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The Benefits Of A Daily Groom

Brian M

Well-known member
Hi

As I keep my four with full coats all year which also of course includes long ears, and as they won't wear
snoods when feeding they nearly always leave a good proportion of their tea in their ears for a good suck
later .So for me it always means a good groom for them all nightly but it also always amazes me how they can all be sitting on my lap or right next to me but as soon as I open the draw to get my combs and brushes out within 1 sec its heads up girls then they are all gone, hiding in different places .So one by one I collect them and start gently collecting any grass or twigs or other bits they have might of picked up in their bloomers or deknot any clumps of hair that may have formed ,but most importantly it gives me the opportunity to give them all a close eyeball and a good feel of them all over .It proved to me how important this daily routine is when I found out about Lily's little eye problem yesterday, which after a Vet visit turned out OK ,but then it could easily have gone the other way and without my nightly grooming routine I could of missed a possble developing early problem .
 
You are so right about daily grooming Brian - it should be part of everyone's routine to check over their dogs every day, feeling for lumps and bumps, looking at the eyes, into the ears, checking the paws for grass seeds etc - and the not so nice job of just quickly lifting the tail to make sure there is no dried poo adhered and that there is no signs of anal gland abscesses. Obviously also checking for ticks - sadly a few scares on the board recently have served as a reminder. YOu can quickly pick up the 1st signs of a problem, early treatment can often save a dog pain and distress.



have you tried putting their ears up behind their heads with a hair scrunchy? That can work quite well for dogs who don't like snoods - most dogs with CM/SM hate snoods.

I use bibs for mine! The junior macare ones are brilliant as they do up with velcro so you don't have to pull them over their head. Small bowls that their ears do not go into so easily also help.

N-03April2012-0001.jpg
 
BTW there are also hygiene reasons for keeping their ears clean particularly with raw food.
 
Hi Nicki

I like the bibs they are a great idea ,thanks off to get some .The photo looks just like my four ,heads down get stuck in then
first to gulp it all down is either Poppy or Lily followed 5 minutes later by Rosie then Daisy finishes the next day but still
has her strawberry in her mouth to tease the other three.
 
I do the daily grooming in the morning including teeth and sometime the ears get done in the evening again. All mine disappear when the brushes come out, DJ will come when called though, Gus goes to bed:) and Pippin hangs in the background because he like to lick the others faces while I groom them, much to their annoyance, then Pippin runs when it's his turn:) After brushing etc, they all line up and queue for teeth brushing each trying to push the other out of the way to be first!

Even with doing all this I still missed that DJ was getting an abscess last week as I groom mornings and that came up sometime in the afternoon... Over the years though I have found different little things to be concerned about as I went along nothing much thankfully, but this alone is a good reason to groom daily(y)
 
Brian, just realised that they come in two sizes, it's the 2nd stage that you want, not newborn. Mine are 35cm from top to bottom. Other companies seem to do these ones too - I do have some of the popover bibs but they are not that keen on those.

The Tesco bibs tend to be too small.

I haven't tried these but is says from 7 months so should be a good size

http://www.boots.com/en/Boots-Extra-Wide-Girls-Bibs-5-pack_1109332/ [out of stock at present but might get them in store?]
 
Brian,

I love giving Bella a groom, she usually falls asleep while I am doing it. I can't believe how many people have scruffy cavaliers or ones that have been clipped and look shaggy. My Bella is a dog who loves to run around and roll in the grass and she absolutely loves mud! I let her be a dog but I also make sure she is groomed and doesn't have any matted fur. I see so many pics (not on here) where these poor cavaliers have matted scruffy ears :x. Good on you for the daily groom! :D
 
Oh Nicki that picture is priceless :D

We got Misty clipped last month in an effort to help her SM, we asked the groomer to take most of her hair off as she got really agitated after being groomed of late. She would scratch more, and her back muscles would spasm afterwards too. The difference in her has been amazing. She has always scratched, despite her medication, but since she has been clipped, and her body grooming has stopped, so has her scratching. I miss her glorious coat, but she's happy and that's all that matters. She has short ears but not shaved ears, so she still gets them gently groomed, her Dentisept done, and her eyes washed, and a once over :) I'm not sure what we'll do come the winter though, whether we keep her clipped and get her a nice warm jacket, but we'll cross that bridge nearer the time.

photo-2.jpg


Alana, the ear thing really gets to me too. I'm in around nine different homes in a day for my work, and the majority of spaniels I see have big mats around their ears. Murphy's ears mat really easily, he's always got grass or twigs in them. I use a mat remover on his ears rather than trying to brush they out if he gets them. It doesn't take long to groom a dog, we only do Murphy ever other day, with an eye wipe everyday. It must be really uncomfortable to have matted ears like that :(
 
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Most days, I spend more time on Sophie's ears than the rest of her body. She has quite dense hair behind and around the ears, and sheds the most in this area.
 
I too groom Jessie daily, with a softer bristle brush and also the slicker, to shed any dead hair. His ears are cleaned once a week with a solution, just squirt in his ear canal and massage gently, as soon as the bottle comes out, he runs like hell. His eyes are wiped twice a day, and we use his tear stain weekly, as he's getting older, the staining isn't nearly as bad, and he has a bath every 3 weeks or so. Jessie isn't a messy boy at all, he's quite a diva and doesn't like playing in mud, even rolling around in the dirt. He gets quite distressed if anything sticks to his coat.

We had him professionally groomed for the first time yesterday and he was terrified. He enjoyed the aromatherepy hydrobath and was quite relaxed, but hated being dried and and became quite stressed and the look of absolute fear on his face is enough for me not to put him through that again.

Overall, I wasn't happy. She cut his slipper hair and what was meant to be a bottom trim, now looks like a hampster struck by lightning stuck to his bottom, with his fur all cocked out. Will just need to wait for it to grow back now.
 
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