Category: Animal House
I have a little tiny maltese and grooming her always turns out to be a huge mess. I was wondering if anyone out there has any tipps on grooming a nervous little dog. thanks
What do you mean by mess? Hair gets all over the place, or she doesn't let you finish the job?
Hi. I bathe Babes this way. I draw warm water in the tub, and when it's enough, I turn the water off, go get her, and put her in the tub. I use a pitcher to wet her down, and rinse her off using the same water. If it's to sudsy, I turn on the faucet where it's just barely on,fill up the pitcher, and rinse. She hates a bath, but she loves it once she's in the tub. I talk to her get her distracted during the bath., then when she's clean, I dry her off on a soft towel.
Hope this helps.
You could try trimming her coat so it doesn't need so much attention and slowly re-introduce the grooming as something positive with a lot of praise and ignoring her protests..I sympathise as Dougal, my partner's bearded collie, hates being groomed and he's a big strong fella.
Well, first of all, you could try a puppy cut. If you're not going to be showing the dog then this would be a great option, especially if you want to breed it, work it in ajility competitions or do obedience trials with it. It's very short, looks cute and is a lot more managible. Make brushing a very positive experiance. You hold a tiny treat, a piece of something or other in one hand and then brush with the other. For every time that you can make a stroke with the brush with out getting yelped at, snapped at or having the dog try to bolt, immediately offer a treat. If you make them very small they won't make your dog fat. Keep up a constant streem of conversation. Just keep talking to the dog about whatever. After a grooming session offer dinner, or play time, that can be another positive re-enforcer. You can also play for a bit, then groom, then play some more, then groom, then treat, then groom and then finish off with some water and more play. if you keep the sessions short the dog is much less likely to shut down on you.
When I first got my dog, she was extremely nervous of being groomed. I literally had to hold onto her collar and push her bum down to the floor to keep her still. Someone suggested that I should try stroking first, to get her used to being handled all over. I got her to lie down (no mean feat!) and slowly began to stroke her all over. You should do this from the head downwards with a light but confident touch. Start with fingertips in contact, and progress this to a whole hand contact. You should stroke from the head right down to the tail. Don't forget about areas like tail, feet, and surprisingly, ears. For sensitive areas like ears, reward with a treat if she lets you handle. It took a long time, but it's definitely made my dog more relaxed. They absolutely love being stroked like this, and once the initial nervousness has passed, she'll be begging for more! Then you can slowly start to introduce the brush. She should be less nervous now that she's used to being handled all over.