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Dry
Grooming
When I say
dry grooming I'm referring to the daily or weekly
maintenance of a relatively clean dog. Wet
grooming would be the drying and grooming of a dog you
just washed. That is under the washing and drying
section.
You would actually never dry groom you always want a
little moisture on the coat when grooming.
Step One - Work on Training your
dog to lie on their side. This is actually not
difficult for the Havanese and can be taught in one
session. Use a comfortable height table and place
your dog on it standing. Use both hands and grab
the front leg farthest from your body with one hand and
the back leg farthest from your body with the other
hand.
Rotating the dog feet towards body
gently flip her to her side
She is flipped with feet towards
your body. Tell her how good she is. You are
still holding her legs
Hold your hands on top of her and
tell her Still or Stay. This is the training part.
Every time she moves re-do setting her on her side and
tell her Still or Stay. Keep telling her how good
she is. I find with new puppies it only takes me
4-5 times. I use a firmer voice every time I have
to re-enforce. When she stays with your hands on
her tell her how good she is and treat her. Do
this a few times but don't groom this time - save it for
tomorrow. Lots of reward
Brushing
We do Line Brushing which means
you do sections of the coat starting with the undercoat.
I'm not brushing here I'm simply using my brush to take
all the top coat away from the area I will be working
on. I want to only have a narrow fringe of coat
along Taylor's belly.
You Don't want to brush a dog with
a dry coat but I don't want to soak her either so I
spray a grooming spray on my brush before I do each
section. You can buy a grooming spray or just use
conditioner mixed 10 to 1 with water.
Top Coat is pushed out of the way
and I start working on the legs, front and back. I
use a 3/4" metal pin brush with NO balls on the ends of
the pins. Brush from roots to tip of coat.
When you do the back leg do all around the bum area on
this side as well
Spray your brush again and start
working on the undercoat closest to the belly.
Root to tip. Keep working across the body until
all brushed out. Brush should go through easily
I use the wide tooth part of my
comb now on the section I have just brushed just to
ensure there are no mats in the coat at all. I
then use the fine tooth part of the comb.
Lift up the front leg, this is a
prime place for mats - around the feet and the underside
of the leg hair. I use my sprayed brush first then
comb to take out all mats here. Don't forget the
underarms - another prime place for mats.
L
Move on to the next layer.
Don't forget to spray every section.
Brush then comb every section.
Make sure to brush and comb out ears and underneath the
ears around the neck. Another good place for mats.
De Matting
I've found a small matt.
With Show Coats I hate to lose any coat at all so I'm
slow and meticulous on mats. I saturate the area
with grooming spay and then use a small pin brush and
softly brush small strands of hair out of the mat until
it is clear. I then take my comb wide tooth and go
over the area, then the fine comb. On my cut down
dogs I might not be so picky on a small matt and simply
use my comb to remove the Knot. Don't forget to
firmly hold the hair by the root so you don't tug on
your dogs skin. You can also use a slicker brush
to remove mats but not on show coat as it does tend to
break the coat.
This one was too tight so I had to
work on it slowly and gently with my comb
I'm now moving to the face area.
See the small comb it's an eye comb or a flea comb very
fine toothed and small. I cover the eye with by
hand and comb from the eye out towards the nose.
If there is goop in the eye - soften it first with a bit
of warm water and use your finger nail or comb to loosen
it. Don't just tug it out as it will pull on the
eye area.
I use my eye comb to remove any
food bits from beard
Almost Done - Stand her up and run
a brush over back, tail head ears
Belly Coat
The delicate belly area is
difficult to groom with the untrained dog. I roll
Taylor over and she lets me groom all her stomach,
underarm and hair around her vulva and anus. If
this is too difficult and easier way is to do the
underside on your lap. I'm a bit fanatical and
don't cut any hair on my Havanese but many show breeders
would just cut out the small mats that form around the
genital area. It's a sensitive area so don't put
you dog through torture just clip out the sticky small
mats or if you do want to comb them out go slowly and be very
gently
Tying Back the Head Coat
If you want to keep head coat or
just have the hair out of the eyes you will probably
want to tie up the head coat. I use the dog latex
elastics. You MUST change your elastics every day
- I actually take them out at night and re-do them in
the morning. Do not try to unwind the elastic -- cut
them out. Use a tail comb pull a bit of the
elastic up and cut it. Comb out the head coat.
I alternate between pigtails and ponytail so that I'm
not wearing out the same section of head coat every day.
Use your comb with a skinny tail
on it. Comb back the head coat then use the tail
to just take a small section of hair. Put that
hair in a pony tail. Use your comb to take a
section slightly further back and attach the pony tail
to another pony tail.
She is all done and gets a treat
hug and playtime!!!
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