By: Richa Aggarwal, Wiggly Tails*
Dog grooming not only helps maintain your furry friend’s level of cleanliness and keeps him looking and smelling great, but also helps maintain your pet’s overall health and wellbeing. You should ideally introduce your dog to grooming when he’s still a puppy and give him appropriate treats as a reward. Until recent years, there weren’t many dog grooming parlours or spas available in India. Most grooming services only provided basic baths or ear cleaning and nail clipping services. .
With the expansion of the Indian pet services industry and an increase in pet ownership in the last few years, more pet grooming services have emerged throughout the country. Today’s, pet salons and spas offer a host of pet grooming services ranging from bathing, nail trimming and ear cleaning to full body massage, hair styling, aromatherapy and manicure and pedicure. Some groomers also provide complete pet makeovers and beautiful nail art for our furbuddys.
Grooming is particularly important for long-haired dogs to get rid of any tangles and knots. They also help check for any parasites on the skin such as ticks and fleas. Brushing is beneficial for dogs of all breeds and helps remove dandruff, gets rid of dirt and relaxes the dog.
Grooming is as important as taking your pet to the vet for regular checkups. In other words, grooming helps keep your pet happy and healthy and enables you to save on veterinary bills. Regular grooming helps you look for any bumps or lumps or skin discoloration that might signal a serious underlying condition such as cancer. Issues with teeth, nails or eyes and inflammation or pain can indicate a disease or ailment. When found at an early stage, these problems can be treated right away before they become more serious.
Neglected dogs who are not groomed regularly might face health issues because for pets, proper hair hygiene is essential. Good groomers don’t just cut for beauty but also look for signs of trouble beneath the fur. Regular grooming might help discover health issues before you know they exist, including cysts, bad skin conditions and ear infections, all of which can hide under the fur.
Although it depends mostly on the breed, hair length and type of coat, regular grooming should be done at least once a month or fortnightly. Dogs with allergies should be bathed every week or once every two weeks.
Grooming is completely breed specific. While some breeds like Poodles, Bichon Frise, Shih Tzu, etc. require regular and more frequent grooming because of their hair length and dense coats. Other breeds that don’t have much hair like beagles and boxers require less frequent grooming sessions.
At wiggly tails, we provide grooming services like bathing, haircut, basic hygiene, medicated bath and tick and flea treatment. We also provide a special package which includes a 30-minute
aroma massage to extend an utterly delightful experience to the fur babies. Pet parents are allowed to be with their babies during the grooming sessions.
In some cases, we even allow the pet parent to take a whole new experience of grooming / bathing their furry baby, which enables them to spend quality time with each other. It’s a truly wonderful experience for both the parent and the pet. Wiggly tails is a fully equipped mobile salon, specially designed to provide door to door spa sessions for pets.
There are a few grooming tips that every pet parent must know of:
Using the right shampoo– It is advisable to invest in an optimum quality shampoo for your dog that is specifically manufactured, keeping in mind the needs of canines. Do not use human shampoo on your dog as a dog’s skin is more alkaline than humans and using inappropriate products can cause allergies, skin problems and fungal disease in dogs.
Brushing regularly– It is essential to brush your dog regularly as it helps avoid tangles and mats and keeps the dog’s skin and hair in good shape. Long haired dogs and those with thick coats should be groomed more frequently than their short haired counterparts.
Nail clipping- Clipping is essential to maintain hygiene and should be done with extra care and caution. Avoid cutting the nails too close to the skin.
Grooming in a stress-free environment-Try grooming your pet in a stress-free environment and praise him while bathing and brushing the fur. Your pet may be nervous at first but be patient.
Grooming your pet by yourself can get little difficult, messy and downright unpleasant experience. Still if you are willing to learn and put in a little extra effort, you can do a reasonably good job.
It is advisable to take professional grooming sessions every four to six weeks to keep your pet healthy and happy and allow them to be checked for any abnormalities such as ticks and fleas, other skin conditions , problems with ear , teeth and nails.
Richa Aggarwal is the co-founder of Wiggly Tails- A doorstep pet grooming service provider in Delhi.
