It may not be something you are thinking about when you first bring your furry little bundle of joy home. After all, puppies don’t (usually) need a bath or nail trim right away, or even their teeth brushed.
However, if you start young, grooming can become a quick, painless activity, that some dogs even come to enjoy. But, you need to work on it often (every day for just a minute or two is best!) and you have to be careful to make sure each session is positive. One bad experience can stay with your puppy the rest of his life.
Did you just adopt an adult dog? All of these methods can be used on any dog at any age that needs help getting used to this type of handling.
How to Get Your Puppy Use To Grooming
Getting Puppy Used To Handling
You are going to start with handling. Get your puppy used to being touched all over. Be sure to pay particular attention to the following areas, which can be trouble spots:
- Paws
- Ears
- Belly
- Tail
- Mouth (lifting up lips to expose teeth)
To desensitize your puppy to being touched all over, have a bunch of treats handy (you can use his breakfast or dinner for this!!).
Start by just moving toward those ears, rewarding your dog if he doesn’t run or shy away from you. If he does move away, then you know you have found a sensitive area and you need to start with your hand further away.
Move your hand away until your dog stops moving. You have found the “line” for his space bubble. Reward him a couple times for not moving when you reach your hand to that point, and then try to move your hand just a tiny bit closer. He shouldn’t move this time. Keep moving closer in small steps, all the while rewards.
REMEMBER! Do this in short sessions! Long sessions can stress out your dog and they will hit a point there say “enough!” and you do not want that. You want the entire session to be positive!
Keep working on this until you can touch your puppy all over.
Progress to rubbing your puppy all over (this will help get him used to a towel after a bath).
Getting Puppy Used to Nail Trims
Follow the same methods outlined above for handling. After you have desensitized him to paw touch, work on building up to squeezing the pad and toes gently, to get them used to the squeeze of the trimmers.
Start by trimming just one nail at a time and giving your puppy a break. Give him a treat, play with them, and then go back to another nail later that day, or even the next day.
At this point, you are just doing tiny trims since his nails probably don’t really need it, it’s just to get him used to the feeling and to associate nail trims with something positive.
Getting Puppy Used To A Brush
Next, you are going to use the same method with a brush. This is especially important for puppies that will grow up to need constant grooming (or if you want to pass the Canine Good Citizen Test!).
A few tips about the brush:
- Be careful to not brush hard!
- If your puppy has longer fur that tangles, be sure to not pull a knot and hurt him (negative association with grooming!). If he has a tangle, it’s better to cut it out at this point, unless you can carefully comb it out without pulling on his skin.
Once your puppy is fine with gentle grooming, you can work on gentle tugs on his fur. Why? A couple reasons:
- Kids often grab dogs with long hair and pull, not on purpose, but it happens. If you desensitize your dog to soft tugs, they will be less likely to bite a kid that accidently pulls on their hair.
- It will make it easier to comb out those mats later.
Do not tug hard! We are not trying to get your dog “used to” abuse or anything of the sort. Just a slight gentle tug, which may be uncomfortable but not painful!
Getting Puppy Used to Teeth Brushing
While your puppy may not need this right now, he will. Getting him used to it as a puppy will not only make your life easier, but your vet will thank you for it because it will make examining his teeth and mouth easier.
To start, just give your puppy a dog toothbrush to explore while you hold it. He may even chew on it a bit. That’s okay, you just want him to check it out. Reward him for checking it out and not being afraid.
Make sure you get a puppy toothbrush, they are softer and smaller.
*For very small puppies, you may just want to use your finger and a finger brush, or just your finger alone. If you are using your finger, obviously don’t let him chew that!
Since you did your handling work above, your puppy should be fine with you lifting his lips. The yummy toothpaste should make this part fairly easy (you may want to test out different flavors before starting your training to see if your puppy prefers one over the other.)
Next, gently brush over your puppy’s teeth with the brush. At this point, you are not really trying to clean his teeth, you are just getting him used to you sticking something in his mouth. Start in the easy spots, like the front teeth and the canines.
REMEMBER! Short sessions! Just a minute is enough of this – or even less! You don’t want him to get stressed!
Slowly work up to getting that brush in the back of the mouth (if it fits comfortably, if not, you may have to wait until your puppy gets a bit bigger. Shoving a large toothbrush in the back of his mouth is not going to give him a positive vibe about this. Instead, you can use a cotton swab just to get him used you doing those back teeth.
Afterward, reward him with a chew or a treat!
Getting Puppy Used To A Bath
Bath time might be the worst time for many dog owners. However, if you have done all the above work, you are 90% of the way there. Your puppy will be used to you handling him everywhere, grooming him, doing his nails, and even brushing his teeth.
So, all that’s really left is the water!
Start by putting your puppy just an inch of standing water (that big sprayer can be scary!) Give him treats, play with a rubber ball, etc., and then let him out – no full bath just yet.
Have the water lukewarm – not too cold, not too warm. Dog unhappy? Try adjusting the temperature! I have one dog that is very heat sensitive and prefers cooler baths than my other dogs.
Continue this until your puppy is comfortable in about 3-4” inches of water (unless he is super tiny, then keep it to about 2” – you don’t want him to feel like he needs to swim).
Now that water is not a bad thing, you can work on using the sprayer (if you wish). It’s helpful to have a second person for this.
- The one person is going to turn the sprayer on low, pointed away from the puppy. The other is going to treat the puppy for being calm. After a few seconds, several treats, turn off the sprayer and stop treating.
- Do this until your dog seems to not care about the sprayer. He may even go to investigate, since you have been pairing it with treats – this is good! If he does this, continue to give him treats and praise him.
- Next, have your helper slowly bring the sprayer over to your puppy (if he hasn’t already gone over to it himself), while you treat him. Start by just spraying his legs, being careful not spray his eyes.
- Progress to giving a full bath, still giving treats!
Follow these instructions and you will have a more well-behaved puppy that actually enjoys grooming time! Won’t your friends at the dog park be jealous?!
