Coat Care Basics

Whether your dog has a short or long haircoat there are things you can do as its owner to develop and maintain its health and beauty. Professional groomers, like veterinarians, are one of your dog's best friends helping you with some responsibilities for skin and coat health and beauty. Coat care basics include regular coat inspections, brushing and combing, bathing with the right products and a healthy diet.

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Coat care involves studying canine nutrition and product labels. Learn how to read pet food product labels and look for healthy additives that develop haircoats. Veterinarians are an excellent source of information for dietary advice to improve coat, skin and overall pet health. Yet diet isn't everything, but quite important.

Pet owners must address their responsibilities to care for their dog's haircoat with regular brushing and combing. Brushing removes dead hair shed from the coat. Hair shed allowed to remain in medium to long coated pets can easily tangle and matt and cause a pet discomfort and in severe cases, affect their health. Once a coat is matted we strongly suggest pet owners to seek a professional groomer for assistance with matt and possibly coat removal for the welfare of the pet. De-matting is uncomfortable for all dogs; leave it to a professional that knows how to minimize the impact of de-tangling and de-matting on your pet.

Brushing evenly distributes natural oils through the coat adding more sheen and removing loose dirt. Even short haired breeds still need occasional brushing with the right tool in order to stimulate the skin and spread the luster of coat oils. While brushing be sure to look for organic matter like sticks, leaves and you name that can become tangled in medium to long haired dogs. For brushing and combing techniques, please click here. Also, it is important that you use the right brush and comb for each dog's skin and coat type. Brushes and combs for short haired dogs can be much different than those for medium and long coats.

Many breeds of dogs have a "double coat" consisting of an outer or "guard" coat and an undercoat. Without this knowledge and training most pet owners brush and comb only the outer coat. The real problems of matting generally occur in the undercoat where hair shed gathers unless removed with proper brushing and combing. Worse yet, if all of the hair shed is not removed before the pet gets wet, it begins to matt and tangle almost as soon as the water reaches the undercoat. Many uninformed pet owners think they are helping their medium or long coated pet by giving them a bath at home, only to find out they didn't remove all of the undercoat and instead created tangles and matts requiring professional attention.

While it may be fun for the medium and long coated pet to "play in the water," it's probably tangling and matting, creating a problem in the near future. Medium or long coat pets must be brushed and combed dried after they get wet, every time. If the pet is going to get wet frequently around a pool, sprinklers or other recreation, the owner should ask a professional groomer about "short maintenance cuts" that require less intensive grooming.

Professional groomers should offer their clients short instruction in proper brushing and combing, and sell necessary products. Many schools of grooming and home study programs offer a short course for pet owners. We encourage pet owners to ask their professional groomer, local grooming school or veterinarian for brushing and combing instruction relevant for their pet's coat type and characteristics. For advice on intervals of maintenance grooming by owners and groomers look up your pet's breed in the left column of this page.

Skin Care Basics

We urge all groomers to learn more about skin health. Most cannot even tell us about skin cycles. Skin affects the life cycle of hair, about 44 days. Unhealthy skin can reduce the life cycle of hair to as little as 30 days. As a result skin conditions affect the quality of haircoats. Medicated shampoos are not always the answer for skin problems. Even shampooing unhealthy skin can worsen it until a veterinarian has diagnosed the skin problem and addressed its cure. The very nature of working up a good lather and over massaging problem skin can make problems worse leading to fungus, yeast and bacterial problems.

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Pet owners or groomers should always seek veterinarian attention for skin problems, and follow instructions for correct products and application until the skin is once again healthy. Overall the guideline for skin health is to use a gentle but effective shampoo, and to rinse well.

Dandruff on dogs looks much the same as human dandruff, but the causes vary. In some cases dog dandruff is the result of parasites and skin infections which must be treated under veterinary care. Otherwise regular dandruff is the result of an accelerated rate of the reproduction cycle of skin cells, and it becomes more apparent when the pet is not being bathed regularly at intervals appropriate for its individual coat and skin type. Don't use dandruff remedies for humans on dogs! Dandruff also results from diet, and again veterinary intervention can help determine the appropriate diet.

Constant itching is usually caused by parasites, allergies and diet problems. If not, it may just be dry skin. Regardless of the source itching is a threat to skin health. As professional groomers we frequently saw pets that itched so badly they literally tore into their skin which resulted in bleeding. Of course immediate veterinary attention is the order of the day for such pets. As a professional groomer you do not want to groom pets with moderate to serious skin conditions unless the pet is under veterinary care and you are following written instructions provided by the veterinarian. Veterinarians will make a diagnosis and usually provide the groomer with a prescribed remedy to apply as part of the bathing process.

As with coat care, skin care is also dependent upon nutrition too.