Puppy Grooming Tips

All dogs, including puppies, need regular baths and grooming to keep them looking and feeling their best. If you start grooming your puppy at a young age, she will grow up enjoying the process and the attention, and will be easier to handle when bath time rolls around.

  1. When Can You Start Grooming Your Puppy?

    • Race Foster, D.V.M., a principal of Doctors Foster and Smith (a pet-supply and education company), notes that people once thought it was harmful to a puppy's coat to groom her before she turned six months old, but research has proven otherwise. Dr. Foster has several suggestions for getting your puppy used to being groomed regularly.

    Brushing

    • Dr. Foster writes that brushing a puppy removes dirt and loose hair, and helps spread natural oils throughout the puppy's coat. He suggests using what he calls a "pin and bristle" brush, which has bristles on one side and metal pins mounted in a rubber base on the other, because you can use it on any type of dog, whether short- or long-haired, with good results.

    Bathing

    • To bathe your puppy, Dr. Foster suggests you choose a mild shampoo especially designed for young animals. First, brush your puppy thoroughly to get rid of any mud and excess hair. Put one drop of sterile eye ointment into each of the puppy's eyes, to protect them from water and shampoo.

      Then put your puppy into the tub and wet her thoroughly, all the way to the skin, with warm water. Put the shampoo on the dog and lather it up. Let the lather stand on the puppy's coat for five minutes, and then rinse it really well with warm water, taking care to get all the shampoo out. Then dry the puppy with a towel to get most of the water out of her coat.

      Dr. Foster advises that you can then let your puppy finishing air drying with no ill effects at ordinary room temperatures. If you decide to use a hair dryer on the puppy, set it on warm, not hot.

    Trimming Nails

    • All dogs need to have their nails clipped regularly. As soon as your puppy comes to live with you, you should trim her nails, and you should then check them and trim them as needed every four to six weeks.

    Start Young

    • The best way to make sure your puppy enjoys being groomed is to start as early as you can. "At this age, the puppy will see the brushing as just another form of petting," Dr. Foster writes. By brushing and bathing your dog and trimming its nails when she is a youngster, you will ensure that you'll never have to struggle to groom her when she grows up.