HOW TO GROOM YOUR PUG Katie Wilkinson VN MBVNA City and Guilds Level 3 Grooming
2 Contents How to Groom Your Pug Page 3 Necessary Equipment for Grooming Your Pug Page 4 Eyes Page 5 Ears Page 6 Nails Page 7 Brushing Page 8-9 Bathing Page 10-11 Shaving Page 12 Shedding Page 13 Furminators Page 14 Anal Glands Page 15
3 How to Groom Your Pug Despite the fact that the pug is a short coated breed of dog we all know just how much these dogs shed fur. Pugs are effectively double coated which means they have a soft downy undercoat and longer silkier guard hairs on top. It seems to me that the fawns shed more than the blacks, but that may not always be the case. Most dogs have their full adult coat once they reach two years of age, but neutering as well as diet, lifestyle and general health can effect this. Grooming your dog is important for a variety of reasons including relaxation (both of you!), bonding, health checking, coat maintenance and of course keeping on top of the dreading moulting.
4 Necessary Equipment for Grooming Your Pug. (Assuming you are washing your pug as well) 1. Pin Brush. 2. Greyhound comb. 3. Curry Comb. 4. Nail Clippers. 5. Malacetic wipes. 6. Shampoo of choice. 7. Hair Dryer. Begin your groom by cleaning the folds on your puggies face. I like to use Malacetic wipes as they are mildly anti fungal and bacterial. Always wipe from the nose down and outwards towards the mouth, applying gentle pressure down into the fold. Turn the wipe so that each part isn t used more than once, preventing cross infection. You may need to part the folds with your fingers. Some people successfully use baby wipes but please bear in mind that dogs skin is not the same ph as ours and also that dogs only have three layers of skin compared to our seven so they may cause irritation.
5 Eyes Only ever use cotton wool soaked in warm water. Clean from the corner of the eye outwards. If there is persistent eye goo, soak the solid mass with the damp cotton wool before gently trying to remove. Use a separate piece of cotton wool for each eye to prevent cross infection.
6 Ears Again for this you can use Malacetic wipes, or warm water soaked cotton wool. Use a separate piece for each each. Only ever wipe around the ear leather, never poke anything down the ear canal. You can buy proprietary ear cleaning drops which are designed to go inside the ear canal itself please follow manufacturers instructions when using these items.
7 Nails If you are feeling brave (!) trimming your pug s nails may be a necessary evil. Pugs are notorious for turning into devil dogs at the sight of the clippers. Personally I would ask your groomer to do it for you or your vet. A dog that takes walks on hard ground will most likely wear down their nails naturally. I like to use Doggyman clippers as they are virtually silent, man enough for the job, but not big enough to amputate a toe! The diagram below shows where to aim for so you avoid cutting the quick. If you do cut the quick try pushing the nail into a bar of soap, applying flour or sugar or using a product such as Trimmex designed to stem blood flow painlessly.
8 Brushing The next step is to begin brushing. Always start with the pin brush. You may not feel you are removing much coat but the purpose of pin brushing to to open out the coat. Remember this coat has been compacting down since its last brush so it needs loosening up. This allows the curry comb and the greyhound comb to do their job properly. Its tempting to dive straight in with a curry comb but you will get better results from pin brushing first. Brush puggie all over. Then move on to your curry comb. The best one for this job is a Furminator Curry Comb (more on original Furminators later!)
9 Again, brush puggie all over removing dead hair from the comb as it builds up. Finally run a greyhound comb over puggie. Your comb should run freely through the fur combing out minimal hairs. If it hits a glitch, go back to your curry comb, or even your pin brush.
10 Bathing Next for the bath. Again please use a shampoo that is designed for dogs. Human shampoos including baby shampoos are designed for humans with different ph levels and skin layers to dogs. Follow the dilution rates on the bottle, more shampoo will not make your dog any cleaner but will run the risk of irritating your dogs skin. Or better still use a soap bar product like PugWash bar available from www.bettyandbutch.co.uk and you wont have to worry about dilution rates.
11 Make sure you rinse thoroughly. The coat should be squeaky clean in your hands. A clean coat will shine when its dry and skin wont get irritated by shampoo residue. If your pug will tolerate it, drying your pug with a hairdryer is ideal. Its best if you can brush at the same time as this will stimulate the natural oil production in the skin and coat helping to replace those lost during the washing process, as well as removing any hairs that have come loose during the wash. Be sure to place your hand on the dog s coat periodically in the same location as the stream of air from the hairdryer... if its too hot for your hand its too hot for the dog. Finally release dog from grooming session. Keep puggie away from puddles, fox poo and rubbish bins. Good luck!
12 Shaving your Pug As a groomer I do get asked for this on occasion and unless there is a veterinary diagnosed reason for it, I will not do it. A dog s top coat takes longer to grow than the soft undercoat. The top coat will rise and fall in response to temperature, just like the hair on our arms, thus keeping the dog cool in summer and warm in winter. It also repels water, the suns rays and allows foliage to stick to it. When you clip a dogs coat you are removing the protective top layer as well as cutting into the fluffy insulating layer underneath. Once removed, the undercoat, which grows the quickest, goes into overdrive producing a lot of fluffy downy fur in an attempt to compensate for lack of top coat. So now we have a dog with nothing but prolific quantities of fluff, unable to reflect the suns rays and deflect water. This type of coat holds water like a sponge, leaving your dog cold and damp for hours. It holds onto every burr and will not protect against the suns rays. This over production of undercoat is called coat-funk and around four weeks post clipping your dog will begin to look like a woolly mammoth and will need clipping again and of course, that undercoat will still be shedding. In time your dogs coat will end up looking as per the picture below.
13 Shedding The long and short of it (see what I did there?!) is that a good groom either by you or at a salon should reduce the shedding in your house for at least two weeks but sadly nothing will prevent it from happening as it is part of the natural cycle of hair growth.
14 Furminators If you have ever used a Furminator you were probably very pleased with the results. A big pile of hair at your feet. There is a place for these tools but they are effectively a blade with teeth. Although you will be combing out some dead hair the majority of that removed is cut out by the blade. When I first used these in veterinary practice I was very impressed with the results, but not a week later when I removed the exact same size pile of fur again. I know now this is because I was simply cutting potentially healthy fur away instead of removing dead hair. Please also take care not to press too hard over bony areas such as shoulder blades as it is easy to graze skin.
15 Anal Glands Anal glands should not need to be manually emptied on a regular basis. However, our little puglets are predisposed to anal gland problems in which case they will need emptying. According to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons groomers are no longer allowed to carry out this task. However, your vet will be able to show you as the owner of the dog how to do it safely.