As a pet owner you are probably aware of the usual benefits of grooming you pet. You know that grooming helps you get rid of the knots and tangle in the coat and makes your dog feel cooler due to the air that flows through their fur. Of course, grooming also makes your dog look healthy and shiny. But there are many other known benefits that come from grooming your dog.
It may come as a surprise for some dog owners to know that the simple act of grooming can do much more for their pet than just improving their looks. Grooming as a regular activity provides a lot of health related benefits for your dog. Let’s see what these benefits are.
1. Grooming will help your dog get rid of the dead hair and enhance the beauty of its coat. Since the air circulation improves, your dog will find it much more comfortable, even in hot weather. Grooming also helps with the tangled hair issue often found with dogs that are very active and playful.
2. Grooming helps in improving the blood flow in the follicles of hair thus improving the health of their coat. The way massage makes our skin healthy, grooming beautifies the coat of the dogs. The health effects too are similar as the dogs’ lymphatic system is also stimulated due to grooming.
3. Grooming also helps in making the bonds stronger between you and your dog. Your gentle grooming is pleasing to your dog and it improves its emotional state.
4. While grooming your dog, it is easy for you to familiarize yourself with your dog’s body. You may also be able to check if your dog has any health related issues, such as any injuries that you had not noticed before. Health problems such as ticks can also be noticed and taken care of in time.
5. It is also beneficial to groom your pet’s paws by checking the growth of its nails and looking for any injuries on its pads which may not be visible otherwise.
Pay a visit to your local pet supply store and you will find numerous grooming materials for your dog. But if you are not sure of how to groom your dog, you can always do some research using Google. You will get a number of tips and good advice on grooming your dog. Your dog owning neighbors can also provide valuable input. If there are no dogs in your neighborhood, try finding dog clubs where you will find many dog owners who can share their experiences of grooming the dogs.
If you develop a liking for grooming and if you can do it really well, you may also consider starting a grooming service for other dogs and make it a profitable business for yourself. Dog grooming is in great demand and your services will surely be valued.
Spend some time to groom your lovely dog everyday and you will gift him with good health and thus have a better looking and healthier dog. If you have never done grooming before, don’t worry, there is no better time that the present. Start now and you will learn with time.

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This article will hopefully help you in grooming your Goldendoodle and give you some other sham-pooch tips.  Goldendoodle  grooming and health  go hand in hand. Good grooming not only helps your Goldendoodle dog  look good, it is also important for your doodle’s  physiological as well as the psychological health.  While some doodle owners take their doggies to their groomer,  many instead decide to groom their Goldendoodle dog themselves at home. If you begin grooming your Goldendoodle when he or she is very young,  they will come to enjoy bathtime and your doodle will not be difficult to groom at all.

Brushing your Goldendoodle  thoroughly every day is an important part of dog  grooming and health.  A shaggy or curly coated Goldendoodle will need to be brushed and groomed more often than the smooth coat doodle.  Because brushing and trimming isn’t natural to a dog,  your doodle will need  to be trained in order to accept this kind of handling.  It is recommended by many dog groomers and doodle breeders  that bathing and trimming start at an early age.  It is best to proceed slowly at the beginning, giving your Goldendoodle lots of praises when they relax and enjoy the process.

As a breeder since 1996,  I always begin the grooming process with our doodle puppies when they are approx. 4 weeks of age.  I do recommend that a rubber mat be placed on the bottom of your tub which will help prevent your doodle from slipping and possibly getting injured.  Some puppies yelp and show fear when they are first introduced to water.  This fear will subside as your Goldendoodle is bathed more frequently, over time.  I personally use a small cat slicker brush on the coat of my Goldendoodles.  The slicker brush has many different sized bristles which will help pull out any dead hairs in the coat.  Some groomers do not recommend human shampoo.  However,  I never use shampoo which is made specifically for dogs.  There are many harsh chemicals which can cause your doodle to have not only dry skin,  but can cause skin allergies over a long period of time.  Instead,  I use non-tearing shampoo made for humans such as baby shampoo.  If you want to use shampoo with various fragrances,  the best ones are those with “apple” or “cherry” fragrances.  High quality shampoo can be purchased at hair specifica stores such as “Sally’s”.   I purchase my shampoo in bulk so that it lasts a very long time.  Before rinsing the coat of my Goldendoodles,  I spritz their coat with a nice detangler.  Some can be left in the coat and some have to be rinsed out.  However,  make sure to take a large, human comb and comb the detangler through the coat.  Rinse well.  You’ll find your Goldendoodle’s coat extremely soft to the touch after you have taken a blow dryer and dried your doodle completely.   In the summer,  you can simply hand towel your doodle’s coat and then let him or her dry naturally.

If you have a grooming table,  you can trim your doodle’s coat very easily.  A great place to purchase a grooming table is by ordering it online.  Revival Animal  has a nice list of grooming tables you may find for  a low price.  Some groomers use a clipper called “Groom Master”, however,  I will personally tell  you that I found better success with the “A5 Turbo” clipper.  I began with the “Groom Master” clipper but found myself going through three of them before discovering that the “A5 Turbo” clipper worked entirely better and I could also find replacement blades locally instead of having to specically order blades that were only for the “Groom Master”.   The “A5 Turbo” clipper has two speeds and will allow you to shave down your Goldendoodle in less than 30 minutes!  This clipper is very quick and reliable.   There are also various sized blades that will work great for this particular clipper and allows you to give your Goldendoodle various types of hair cuts.

If you decide to groom your Goldendoodle yourself,  you will want to go to your local “Sally’s” store and purchase an apron which specifically helps repell hair.  It’s a great investment.  Some groomers spend hundreds of dollars on scissors,  but you can find some great scissors that will last a very long time at your local department store in the “Crafts” or “Sewing” section.  A $15 pair of nice scissors will work and last just as long as the $150 pair.   Let me forwarn you that using scissors can be dangerous on your doodle if your Goldendoodle is not calm and relaxed during the grooming process.  You can easily cut your doodle or  yourself.  I can’t even tell you how many times in 13 years I’ve cut myself or a dog, accidentally, if they turned their head quickly or jerked their foot away at the exact time as beginning to trim.  Some doodles have “ticklish” feet and will constantly jerk their feet as you try and trim around their pawpads.  Over time,  they get use to the scissors touching their feet but in the beginning,  you will need to be very careful with scissoring.

Your Goldendoodle  also has to learn to sit still or lie on his or her  side as and when needed.  Teaching your Goldendoodle to enjoy the grooming process is just a matter of time and repitition.  Other grooming tools needed are various types of brushes, combs, a wash cloth, ear cleaners and spritzer bottles.

If your shaggy or curly coat Goldendoodle’s  hair is tangled, grooming can take longer and become  a bit tricky.  Proceed gently to avoid irritating your Goldendoodle’s  skin.  Despite some doodle breeders’ claims that Goldendoodles do not shed, your doodle will lose some hairs,  particularly during the dry winter months.  Some Goldendoodles can even have bouts of dry skin,  so care is necessary when grooming him or her.  Don’t over bathe your doodle!  Unless your doodle dog is outside every single day getting into muddy situations or doing a lot of swimming at the beach or lake,  do not bathe your doodle more than twice a month.  Bathing more frequently will cause your doodle to have dry skin.  Even if you own a smooth coat Goldendoodle,  who needs relatively very little coat maintenence,  you will want to groom him or her on a regular basis simply because this process is good for your doodle’s over all grooming health.

Grooming your Goldendoodle helps keep the dog’s skin healthy and coat nice and shiny, not to mention,  it helps him or her smell good. Grooming your doodle dog  helps to improve the blood circulation; helps  keep  the coat free of ticks, fleas  and other less welcome visitors.   Remember to trim the hair underneath your doodle such as the inside of his or her legs and under the belly.  Close attention to your Goldendoodle’s ears are especially important!  Hair can grow into the ear and that can cause yeast infections or ear infections.  Another important area for your Goldendoodle is around the eyes. Shaggy coated Goldendoodles have the most problems with their hair growing over or around the eyes.  If you do not pay careful attention to this,  hairs can curl inward and cause a corneal abrasion by touching the eye itself.  Always keep the hairs trimmed around your Goldendoodles’ eyes when he or she is an adult dog.  Puppies do not require this type of trimming because their coat will change and go through 10-15 different coat phases before he or she turns 1 year of age.

Not all varieties of dogs need a bath everyday. Some short haired dogs require very little coat maintenence.  Some can make do with a bath once a month.  For smooth coat Goldendoodles,  you can simply use a washcloth to wipe the coat gently if you do not want to fully bathe him or her.  Shaggy coat and curly coat Goldendoodles have facial beards.  These beards tend to collect food particles or even dirt or grass if your doodle is outside playing.  I never recommend using shampoo around the face of your Goldendoodle.  Using a wash cloth that is damp and without soap or shampoo is best.  Some doodles require their mouths to be cleaned every day.  Coat staining can occur around the eyes or the mouth if this area isn’t cleaned every day.   If you want to help your doodle not have a “tangly” coat,  spritz your doodle’s coat prior to bathing with a “detangler”.  Comb it thoroughly through the coat.  Then wet your doodle’s coat completely and use your slicker brush to brush through the coat as you are wetting his or her coat.   This will help remove any tangles in the hair before their shamoo/bath.  Always keep soap away from your doodle’s  eyes and ears and make sure to use an ear cleaner to help clean the insides of the ears.   An inexpensive ear cleaner can be made with White vinegar and hydrogen peroxide.  Use a spritzer bottle and mix an equal portion of white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide together.  This not only helps clean your doodle’s ears,  but helps them smell nicer too!   Never use Q-tips for cleaning the insides of your doodle’s ears! Never!  Use a  washcloth or cotton balls. 

Grooming your Goldendoodle also helps you bond with your loving, wonderful tempered new pet!  It should  be quite obvious why dog grooming and dog health are so closely associated.    Even if your Goldendoodles  does not need daily brushing, it is necessary to check your doodle  every day. Keeping the skin of your Goldendoodle and his or her  body parts cut free and sore free is also an important part of your doodle’s  grooming and health. If you discover fleas on your Goldendoodle’s coat during the grooming process,  fleas  have to be removed with a fine-toothed comb, and embedded ticks have to be removed carefully with tweezers and alcohol.   Pouring a small amount of alcohol on the tick will help loosen its grip prior to removing it from your doodle’s skin with tweezers.  A new flea prevention product called “Comfortis” is on the market and we use this on our Goldendoodles as well as other dogs.  It is a once a month tablet that helps flea prevention.   Always examine your doodle’s nails,  ears and teeth as part of your dog grooming routine, each and every time you groom your lovely Goldendoodle dog. Goldendoodle and other dog  grooming and health are so closely associated also because the skin is the first indicator of the state of your pet’s health. Flea allergies, contact allergies, skin rashes and irritations need to be stopped at the earliest.  Ears should be regularly checked. The insides of the ear should be a pale pink. If they show any discoloration or give out an unpleasant odor,  this could be a sign of an ear infection or mite infestation.  Have your Vet look into the matter before proceeding with medication to treat the problem.  Make sure to take your doodle to your vet for a closer examination if you see discoloration inside of his or her ears or smell an odor coming from the inside of the ear.  Your doodle’s  toenails have to be clipped every two or three weeks, depending upon how much exercise your doodle gets every day.  Nails can be trimmed with human nail clippers if your doodle is a puppy.  If an adult,  the guillatine type of nail trimmers works great but you must use these type of nail clippers with extreme care.  You can actually lose a toe or your own finger if you are not care.  Have your vet show you first,  how to properly clip your Goldendoodle’s toe nails before you do it yourself.  If you do not feel comfortable in nail trimming,  always have your groomer or your vet perform this procedure.  Examine your Goldendoodles’ paw  pads to see that there is nothing stuck between them.  Sometimes hair grows between the pads and pebbles or small rocks or twigs can get tangled up inside of the hair that will cause your doodle pain as he or she walks.  Make sure to check your doodle’s pads every day.  If hair is growing around the pads,  you will need to carefully trim the hairs with scissors. Teeth cleaning is  important to your doodle’s over all health maintenence as well. Your doodle  can develop cavities or periodontal diseases, just like humans,  too. Cleaning the dog’s teeth twice a week with pet toothpaste and a small toothbrush is advisable.  There are some very good teeth cleaning products on the market.  You can also clean your Goldendoodle’s teeth during his or her grooming process.Regular grooming not only helps keep your doodle  healthy, it also offers bonding time for you and your Goldendoodle.  In the natural world, dogs lick each other and groom each other. I don’t think you want to lick your Goldendoodle in order to clean him or her?  This licking by other dogs  reinforces pack behavior and subordination. But you can reinforce pack behaviour and subordination by regularly grooming your doodle with brushes and combes.  Brushing or combing your Goldendoodle’s coat  for 10-20 minutes every day or as often as necessary will bring your Goldendoodle  immeasurably closer to you, immense pleasure and will also help keep your doodle  healthy.  Goldendoodles can live up to 20 years under ideal circumstances and if immaculately cared for.Some Goldendoodles may require professional grooming to maintain their  hair and coat health  if you are not experienced in grooming your doodle,  yourself.  If you do not have the time to groom your doodle on your own or if you do not feel comfortable in grooming your Goldendoodle on your own,  then your doodle will have to be trained to stand properly and to tolerate the attention of a stranger.  Dogs  that have no hair on the skin will need special skin creams to keep the surface oily and germ free. If you own a hairless dog,  then of course you will want to also use a sun screen to help protect your dogs’ skin from harmful sun rays.Dog grooming and health are mutually dependent. Without grooming,  your dog will not be able to retain good health; Without grooming,  your dog could have a shorter life span.  In spite of all the exercise and good food you give to your canine, without proper grooming health,  your pet will have a shorter life.   In case of dogs that shed heavily, regular grooming helps you to combat floating tufts of hair and speed up the shedding process. Dog grooming is not only about dog health, it is also about bonding, trust and love.

**About the author:  Dee Gerrish of Goldendoodle World has been a private, professional, hobby breeder since 1996.  Dee Gerrish has written extensively about the Goldendoodle dog since 1999.  More information can be obtained about the Goldendoodle dog at http://www.goldendoodleworld.com

*Copyright protected March 9, 2009.

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It’s the usual thing every Parent goes through from time to time I guess.

“Daaaad, why can’t we get a dog?”

“Well son it’s like this, they take a lot of caring, they’re a big responsibility, they need feeding (this is starting to sound like a job description for Parenthood in general I know), and they need someone to walk them on cold dark winter nights.” Hit them hard with the triple mantra of “Dog Health, Dog Grooming and Dog Training” I thought, that will do the trick……..

So four weeks later there I was heading with my sister in law to the nearest branch of the Dogs Trust to check out some abandoned puppies from a litter that had been taken in before Christmas and were coming up to eleven weeks old and it was crunch time.

“What sort of dog were you looking for sir and what sort of experience have you had with dogs? We will need to take out references and check out where the dog is going to live, whether it is safe.” Heck, this was starting to sound like a job interview with the local bank not some search for an abandoned pooch.

It would possibly have been easier to pack a suitcase full of cash and hop on the next plane to some third world country and come home with a baby – a contentious view point I know but says more about the shoddy approach to most Intercountry Adoptions but I digress.

Five minutes later there I was walking round the inner courtyard of what sounded like canine hell. There is something deeply tragic about the way we treat our pets in this world (marginally better then we treat our fellow humans I know) and unless we stop treating pets and dogs especially with the same disposable mentality that we use when buying our next cheeseburger it is only going to get worse.

Trying to take a reasoned and rational approach to what can only be best described as a display of truly pathetic (in the truest of senses) wretchedness is extremely difficult. The Dogs Trust is wonderful organisation that copes, alongside numerous others, in a much challenged environment, with a miniscule budget and essentially damaged goods. It is a hard task to manage in a situation whereby the credo of the organisation is “we do not destroy any dogs” means that there is an ever increasing strain on budgets. The upshot of all of this is that you find yourself in a canine equivalent of a used car showroom but without the shiny cars, heating and cheap aftershave to keep you company.

It is a very functional environment whereby the dogs are well cared for, fed, kept warm, safe, dry and medically cared for but the Ritz Carlton it is not. The dogs are kept in pens with wire partitions and once one starts barking the rest join in for what seems to be the fun of it. The inhabitants of this canine community seem to recognise what is going on and pathetically struggle to out muscle, out do, and generally create as much interest in them as possible. Of course there is always the compete opposite, the really damaged ones who seem to have lost all interest in human contact remembering not too fondly the lack of humanity or brutality that led them to be here in the first place.

Interesting choice, I thought, feeling rather guilty at the fact that no matter what choice I made there were going to be at least forty or fifty of these frantic barking creatures that would be left here waiting for a better draw from the “lottery of fate” on another day.

I was very aware of the fact that the main driving force behind this choice was the fact that I had a seven year old son who was probably going to be the dogs main companion over the course of it’s life and therefore it would be an idea to find a dog that got on well with humans (not as easy as you think) and kids especially.

Yes, you got it; we ended up with a puppy, a cross between a Black Labrador and a Border collie (we think). It was one of those tragically funny situations when I looked at the paperwork and there it was in front of me, “Mother – Black Labrador, Father – unknown”. Apparently, the litter had been taken in before Christmas and though the mother was acquired at the same time and therefore known, the “likeliest suspect” for the Father apparently was a working dog at the nearest farm thereby giving rise to the “Border Collie, we think” routine.

As most dog owners will testify, despite feeling as if I had accomplished a great deal, it was only the beginning.

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Lhasa Apsos 2010 Mini Wall Calendar: Lhasa Apso lovers know that these dogs are incredibly cute puppies! Eventually, these fuzzy pups will grow up and they’ll have long, heavy, and stately coats. But for now, you can enjoy these fluffy and affectionate puppies while they’re still young in this Lhasa Apsos Puppies mini calendar.

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Mini was the first dog that I had owned. She had the familiar Lhasa Apso thick long coat draping her entire body down to the floor. She was a beautiful mixture of brown and white all over with a white feathered tale. I loved her eyes, which where of the deepest blue, although they where hard to see because they too where covered by thick hair. She appeared to be sporting long bangs. I think this is why she was prone to eye infections – her tear ducks would swell – usually clearing within several days. I loved bringing Mini home from the groomers with a bow holding a wisp of her hair at the top of her head. The Lhasa Apso requires much grooming. Therefore, you should consider the cost of regular grooming if you plan to own one.

Lhasa Apso’s are friendly, affectionate, intelligent, and spirited small dogs. Mini was easily housetrained and performed simple commands – sit, fetch, stay, etc. As a puppy she taught me an interesting lesson. We where playing tug of war with her rope toy. I was pulling on one end, as she vigorously pulled the other end with her teeth. All of a sudden she gave way and I noticed a tooth stuck on her end of the rope. I, not being familiar with what was happening, thought I had pulled too hard. I quickly called my dentist friend and she informed me that puppies – just like babies – lose their first set of teeth.

Lhasa Apso originated from Tibet and is named for the capital city of Lhasa. According to Wikipedia, the Lhasa Apso was bred originally to guard monasteries. The Lhasa Apso was expected to follow the intruder barking until his master arrived to check on the intruder. Also, they are believed to bring good luck to their owners. Mini was a fantastic watchdog and a precious companion. Her bark was quite deceiving because it sounded as if it belonged to a much larger dog.

If you are considering owning a Lhasa Apso they do well in apartment living. However, they are too nervous around children and therefore require supervision. They do need to be taken on daily walks for at least 20 minutes – dogs that do not have daily walks tend to display behavioral problems. The average life span of this breed is 15 years and they are generally a healthy dog. If you are planning to add a Lhasa Apso to your home please consider adopting one from a local shelter or a rescue group that specializes in this breed. Also, consider adopting an older dog, they are usually housetrained and are not readily adopted – they need love and a family too.

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