Things To Know About Clipping A Dog

What You Need To Know About Clipping A Dog

There are plenty of dog owners out there who know nothing about clipping a dog and for a lot who do know about it a lot will think of it like servicing the car or fixing the air conditioner but the reality is you are dealing with an animal and it is a skillful art rather than a simple mechanical type of job.

When you are dealing with live animals like dogs you can’t behave the same as you would with some inanimate object. It is more like looking after your children so take the greatest of care and never try to rush things.

If you are about to start clipping a dogs coat or trimming your dogs nails you need to be very careful to avoid any injuries or damage to your dog to either the skin or his nails. Not all dogs require clipping but the breed characteristics will usually dictate the way that your dogs coat should be clipped. You need to be thorough and go over the whole coat to avoid skin diseases and infection where the old coat has trapped dirt and debris close to the skin.

Bathing your dog before clipping may make the job of trimming your dogs coat easier but make sure his coat is dry before you begin the dog clipping process. When the hair is clean it should cut more easiliy and this makes it easier for you to get your coat trimming right. By clipping a clean coat there will be fewer parasitic insects and bugs in the trimmed coat to reinfect your dog later on. If you are unsure how to go about clipping your dog in a proper and professional way there are plenty of pet health parlors where they will gladly do the clipping and you can usually watch to see how it is done.

There are two simple rules for dog clipping and the first should be obvious. You should always use sharp clippers because blunt clippers will catch and pull the hair and make your dog very uncomfortable but it also makes the whole job of dog clipping much more difficult for you so always use sharp dog hair clippers.

The second rule is to be aware that by clipping your dog you are removing some of his protection from the cold and the weather. If you cut your dogs coat too short in the winter months he may suffer from the cold and could even become ill. So clip in spring rather than mid winter.

The clipping of dog nails should be carried out with great care. Cutting too far back can cause your dog a lot of pain but simply trimming the pointed end should be fine. You can often see the blood vessels in the back part of the nail in the lighter colored dog nails so be sure to stay well away from this area when trimming your dogs nails.

Make sure you use good quality dog coat and nail clippers. Cheap ones may not be sharp enough or last very long and if you plan to have your dog for many years good quality dog clipper are likely to last much longer.