Grooming Your Golden Retriever
Grooming The Golden Retriever Is Easy With A Little Practice
Grooming your Golden Retriever is something that should be started fairly early in their life. The sooner they get accustomed to this process the easier it will be as they grow up.
If your golden retriever is already a year or two old or more that’s ok too. They will get comfortable with it in no time.
Even if you take your dog to a professional groomer periodically, you still need to keep your golden retriever looking good, and feeling good between visits.
Once you get the hang of it, you can do it in just a few minutes, and your pet will thank you for it.
Golden retrievers have a double coat that is quite thick. You Do Not want to wash them very often. This can damage their coat, and cause skin problems.
When you do wash them it is a must that you use shampoo made for dogs. If you use a shampoo made for people you will dry out their skin and cause problems.
If your take your golden retriever to a professional dog groomer, they will wash your dog every time, because this is part of what they charge you for.
This is why you want to do a lot of the in between grooming yourself, so you don’t have to go to the professional groomer every month. That is just too much soap for a golden retrievers skin.
I personally recommended that under normal conditions, you should not wash golden retrievers more than three or four times a year.
If their paws and legs get dirty frequently, just rinse those areas with a hose, or let the dirt dry, and then brush it out if possible.
When grooming your dog I start with a brush made for dogs. Give your dog a thorough brushing, being careful around sensitive areas, such as the eyes, ears.
As the brush gets clogged with hair, remove it from the brush so it will continue to remove excess fur from your pet. I have found it best to have a plastic bag handy to dispose of the unwanted hair.
When you are finished brushing, switch to a comb. Any stiff comb will work, but I prefer a metal comb that is made for dogs. It will have rounded ends on each tine, so it won’t hurt your dog’s skin. Look for any hair that is tangled.
Common places to find tangled mats of hair on Golden Retrievers are behind the ears, on the rear end, and on the tail.
If you do find these try to gently pick them apart using the end of the comb. This usually works fairly well. These can be painful to your pet so try to be careful.
If you cannot pick them apart with the comb, I do not recommend trying to cut them out with scissors. The reason is, it can be very difficult to determine where the tangle ends, and the skin begins. A groomer, or veterinarian will have an electric trimmer that will remove them easily, with no harm to your dog.
Use the comb to put the finishing touch on your entire pet. It will give a nicer appearance than the brush. It is also a good time to check your golden retrievers skin for any signs of a rash, and to also be on the look out for fleas and ticks.
This would be a good time to clean your dog’s ears. Golden retrievers are prone to ear infections if their ears are not kept clean.
You can get an ear cleaning solution at any pet store, and it only takes a few minutes to do. You can also get an ear cleaning solution from your veterinarian that stops ear infections from starting, or cures them if your golden already has one.
If they shake their head a lot for no reason, it could be due to an ear infection. Cleaning their ears involves squirting some of the cleaning fluid in the ear, and squeezing gently on the lower part of the ear.
When you let you dog loose he will probably shake his head to expel the fluid, so it’s a good job to do outside. Finally, put some of the cleaning fluid on a cotton ball, or tissue, and gently clean inside the ear as far as you can easily reach.
Last on the list is to trim your dog’s toe nails. For this you should get a tool, available at any pet shop that is made for this purpose.
It makes the job much easier. Be sure to only trim a little at a time. If you trim too much the nail will bleed, because there are nerves and blood vessels in them, and it is painful for your dog.
While you are working on the paws, look at the bottom and see if there is excessive fur sticking through the pads.
If your dog gets a lot of exercise, especially on cement or asphalt, like walking on sidewalks, it usually is not a problem.
If there is excessive fur sticking through the pads you should trim it off, using a pair of scissors, but be careful not to cut the pads on the paws.
You do not have to cut the fur that close so there should be no reason to get near the pads.
If you are going to use scissors for trimming your
Golden retriever during grooming, I would suggest you purchase a pair that has rounded ends, like doctors use to remove bandages.
That way if your dog moves suddenly, you won’t stick him with the point of the scissors.
There are products available at most pet stores that you can spray on your pet and then towel dry and comb. They are usually called something like Quick Groom or Waterless Bath.
They make your golden retriever look and smell great, and help avoid excessive washing with soap. They are quick and easy, and I have used them successfully for years with no problems.
The grooming process may sound complicated at the moment, but I think once you try it a couple of times you will find it is actually pretty easy. It is also much less expensive that a dog groomer, and a lot less hassle.
I have always groomed my golden retrievers, with the same methods I stated here, and it takes me about fifteen to twenty minutes per dog.
Once your dog gets comfortable with the process it should go very smooth. In the beginning when they are not sure if they like what you are doing, they will sometimes try to chew on the brush as you brush them, or roll on the ground instead of sitting still, but that should end after a few times.
I usually keep a leash on my golden retrievers when grooming them, just to give me a little more control.
We have our third Golden which we got through The Golden Retriever Rescue-NJ. He is a wonderful 7 year old, the best of all our dogs to date. He is extremely beautiful with heavy feathering and we have been taking him to get groomed every 4 to 6 weeks because he has a strong oder and feels really dirty. We bathed our other Goldens maybe every 3 months. Every time we take him, he comes home with horrible trim jobs. This time he came home with the feathering on the back of his front legs inconsistently trimmed back to almost nothing and all of his chest hair cut to maybe an inch. They didn’t touch the rest of his body and his (pants) hind feathering looks like a skirt which actually looked beautiful last May but now just looks to long and sloppy. I am determined to learn how to correctly groom him myself and found Joanne Lastoka’s tutorials more than helpful. My question is how do I trim his backside, pants, and all the long hair under his belly and around his back legs that looks like it could get urinated on. Looking forward to buying new grooming tools as soon as some of our snow melts. Thank you, Margaret at the Jersey Shore.
Grooming a Golden Retriever is not something everyone is good at, including many dog salons. You will need to either ask the grooming salon you take your golden to, if they know how to properly groom and trim a golden retriever. Another option is to do it yourself. If you keep up with it on a weekly basis, with a few minutes of brushing and trimming, you will get the hang of it quickly. Here is a link with a few helpful photos.
http://the-golden-retriever.com/grooming-your-golden-retriever.html