There's no denying it: dog grooming is a hassle. There's bathing, brushing, nail clipping, haircuts; all things that are hard enough to get a child to do without throwing in the extra frustration of a language barrier. Your dog doesn't always understand "sit still" or "bath time" or "this will just take a minute," and even if they do, they certainly don't understand why. Maybe children don't all the time either, but dogs can be a touch more... dogmatic about their refusal to submit to these degrading processes that, for all they know, are patently designed to annoy them to death. While some people go the route of simply submitting to their dog's obstinate protests, this is a bad idea for a number of reasons.

For one, it's unsanitary to you and the people you live with; I don't think I need to explain very much why this is the case, but suffice to say that dogs are not exactly the epitome of "clean living" animals. However, if you're like me, you love the furry little smell factories anyways, which brings us to the really important factor: shirking your dog grooming duties can lead to major health defects in your furry friend. Maybe this sounds alarmist to some people, who are sitting reading this right now with their scruffy, smelly dog saying, "Dogs have been around for centuries taking care of themselves! They don't need me to stick my nose in his grooming business!"

Strangely enough, these same people don't decide to let their dogs outside come dinnertime to rustle up some grub for themselves. The fact of the matter is dogs are domesticated now, and are somewhat bred towards human dependence. As a result, dogs can actually catch some pretty nasty bugs as a result of poor grooming; while it may not be the sort of diseases humans tend to catch from poor hygiene, ear and eye infections are no fun for your dog, and thus no fun for you. Even the seemingly not-worth-the-effort chore of holding down your dog so you can clip his or her claws is important to their safety. Nature did not intend for humans to be walking on pavement; that's one reason we wear shoes. Nature did not intend for dogs to be running on pavement, but they're going to, and a cracked nail for them doesn't mean their manicure is ruined. Dogs have blood vessels in their nails, and if one of them breaks it can bleed pretty profusely, meaning it also has the opportunity to get infected.

The long and short of it is that dogs really need grooming if you want them to be happy and healthy. It's a pain in the neck, sure, but why even have a dog if you're going to let it be miserable? Man's best friend deserves at least man's adequate attention, and if you really don't have the time or patience to do it, flop open the yellow pages. There are dog groomers all over who can take care of this for you.

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