dental scraper and gently scrape it away. I advise that this be left to the professionals, but that decision is up to you.
Nails and Feet
This is another area that is often overlooked or left unchecked for excessive lengths of time. Uncared-for nails can grow to lengths of two inches or more, forcing the dog to twist the toe while walking. This can result in an irregular and painful gait that often leads to foot, hip, elbow, shoulder, or other skeletal problems.
Excessively long nails can also curl around like a ram’s horn and back into the pads, making it extremely painful to walk, as well as causing perforation of the pads and an entry point for infection.
In order to keep your dog’s nails short, you need to clip them on a regular basis. Depending on your dog, you may need to do this as often as once a week or as little as once a month. Ideally, you want to cut the nail to within 2mm of the quick, which is the blood vessel in the center of the nail.
With dogs that have light-colored toenails, this is a cinch because you can actually see the quick. For dogs with darker toenails, you can clip a little bit at a time until you get to the point where you see a grayish oval starting to appear in the center of the cut. At this point, stop cutting. Any further and you will hit the quick, causing it to bleed and causing unnecessary discomfort for the dog.
The pads and the feet are another area that tends to get overlooked when grooming a dog. During the grooming process, you should check the pads for cracks, tearing, or sore spots. If you are accustomed to taking your dogs on long walks over asphalt or live in an area with difficult terrain, you may consider getting TUF-FOOT and using it to harden the pads, making them more resilient.
The other major area of consideration when examining the feet is hair that builds up between the pads. The most common problem is that this hair will either form a mat directly in the center of the foot, or the dog will step on a hitchhiker, twig, or other debris that catches in the hair and forms a ball in the center of the pad.
This can be extremely painful for the dog to walk on, as well as cause blistering, sores, or infection. It is best to simply take your scissors and cut away the hair between the pads and between the toes to prevent this problem. If you live in a climate with extreme cold weather, cut the hair even with the pad, as the hair helps prevent snow and ice from collecting in the center of the foot and provides insulation.
Need a deeper nail guide?
PAWS also has a full dog nail trimming guide with close-up images of the quick, proper trimmer placement, long nails, black nails, and what happens when the quick is cut.
How to Clip Dog NailsHow to Give a Dog a Bath
Once the coat is brushed, mats are handled, and the eyes, ears, teeth, nails, and feet have been checked, you are ready for the bath.
Prepare the Dog
Depending upon your dog’s disposition and fondness for, or lack of fondness for, the bath, you may need to use a muzzle or have someone assist you. Your dog should be naked — meaning collarless — for the bath. It is not uncommon for dye in a collar to bleed out onto your pet’s skin and coat. Collars left on a pet that is not dry can also cause sores or irritation to the neck area.
Wet the Coat Thoroughly
Start at the head, working your way to the tail, and thoroughly wet down the coat. For dogs with double coats, you may need to use a pressurized hose attachment and place it directly on the coat to force water through the coat.
Shampoo Carefully
Begin shampooing from the neck moving downward, always working the lather away from the pet’s mouth, ears, and eyes. When washing the face, it is best to do it in two parts. Use your index finger to pick up a little lather from the portions you have just washed and apply it below the eyes. Gently scrub the outside of the cheeks, muzzle, and chin, and immediately rinse to prevent your dog from licking or ingesting the soap.
Rinse the Head and Body
Tilt the dog’s head skyward and do the same to the top of the skull, above the eyes and around the ears. Once complete, begin rinsing the entire dog from head to tail, ensuring that you do not get any water into the actual ear canal. You can place cotton balls in the ears to help prevent this.
Remove All Soap
Ensure that you remove all soapy residue from your pet’s coat. Any areas you miss are likely to cause hot spots, which are itchy, irritating, red, bald spots.
Dry Completely
At this point, towel dry the dog to the best of your ability and begin blow drying. Generally, this is done by using a brush against the lie of the coat with one hand and a blow dryer in the other. Ensure that your dog’s coat is completely dry, as forgotten damp spots can lead to infections, hot spots, matting, and tangles.
Additional Dog Grooming Tips
These are the little practical details that can make grooming safer, easier, cleaner, and less stressful.
Use a Safe Elevated Surface
Grooming your dog on an elevated surface, such as an old dinner table or counter, can reduce stress on your back. Always ensure that you have a non-skid mat on the surface to prevent your dog from falling and potentially injuring themselves.
Never leave a dog unattended while on an elevated platform.
Use the Right Dryer
If you are going to blow dry your dog, consider using a commercial-quality dog dryer. A handheld human dryer could take up to four hours to completely dry a large double-coated dog.
The temperature settings for human hair dryers are considerably hotter than those used for drying pets, so there is a risk of burning the dog’s skin if you are not careful.
Rinse Completely
Anything you put on your dog may be ingested if you are not careful. Ensure that you completely rinse the dog after shampooing and take special precautions around the eyes and mouth.
Protect the Eyes
Do not get shampoo in your dog’s eyes. It can seriously irritate them. One way to avoid this is to put shampoo on your hands first and gently work it into the areas around the eyes instead of applying it straight from the bottle.
You can also use a human baby shampoo diluted at a ratio of 4:1 around the face area to reduce the risk of eye irritation.
Groom the Whole Dog
Do not be shy about cleaning every area of your dog. This includes the penile area, around the anus, and the vagina as well. If you intend on washing or grooming your dog, make sure you groom the whole dog, including private areas.
Do Not Over-Bathe
Avoid bathing your dog too often. More than once a week can deprive the skin and coat of the natural oils that protect it. If you need to do a quick cleanup, use a spray bottle diluted 10 to 1 and spray, sponge, and rinse the dirty areas.
Need Professional Grooming Help?
Home grooming is useful, but some dogs and some grooming tasks are better handled with professional equipment, experience, and safe handling.
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Visit Grooming Advice“Good grooming is not just making a dog look better. It is learning to notice the small things before they become big problems.”
— PAWS Dog GroomingKeep Your Dog Clean, Comfortable, and Healthy
Use this guide as a full-body grooming checklist, and contact PAWS when your dog needs professional grooming, nail care, Shed-Less treatment, or a grooming day paired with daycare.