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Welcome to the latest Newsletter.
If you would like to read previous issues of my Newsletter, please go
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you fancy exploring this site further, then go to the resources page
which you can find
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where you will find
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charities and much more. If you refer others to this site, which you
can do from that resources page, I will send you a FREE Screen Saver with
beautiful pictures of dogs from my readership.
I want to build a second screen saver with pictures of
YOUR dog(s). So why not send me a picture with some short details about
your dog (its' name, where it lives, any story about how you acquired him or
her and
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VIDEO
OF THE WEEK
This week's video follows the theme of my advice in this
News Letter which is all about grooming and entitled
"How To Groom A Dog"
Enjoy!
This Week's News
How A
Dog Completely Transformed His life
Katz has done what many frazzled urbanites can only dream of doing: He
chucked a spirit-sapping life in suburban New Jersey, bought a picturesque farm
and an assortment of amiable animals and started a new life where the air is
sweet and the stars shine bright far from the city lights.
Most people need a catalyst to provoke such dramatic
change. For some, it's a divorce. For others, a brush with life-threatening
illness. For Katz, it was a maniacal dog named Orson.
Misbehaving Belgian dogs could find themselves with a "criminal record" under
a new parliamentary proposal, with offenders facing anything from a rap on the
paws to the death penalty, according to a newspaper report Saturday.
Under the proposal, adopted by the Senate upper house's
social affairs committee, dogs and their owners would both come under scrutiny,
with anyone who has served a six-month sentence for a violent crime banned from
owning a dog.
It is easy to forget just how strange it is that
dogs live in big cities. New York, for example, is about as unlikely a place for
dogs as one could imagine, and yet 1.4 million of them are among us. Why do we
keep them in our apartments and houses, always at some expense and
inconvenience? Is it even possible, in a city, to provide a good life for a dog,
and what is a "good life?"
This
Pittsburgh dog
hit the news headlines, when it jumped off a 40 foot overpass
directly into oncoming traffic and survived. Around noon
last Friday, the white German Shepherd jumped from an
overpass and landed in front of a deputy's car.
So incredible is the survival story that it hit the TV news.
You can read all about it
and watch the TV video news item here
Now for this
week's tips and advice
Dog Grooming
We covered bathing your dog
in our last issue so this time I thought we’d talk a bit
about dog grooming. Some people love to groom their dogs
because it helps build their relationship and if the dog
enjoys being groomed it can be very pleasurable for both of
you. However if your dog hates it, and squirms and wriggles
to get away all the time, then this makes it very hard and
it requires a lot of patience. I am not going to cover how
you get them to sit still here, but I may do that in a
future issue.
Dogs that are shown have to get used to a lot of grooming
right from the start and their owners are usually very good
at getting them to be happy with the process right from a
very early age, so that it is never an issue. However if,
like me, you have a rescued dog, or have never groomed your
dog before, then you can usually expect a good deal of
resistance.
I think that grooming is a very important part of both the
owners and the dogs life, so I would encourage everyone to
groom their dog right from the word go. However I would also
say that this grooming can be purely for your mutual
pleasure and to get the dead hair out (especially if they
molt a lot) or any other undesirable material that might get
caught up in their coat. It also provides an opportunity to
inspect the skin closely for parasites like fleas, so that
you can deal with them quickly. Your grooming doesn’t have
to be for actually clipping the coat, nails or doing the
ears. I prefer to have my dog professionally groomed every 4
months to keep his coat in shape, do his nails and pluck
hair from his ears. Although he loves me brushing him he
just doesn’t like me doing the other things (and I am happy
to confess that I don’t like doing them either) whereas he
behaves like an angel for his Groomer Julie. Julie also has
the added advantage of being able to cut straight and true,
so the dog avoids the embarrassment of walking around
looking distinctly lopsided. I did so badly on one previous
occasion that my neighbor asked if the dog had had an
operation on his leg as one leg looked so much skinnier than
the other…..enough said I think!
With that also said, this is therefore how I do it, not
necessarily how a professional would do it. So if you are a
professional groomer then please don’t get upset with me,
but do please send me any tips you have that I can share
with my readers.
So once you decide if you are going to groom the dog for
pleasure and to check the coat and skin, or to do the whole
job, then you can then decide what equipment you might need.
At this time I am only going to cover very basic grooming
that you can easily do at home.
First, I would always put the dogs leash on and tie him
securely. Even if the dog is very placid, if you are going
to use the scissors on him then please tie him up. If it’s
only going to be a brush out then it’s up to you as no one
will get hurt if he suddenly gets spooked or runs off.
What equipment do you need. Well here, I have to say that I
cheat. I will get advice on the correct equipment for the
dog from an experience professional groomer. I have spent
big bucks on grooming equipment that I have never really
used because it wasn’t suitable for the dog or the
situation. My Briard has a huge thick coat and in the early
days, I was always looking for ways of getting the tangles
out more easily. None of it really worked and I discovered
that there is really no substitute for patience and
dedication. So I now have only the following in use:
1. A pair of special dog cutting scissors – rounded points,
but sharp blades to cut the hair cleanly (I only use it to
trim hair around his paws and eyes on between proper cuts,
or to cut out any burrs that have caught in his coat that
just wont budge with combing.
2. A fine tooth comb with long teeth – used on fine belly
hair and to collect fleas if there are any, and also used to
pull the hair out of the other brush
3. A special rubber undercoat brush – this pulls out the
fine baby type fluffy hair close to the skin, and is very
easy to get thru a long coat
4. A more open toothed wide flat comb/brush that to me looks
like a horses curry comb.
5. A grooming spray that helps separate the hairs so that
the brush glides thru easily and also prevents any static –
I don’t used this every time, only when I need it.
That’s all I use. You of course will need to select similar
equipment but appropriate to your dogs coat.
If you are going to cut your dogs nails the please buy a
proper pair of clippers that are the right size for the job.
You will also need a proper ear wax cleaner, especially if
you dog has long hairy floppy ears, that seem to attract and
keep in unwanted problems!
If you want to clip their nails then please do ask the vet
or a professional groomer to actually demonstrate it to you
before you try it. If the dogs nails are black and you cant
see the vein in them you can do some serious and painful
damage if you get it wrong. I don’t think referring to a
book is good enough, and that’s why I’m not going to tell
you how to do it either. It’s easy once you know how but
please find out ’how’ from a professional.
I believe that every dog should have their ears checked
every week. Dogs with ears that are up and open all the time
get few problems and the wax does not seem to build up as
much, but dogs with closed ears can get loads of problems
that will have you at the vets so frequently you will be
spending a small fortune. My advice is weekly checking and
cleaning and then ear infections will be rare.
Again, I only use ear cleaners form the vets. The ones I
have bought over the counter are usually ineffective, but
don’t take my word for it if you want to try them out. Use
clean sterile cotton wool to apply the cleaner to the ear,
and wipe them clear and dry afterwards. If the cleaner is
very liquid then be very careful how may drops you put in.
Too much will have the dog running around shaking his head
in some distress if the ears are soaked in it. For my dog I
have a very dry one that doesn’t do this and I also have
some very handy ear wipes that are convenient, and he
prefers them because there is no liquid involved at all.
The last thing I will cover here is searching through the
hair on the legs and paws especially for seeds. Longhaired
breeds especially will get plant and grass seeds stuck in
their coat which are potentially very dangerous. Dried grass
seeds become very hard with a sharp point that is easily
capable of piercing the skin. Seeds will search out moisture
from the skin and try to penetrate it. They are really
‘moisture seeking missiles’ and once they have penetrated
the skin they will enter a blood vessel and gradually work
their way towards the heart. Sounds gruesome doesn’t it but
its true. My previous Briard, had one that I didn’t spot
because it got lost in his beige hair. It entered his leg
and inside it worked up 3 inches from the point of entry
before I noticed it. This could easily have caused blood
poisoning had to be surgically removed. I have been ultra
careful ever since.
Well, I think that’s enough from me for now. Remember
grooming takes patience and time, but please don’t make it
boring for your dog by doing it for too long. 15-20 minutes
at a time is more than enough for most dogs, and probably
for their owners too! And don’t forget a little treat if
they have been really good!
You won't
believe how heavy and thick this 3rd edition book is. It's like
a textbook, it has everything in it. This has to be the most
definitive book ever written on the topic.
P.S. Do let me have photos and a short synopsis for future "Dog
of the Month" features -
I am sure your dog deserves the
title!
