Pet Grooming Tips

Trimming of Nails
Nails of all the pets should be regularly trimmed and especially of cats as they have a scratching habit. When trimming the nails, be careful not to cut them too short and cause bleeding. Cut the nails until you see a dark circle appearing in the center of the nail. This is the edge of the quick or blood vessel in the nail bed.

Brushing
Prior to bathing and clipping, the pets need to be brushed out to make sure there are no knots in the furnishings. Knots are big problem in cats and dogs and more so in longhaired cats. Brush the beard, legs and underskirt to make sure there are no knots using the Pin Brush. Brush upward (against the natural lay of the hair) starting at the top of the leg and proceed downward as you are brushing.

Bathing
Pets need to be bathed from time to time. But frequency of bathing of each pet varies. For example, cats need to be bathed not more than once a month. While bathing make sure that the temperature of the water is not too hot. Be careful not to get water and shampoo in the ears, eyes and mouth when bathing the pet. Put cotton balls in the pet's ears to help prevent water from getting in the ear canal.

Drying
While towel drying the legs and beard, don't rub but squeeze out the excess water to help prevent tangling the furnishings. You can also use a drier. Brush the beard and eyebrows down. Brush the legs up, starting with the pin brush and moving to the slicker brush when the leg is almost dry. Slicker brushes tend to rip out hair when used on a wet leg.

Some important things to remember while grooming your pet:

• Never punish the pet for not responding to the grooming schedule. Animals like to be left alone and are not very comfortable when someone touches them. Hence, in the beginning they don't respond positively to the grooming routine.
• Never let your pet mistake grooming tools as toys. Don't let it play with brush or clippers because otherwise pet will start treating grooming session as play time.
• Never hit your pet with a grooming tool else pet will start associating grooming tool with punishment and will try to avoid grooming session.
• Start grooming from an early age. That way pet will get use to grooming easily.