Grooming is important for all dogs, but becomes essential in certain breeds. Here is some advice for a dog that always looks great — and, above all, stays healthy.
Dog grooming, especially in certain breeds, is an indispensable procedure. Whether your dog has a long, short, wavy or curly coat, daily grooming and regular visits to a trusted professional groomer are a year-round obligation — not only to keep your dog neat and clean, but also to prevent dermatological problems of varying degrees of severity. Caring for the coat and caring for the skin are, in fact, two actions that go hand in hand and must always be respected for a happy, healthy and vital animal.
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Grooming a dog is quite different from clipping it. "Let us distinguish between the two terms: close clipping and grooming. Close clipping, nowadays, should only be carried out in extreme cases — for instance when the coat has become matted (turning into actual felt), or is otherwise impossible to detangle with brushes and combs," explains Jessica Russo, professional groomer. "In any case, close clipping should not be done during the hottest or coldest periods of the year, as the little dog would find itself 'exposed', with no protection against the cold or, conversely, against the heat."
Caution is therefore essential: a dog clipped in the blazing summer heat could even suffer sunburn or heatstroke, seriously compromising its health. "The coat performs a vitally important thermoregulatory function. It protects against the heat in summer and does the same in winter, shielding our four-legged friend from the rigours of cold weather," Jessica Russo continues. In the event of clipping, the advice is always to use a little jumper in winter until the coat reaches 2–3 cm in length, while in summer a light cotton T-shirt becomes essential to protect the animal from the sun's rays.
Coat care is very important in almost all types of dog, and even short-coated dogs occasionally need a good brush or a bath, especially during shedding periods. "If you can't manage on your own, it is best to turn to a professional groomer who will know how to handle your dog's coat, getting it used from puppyhood to being handled, washed and groomed. Grooming does not mean clipping; it means creating a kind of outfit for the animal. And it is as if the groomer were a fashion designer who shapes the subject's appearance — with their own imagination for mixed breeds, and following the standard and the various techniques that define it for pedigree breeds," the expert concludes.
Cuts can now be carried out in two ways: scissors only, since certain coat types do not regrow if cut aggressively (on the miniature German Spitz, for example, the clipper is strictly forbidden), or a combination of clipper and scissors (on the Maltese, for instance, or the Yorkshire Terrier and the Poodle).
But what are the tools needed to groom our four-legged friend as well as possible? Essentially, the items you should never be without are not many. There is the comb — available in metal, the most widely used and recommended by groomers, and in plastic, which often breaks easily — and there is the brush, a complement never to be forgotten for a truly top-quality groom.
Whatever material a comb is made of, it is absolutely essential and fundamental for the perfect grooming of a dog. It is important to notice how the teeth of this tool are made: they must always be rounded both at the tip and in cross-section, to avoid tearing the dog's coat or skin. All dogs need a wide-tooth comb with teeth at least 2 millimetres apart; breeds with denser coats and those with a coat prone to knots and tangles also need a finer-tooth comb to detangle the coat perfectly. The wide-tooth comb is used by working it deep into the coat to loosen the larger knots and tangles in the outer coat. The finer-tooth comb, on the other hand, is used to separate the undercoat as well and lift out all the dead hair that has built up over time. You should never pull hard during the process, so as to avoid hurting the dog.
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For daily grooming the most commonly used tool is nonetheless the stiff-bristle brush. This implement is indispensable in longer-coated breeds for giving an already-combed dog a quick tidy-up after a run or a walk. The bristles of the brush must be long enough to reach the skin through the coat; the wrong or unsuitable brush can even cause knots to form. Short, densely packed bristle brushes are ideal for short-coated breeds: to brush a dog with this type of coat, follow the natural direction of the hair, working from the head backwards towards the tail. If the dog has long hair, a brush with longer, more widely spaced bristles — normally set in a rubber base — is required instead. Professional groomers are always wary of synthetic-bristle brushes because they generate too much static electricity and often cause the coat to break. It is therefore always better to buy an authentic-bristle brush for daily grooming, taking advice from your trusted groomer.