Grooming is an essential practice for Newfoundland dog owners. When you have a newfie puppy you can begin to train it for grooming right away. Doing so early in the dogs life will keep it practicing these habits throughout it’s lifetime. Follow these simple steps for groom training your newfoundland dog.
Groom Training A Newfie Puppy
Get into the habit of laying your puppy on it’s side and brushing it. This will teach him to lay still and let the task happen. If doing so daily and compassionately this is a good way to also bond with your pooch. Mats can develop behind the dogs ears and this area is sensitive to brushing. Familiarise your puppy with the tools, actions and sounds they make. Brushing the dog then becomes a joyful habit for both the dog and pet owner. Daily or every other day brushing will keep it’s coat in good condition and help dissuade shedding.
The paws on a dog can be sensitive to human touch if they’ve never experienced someone holding or touching their feet. You don’t have to prevent them from pulling away totally, just desensitize them to touch. Get your dog to let you touch it’s foot, toes and bottom pads without too much resistance. This will come in handy when attempting to trim hair from the pads or cut toe nails.
How would you like it if all of the sudden someone came up and shoved a cold, wet cotton ball in your ear? Don’t they call them “wet willie’s”? It would startle a human and it’s no different for dogs. When attempting to clean a puppies ears you should first get them comfortable with you touching their ear. You can wipe inside the ear with a dry cotton ball. A second or third try should be damp with ear cleaning solution but not saturated. Getting too much solution in the dogs ear will cause it to shake it’s head. The ears, like the feet, are a sensitive personal area to dogs.
Due to their size and mass of the coat it takes a long time to thoroughly dry a newfoundland dog. Even when using a professional dog dryer this task can eat time. This causes the puppy to have to sit or lay down for long periods of time while drying. If you’ve taught your puppy to lay down for brushing it’s easy to get him trained to also lay down for drying. The big piece is getting the dog comfortable with the noise and earning the trust so it submits to the laying down.
Newfoundland dogs grow to be 100-150 lb adult dogs covered in a big fur coat. Keeping them clean is important and groom training them while puppies will help them be less troublesome to handle for grooming as adults. Pet owners can make grooming a good experience for dogs by familiarising them with the sounds, scents and touch that comes with it. Your dog will be less apt to be a problem in the grooming salon if trained early in life.
If you are considering taking your puppy for a groom, check out our review of Pets At Home Groom Room
