How to Train Your Dog to Accept Grooming
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Introduction
As a loving and caring pet owner, there’s a ton of things you adore about your dog. You love the way they greet you after a long day at work. You love the way your pooch helps get you excited about going for that morning walk. You love the way Fido always seems to know when you’re feeling bad and you probably like the way your pooch always seems to be a good listener, even when you babble on about topics he can’t possibly understand.
One of the things you probably don’t love, however, is when your pooch gets a bit…stinky. Proper grooming isn’t only essential for your enjoyment, it also reduces parasites and discomfort to your dog caused by overgrown nails, bad oral hygiene, and a matted coat. It’s a good thing, then, that dogs can be trained to love and accept grooming by their humans and others.
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Defining Tasks
While there are specific behaviors you can teach your dog that aid in accepting grooming, much of the training involves general handling. Starting from when your puppy is young you should gently but firmly touch their ears, feet, mouth, and head in order to desensitize them to handling in these areas on the grooming table. If your dog hasn’t been exposed to this type of handling, you can train your dog to be receptive to grooming. Few things are worse for a groomer than running into a dog that is fearful of being bathed and clipped. Your dog will be saved a great deal of stress and discomfort if you start them early and often on the road to accepting grooming.
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Getting Started
In order to teach your dog to accept grooming, you are going to need a few basic supplies. You should have a toothbrush and toothpaste specially designed for dogs, which are generally available at your local pet store. A brush and dog nail clipper or Dremel will also be vital for training as well as essential grooming tools you should keep at home for in between-groomer-visits doggy maintenance. Finally, a selection of treats will come in handy for teaching your dog to associate pawsitive and happy experiences with grooming.
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The Nail Clipping Method
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Handling the feet
Dogs naturally have an aversion to having their paws handled. You’ll need to slowly acclimate your dog to having their paws, pads, and nails touched in order to teach them to allow their nails to be clipped. Start out with a selection of treats nearby and with your dog in a relaxed position, preferably lying down. Spend some time briefly touching and lightly squeezing the paws, always followed by a treat.
Touching and squeezing the nails
After your dog is used to having his paws handled generally, move to the more sensitive nails. Start by touching the nail for just a moment and then praising and treating your dog. Slowly work up to squeezing your dog’s nail gently to imitate the pressure applied by clippers or a file.
Introducing tools
Once your dog is used to your hands touching their nails, you will need to introduce your cutting apparatus. Depending on the size of your dog, you may choose to use a file, clippers or an electronic Dremel. Touch your nail trimmer to your dog’s nail briefly and then treat and praise. Repeat until your dog is not concerned with the trimmer being near or touching them.
Begin filing or clipping
Start off filing or clipping briefly, one nail at a time instead of the entire foot. After the first trim, praise and treat your dog. If Fido becomes agitated, you may need to repeat earlier steps, getting your dog used to the trimmer touching their nail.
Practice and repeat
Slowly work your way up to two, three and then all the nails. Be sure to work evenly on your dog’s front and back feet, both for practice and in trimming. Nail trimming is an important grooming chore on your dog and an essential behavior for training your dog to allow grooming.
The Dental Care Method
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The touch
Teaching your dog to accept inspection, brushing and other manipulation of the mouth is vital for good oral hygiene. Start out in a familiar and neutral area of the house. Wait until your dog is calm and relaxed and then touch their muzzle gently and briefly. Immediately treat and praise.
Lift the lip
After your dog has become used to you touching their muzzle, progress to lifting a lip briefly. After you’ve released the lip, quickly treat and praise to create a strong association with food items and your manipulation of their mouth.
Increase duration
Once your dog is accepting regular lifting of the lip, increase the amount of time you touch and hold onto their lip. Hold their lip up and inspect their teeth. When you release, immediately treat and praise.
Add the brush
Repeat steps 1-3, adding in a tooth brush instead of your hand or finger. Your dog may be curious about the brush at first. It will be important to only treat and praise when they ignore the implement instead of trying to chew or lick it.
Let's get brushing
After your dog is acclimated to the feel of the brush, it’s time to clean their teeth. Start by touching the brush to the teeth and then work your way up to a gentle scrubbing motion. Before you know it, your pooch will be ready to show off those pearly whites to the canine dentist.
The Brushing Method
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Introduce the brush
Brushing is a vital part of your dog’s health. Brushing your dog’s coat stimulates growth, eliminates loose fur, and distributes natural oils to help with overall coat health and appearance. To begin teaching your dog to like being brushed, first let them inspect the comb, brush or other grooming tool. Be sure to treat and praise your dog for sniffing and ignoring or otherwise being indifferent to the presence of the brush.
Touch with the brush
Once your dog is used to the brush, touch them gently on their body with the brush. Remember to treat and praise after for good associations with the grooming tool.
Brush your dog
Once your dog is used to being touched with the brush, start performing gentle stroking motions over their coat. Keep the grooming sessions short, as you are still in the acclimation phase and aren’t actually looking to clean or style Fido at this time. Give plenty of treats to your dog while brushing.
Add in other tools
Once your Dog has learned to accept being brushed, it’s time to work in other tools. Shower heads, blow dryers, combs and clippers are all common items used by groomers. Acclimate your dog to one item at a time using steps 1-4 above and your pooch will learn to love grooming in no time.
Written by Amy Caldwell
Veterinary reviewed by:
Published: 10/17/2017, edited: 01/08/2021
More articles by Amy Caldwell
Training Questions and Answers
Bella
cocker spaniel working
4 months
Question
0 found this helpful
0 found this helpful
Jumping up growling and hard biting when excited. Dosnt respond to ignoring bad behaviour
July 23, 2022
Bella's Owner
Caitlin Crittenden - Dog Trainer
1128 Dog owners recommended
Hello, Check out the articles linked below. If pup is biting to try to get your attention or play, opposed to true aggression, then I would work on teaching pup Leave It to build their self-control and understanding of what you want, as well as use the Step Towards method to move into pup as soon as they are about to jump, or the Leash method when you have a leash on pup or when guests visit, and finally the Out command. Leave It method: https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-shih-tzu-puppy-to-not-bite Step Toward and Leash methods: https://wagwalking.com/training/train-australian-shepherds-to-not-jump Out: https://www.petful.com/behaviors/how-to-teach-a-dog-the-out-command/ Depending on how hard pup is biting, you may need to desensitize pup to wearing a basket muzzle in general - so pup doesn't mind it and so that it's not only associated with situations pup jumps in. After pup is desensitized, then set up scenarios where pup commonly jumps and bites and practice your commands like Leave It and stepping toward. When pup doesn't jump when you do things that normally cause them to, like jump up and down, turn away from them, hold a toy, first get home, ect...then reward pup with a treat hidden in your pocket through the muzzle's holes. A basket muzzle should allow you to do this, opposed to a standard muzzle. The muzzle is only to keep you safe while you train. The training to improve self-control and reward calmer responses also needs to be done so that the muzzle eventually won't be needed at all. Muzzle introduction video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJTucFnmAbw&list=PLXtcKXk-QWojGYcl1NCg5UA5geEnmpx4a&index=6&t=0s Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden
July 25, 2022
Tonya Corey
Mixed breed
1 Year
Question
0 found this helpful
0 found this helpful
I need help getting my dog used to hair trimmer
March 25, 2021
Tonya Corey's Owner
Caitlin Crittenden - Dog Trainer
1128 Dog owners recommended
Hello Tonya, Check out the video I have linked below on desensitizing. This is generally done over several days or weeks depending on how nervous your dog is. Go slow, watch your dog's body language to see when they look happy and relaxed before you progress further with each step - like pup being happy just to see the trimmer, then happy about touching it, then happy when it makes the noise, then happy when it gently, briefly touches their fur, then happy while cutting the fur. Keeping each trim brief at first, and breaking it into several sessions. I find for the average dog this process often takes about a month, some may adjust immediately, others may take longer, but the more often you practice for short sessions the quicker it tends to go. https://fb.watch/4spBR8fWJt/ Long term I like to always give treats or use a licking mat while grooming to help your dog to continue to like the grooming process long term. I was feeding my own dog kibble periodically during her trimming session yesterday even though she was already desensitized to grooming six years ago - that way she always is happy and willing to groom each time, even after the initial fear is gone. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden
March 25, 2021