Regular grooming is an integral part of owning a dog. Grooming your dog is part of meeting their basic needs and keeping them happy. If you need to know where to focus start with these five big areas.

1. Brushing Your Pooch

Your dog will love the attention they get while you brush them. Brushing your dog will give time for your relationship to grow AND keep your dog's coat healthy and shiny! If you have a long haired animal you should be brushing them daily, a medium haired dog weekly, and a short haired dog monthly. Following these guidelines will help keep matted hair and tangles from showing up on your pup!

Have a system in place to make sure you do your best job brushing your pet. Brush from one end to the other, you can start at either tail or head, pick a direction and you won't miss anything in the middle. Then brush from the top of the dog down.

What if your dog already has hair mattes? You'll need the right brushes to remove the matting. Slowly free the matte with a slicker brush. If you have a large stubborn matte you can remove it with a clipper, be careful not to hit your pup's skin!

2. Dog haircuts

Dog haircuts occur at different intervals depending on what breed of dog you have. A breed with fast growing hair may need a cut as often as every 2 to 4 weeks, pets with shorter hair can go much longer. While you should probably hire someone trained in dog haircuts to do full haircuts on your animal in between cuts you can do trims yourself. Dog haircuts can say a lot about a dog, you want them looking good!

3. Bathe Your Pup With Organic Dog Shampoo:

Like it or not giving your dog a bath is part of pet ownership! The frequency of these baths will vary depending on the breed of your dog. Recommendations vary from once every 3 months to once a month on how often to bathe your puppy. If your dog loves the mud you may be up for super frequent bathing!

Make wise choices about the products that you use on your dog. Organic dog shampoo is a great place to start.

4. Clip Their Nails:

You need to keep your dog's nails cut. This process will be much easier if your dog is used to having their paws handled. Play with your dog's feet and toes when you are spending time together, this will make them more relaxed when it is time to cut their nails.

You want to avoid the quick, which is the vein that runs through the nail. Cutting this will cause your pet pain and it will become exponentially more difficult to convince them to hold still while you trim their nails.

5. Brush Your Pooch's Teeth

Just like clipping nails your dog may need to get used to the idea of having their teeth cleaned. You can start by massaging their gums/teeth with your finger or having them taste a small amount of toothpaste designed for dogs.

Get a toothbrush made for dogs to use. You will apply toothpaste directly to your dog's teeth and brush! Brushing your dog's teeth is never a bad thing aim to do it every day, or every other day at least.

Putting together a grooming basket for your dog with all of the necessary equipment is a good idea. What will you need? An assortment of hair brushes (depending on dog's breed), organic dog shampoo, an appropriate nail clipper designed for dogs, dog toothbrush and toothpaste, and the name of a trusted groomer!

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