Grooming helps keep hair from being matted and encrusted, helps keeps bugs like nasty ticks out of your home and off Fido, and helps keep not only your pet clean but your home, too. Removing loose hairs before they fall all over your carpet and furniture can be a blessing to your housekeeper, spouse, you… and / or whoever does the cleaning regularly.

And good skin care helps keep the dog from getting irritated and itchy, with possible rashes and other skin infections breaking out. Avoid needing trips to the vet by being proactive with a regular skin care regimen.

Grooming and Skin Care Tips

To help with your pet care, here are some tips of the pet trade:

Shampoo & Conditioner

Make your own hair treatments with household items. You can add a little Aloe Vera gel with plain old tap water work to wash your dog.  Simply mix this in your hands and apply it to the dog’s dry coat. For more lather, add a little baby shampoo and continue to rub into dog’s fur gently.   Or, you can also use specially formulated dog grooming shampoo, which works a little better.

For conditioner, you can add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar into a pint of warm water. Then work this solution into your dog’s coat.  When done, rinse with warm water.   Or, as above, you can use a special dog conditioner, which is available at most good online pet stores.

This is as good a place as any to bring out the dog treat jars as your dog has earned a nice break. Reward Fido for good bath behavior.

Then invite your dog to dry off with some fresh towels, large beach towels work great. There’s also special dog grooming towels which hold a little more water than normal beach towels.  And while it is drying, clean his resting places, too. Wash all dog beds so that your clean dogs stays that way as long as possible.

Skin Care

Believe it or not, dogs suffer from allergies and dry skin, just as humans do. Allergies can actually contribute to dry skin, as can a dry home environment or even a poor diet.  Regardless of how the skin becomes irritated, a home remedy is to poor cooled chamomile tea (that was boiled earlier) on your dog’s coat.

For tougher cases, you may gently rub a little olive oil over the pet’s irritated then wipe off the residue with a clean rag or paper towel.

For unused portions of any grooming products and skin care treatments, use sturdy, affordable dog food storage containers in closed cabinets or closets. Note the date on a piece of tape or label for the containers, for safety.

Note that you do need to provide skin protection from the sun for Fideo, too. The sun can damage your dog’s skin and self, just as is does to humans. So you can:

1)    Provide shaded areas
2)    Provide plenty of water for drinking throughout the day
3)    Place a t-shirt or other light-weight covering on your dog
4)    Give your dog a cool bath with baking soda in the water
5)    Turn on your sprinkler or hose to cool off the dog

You can also head to your local drug store or grocery store with a pharmacy area. Pick up some generic witch hazel for about $1 or so. Then mix small amounts with water, and gently wipe on your dog with a wash cloth. The recipe is:

1 part witch hazel
2 parts water

Time for you and your dog to get to work now. Make your dog and yourself happy with good grooming and skin care!

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