I had some new visitors in the van today while i was bathing a couple dogs.
This is how hairy the van gets while deshedding a husky after a bath. After i had already brushed out 50% of it before the bath and the video was taken only a couple minutes in to blow drying.
EDUCATIONAL POST! I am in no way trying to shame the owners of this dog or make them feel bad about this. Matting can happen to anyone! This dog has always been meticulously taken care of. However, he has started his coat change from puppy to adult coat. And this is a hard transition! You have a mixture of puppy coat and adult coat that is two different textures and densities. Which makes it mat up a lot easier and it can get out of hand a lot quicker.
Now, with this large amount of matting I try to save as much as a I can without hurting the dog in any way. Which would cause the dog to have a bad experience and make him much harder to groom in the future. There are two ways I can try to dematt, in this case I put him straight in the bath and washed and conditioned him extremely well. I then used my high velocity dryer to break up the matting as best I could (this video was taken after these steps were already done). So at this point i still have a lot of matting to work with and it’s still very tight on his neck which ultimately needed to be shaved off. However I didn’t have to shave as short because of the steps i had already taken. I was able to save the front legs, lower half of the back legs, part of the tail and most of his head and ears.
Now, if you have a dog at home that has a couple small matts. Make sure you DO NOT WASH THEM! If you let your dog air dry while they are matted it will tighten those mats! This is a huge mistake I see all the time! Brush your dog with a slicker brush and comb and remove all of the matts before the bath! Then once they are removed you can wash and condition your dog and make sure once they are dry you brush them really well again!
And just like that, the van is complete! Except the table, that is going in tomorrow!
Uecker getting dried for the first time ever. What a good boy!
We officially have insulated walls in the van!
Grooming in the comfort of your home!
Topic: puppies!
When should your puppy go to the groomer? I personally start puppies at three months old or as soon as they have their vaccinations. The earlier the better! This puppy (Benny) had his first groom at three months old (8 weeks ago) he was a bit scared of the dryer and my clipper. This time around he didn’t care about the dryer at all and he got used to the clipper much faster than the last time, PROGRESS!
Puppies NEED to be groomed and kept on a schedule. Whether you don’t want their hair cut or not, they have to get used to the tools I use to be successful as they grow. Not all dogs come onto it as easily as Benny has, so we have to be proactive.