The Essential Tools of Dog Grooming Part 2
If you read my last post you will know what you need to do the basics of dog grooming. These tools that I am listing below are not as necessary for grooming your dog but will sometimes come in handy. More often than not you can not do without one or more of these dog grooming tools, especially once you’ve used them.
Hydraulic Grooming Table: This is a more sophisticated grooming table than the one we spoke about in our first article. The hydraulic grooming table can be raised and lowered from about 29″ up to almost 36″. This is a great help when grooming large breeds that you may not be able to lift up onto a stationary table. This type of grooming table should also be able to be folded and put away for easy storage.
Matting Comb: This heavy comb helps to remove mats on longer haired breeds of dogs.
Nail Clippers: For different sized breeds of dogs you will want different types of nail clippers. For smaller dogs you will want to get the scissor type, for a medium breed dog the guillotine type clipper is best and for larger dogs you will want a more robust clipper that is a pliers type to help with thicker and harder nails.
Oster Blades: For removing hair off of dogs these blades are numbered. The higher the number, the more hair it removes. The small animal clipper (A 2) is great to use although it does require interchangeable heads and that makes it a little less convenient. The A 5 model is a single piece clipper that has blades that snap into place. This is by far the easiest to use.
Oster Spray Lube: This is used to cool the blades as well as keep them lubricated. It also helps to prevent clipper burns and that’s a good think, just ask your dog.
Rubber Brush: Great for short haired breeds. I use this one on our lab.
Scissors: There are several options and well as sizes available that will handle any type of coat that you may have in front of you on the table.
Silk Handkerchief: used to polish shirt haired white dogs
Small Pin Brush: used for long haired small dogs
Stripping Knife: The fine stripping knife is used on sensitive areas like the head and ears while the coarse stripping knife is used elsewhere on the dog’s body.
Although it is not necessary to have all of these grooming tools available, especially if you are only doing one or two dogs, they can be quite handy to have if you are working on a particular breed. Having the right tools will help you to have a more successful and pleasant experience when grooming your dog that both you and your dog can appreciate.
Interesting tips on dog grooming tools; thank you for sharing.
Would be interested if you could shed some light on grooming solutions — shampoos, conditioners. I’ve been doing the dog show circuit and looking at supposedly high-end products on pet shops and find overwhelming confusion with very little clarity. Some products seem like a joke — both the names and the prices, and a number of them seem to make false claims.
Also find conflicting information on grooming practices — bathing, frequency, do’s and don’ts, drying, etc. It seems there are as many opinions and alternatives out there as there are dog breeds…
Could you offer any pearls of wisdom on the topic? I’m beginning to form my own opinions through research with vets, groomgers, dog handlers, friends, but would find your input helpful.
Thank you,
Che
Comment by chevergara — March 30, 2006 @ 7:44 pm
Hi Chevergara,
I’ll try to do some more research. There are so many different methods and products, I was just trying to touch the basics.
I do think that the bathing frequency and drying are really breed specific. What I try to do with my two dogs is to look up some information to give myself a benchmark to go off of, and then I watch their reactions to make sure that I am not making them uncomfortable.
Sounds rather simplistic, but it works well, especially if you are grooming the same dogs on a regular basis.
Thanks for writing.
Dakota
Comment by Dakota — March 30, 2006 @ 8:25 pm