March 31st, 2020 by Amy Varley

Does grooming your dog fill you with dread? Does your dog go crazy as soon as you show them a brush? Or run and hide when you get the nail clippers out? Here is our guide to keeping your dog calm and relaxed so that regular grooming doesn’t become a chore!

Start Early

Grooming is a brilliant way to bond with your dog, so it’s useful to get your dog into a good grooming routine from a young age. The key to anything we want our dogs to do is to start early! Of course, this isn’t always possible with rescue dogs who may come to us at an older age, with perhaps not much experience of grooming. For cases like this or any dog who wants to turn grooming into a game, it’s important to go back to basics and take things slowly, first introducing your dog to the tools and gradually building up to a full grooming session. This should help to make the whole process a relaxing experience for both you and your dog!

Reward Your Dog

When you are first teaching your dog anything, it’s important to keep praising and rewarding them for positive behaviour! Giving your dog both verbal praise and treats keeps your dog engaged with you and reinforces their good behaviour. It’s also important to remember that our dogs mirror our emotions – you must keep calm and relaxed yourself if your dog is to follow suit! Praise your dog in a calm manner and keep giving them light strokes to keep them calm.

Let Your Dog Explore the Tools

It’s best to start slow when first grooming your dog. One of the best ways to introduce your dog to grooming is to let them explore all the tools. Brushes, combs, nail clippers; let your dog sniff these and reward them for it! This teaches them there’s nothing to be afraid of. Many professional groomers recommend bringing your puppy into their salons for ‘puppy visits,’ purely to get them used to the environment and the sounds of the tools such as clippers and the blow drier. Once your dog has gotten used to hearing all these new and loud sounds it will help them to feel much more relaxed and less stressed – making the grooming experience much more enjoyable for you both!

Take Your Time

Once you’ve acclimatised your dog to any grooming tools you will be using, you’re ready to begin using them! You should always start slowly with anything new and unusual for your dog. You can groom your dog for a couple of minutes and then change things up and have a little play - this will help tire out your dog and also keeps them engaged with you – helping to strengthen your bond even more! Start with brushing your dog, small areas at a time, for example down the back, or one leg at a time until your dog is used to being groomed. The last thing you want is to give your dog a bath and then them not let you brush them and their coat starts to knot up! It’s important to keep grooming sessions short because if you make your dog stay still for longer then they want to this can lead to them becoming frustrated and will make grooming a negative experience for them.  

Tire Them Out First

For excitable dogs, it can be a lot easier to groom them by tiring them out before you begin! Grooming your dog late in the day, after a long walk or play session when they are already relaxed should help to keep them calm and still. Many groomers recommend if you are taking your dog to a salon, they should be walked there so they’ve hopefully got rid of any excess energy before they are groomed.

Taking all of these steps at a pace that your dog appreciates will help to make grooming a pleasant experience for your Pooch. It’s important for your dog to relax when they are groomed as it is such an important part of their life, needed to promote their health and keep them looking their best! A relaxed dog is a happy dog – teach your dog to stay calm and in turn they will have reduced stress levels making them happier and less anxious during grooming!