Does your dog have a snazzy Christmas Outfit or wear a harness out walking?
While dressing up your pawesome pooch is absolutely fine (and let's be honest, necessary to match the family's Christmas jumpers!) you must make sure that once you take off their outfit, you take the time to brush out their coat. This is the same for doggies that wear a harness out on their winter walkies.
These types of tighter fitting apparel can move the coat around a lot as your dog moves and causes the hair to begin matting. So best practise is once you pop off the outfit or harness, just using your slicker brush (if you don't have one, we sell them on our website or in the salon for an early Christmas gift!). Just brush out those areas most affected each time you take the item off, under the armpits, chest neck and face. This will prevent mats for longer while you are in between grooms and will mean your dog will be able to keep their hair longer through the winter and no shave downs, especially in these high-risk areas.
Does your dog shed so much your hoover sighs?
If you have a dog that sheds all the time even through Winter, you will want to help their coat throughout the Winter months between their grooms. If left on longer or double coated dogs, this can become impacted and cause great discomfort to your dog as they can no longer regulate their body temperature and could overheat or not be able to warm up. For both long, double coated or short flat coated shedders, leaving the hair over winter can cause skin issues, itchiness and irritations as the skin and dead hair isn't removed, can get trapped, trap dirt and dander, causing uncomfortable, sensitive skin.
So what can you do? At least a few times a week make sure you're brushing your dog all over, paying particular attention to the harder to reach areas where trouble can really build; armpits, groin, around the butt. For the longer double coated breeds (such as GSD, Malamute, Corgi, Newfoundland) you want to use a slicker brush with long pins and/or a metal comb to remove undercoat and release dead hair and skin cells.
For shorter flatter coats you want to use a rubber curry comb which glides over the coat taking out the dead hairs and letting air get to the skin. We sell both brush types online or in the salon.
What to do going forward
While enjoying the winter festivities and fun and doing your own extra care at home of your dog's coat with brushing and looking after their paws with paw balm (made by and also sold by us!), it's important to look ahead. While the salon is currently fully booked until the new year, it's important not to wait until the new year, then book your space! As waiting will mean others book in first and instead of being available in January, you'll instead be looking at February, and so on. So, before you get swept up in the Christmas festivities and fun with family & friends head over and book your dog's New Year groom in now, while you are thinking about it and before the spaces are booked in advance by other owners!
Don't forget to make sure you are also following us on Facebook and Instagram, as any last-minute cancellations are advertised here and get snapped up fast! But there could be some pop up before the end of the year, so book your New Year groom now, and if your dog needs it sooner, then jump onto one of our posts if a closer booking becomes available, that way you definitely have an appointment either way.
Even more to come from Ruff to Puff Grooming Salon!!
We have a special new add-on that we are very excited to be introducing in the New Year! A Spa special - skin & hair nourishing, mud! Thats right! Mud! We have been testing it on a few of our dog's and a few of their different coat types and we LOVE this product! So, keep your eyes peeled for more information on this new treatment on our socials! And don't worry, if you book your dog's groom in advance for Jan/Feb, and you see the products release online, just send us a message and we can add it on for you!
Merry Christmas to you all! See you in 2023! x
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