Who takes the time to groom their dogs here? Do they submit to it without a fight or do they wrestle with you defiantly?
I have two Shih Tzus. One, I raised since she was a pup and the other is actually my sister's dog who I now take care of. The female one is quite easy to groom. All she needs to see is some collateral. And when I say collateral, I mean treats. Once she smells those biscuits, she'll allow me to comb her fur, clip it and cut the fur on her nose.
On another hand, the male Shih Tzu is the complete opposite. I couldn't blame him, though. He's been subjected to clipper cuts from the groomer and probably a loud and annoying help who used to do this for my sister. Back when I began grooming him, he would often snap at the clipper or my fingers. It's scary when he does this as I could damage his eyes while he keeps on squirming and snapping turtle.
I started grroming my dog when she was still a pup and thankfully she does not put up a fuss. She's pretty well behaved when I wash and comb her fur. I know she gets stressed though because everytime we finish our grooming session she will need to poop and pee. It does not matter if she did those two things before we started grooming she'll still do it once grooming is finished.
None, actually. He bites groomers, like the ferocious 5kg beast he is(you know, like the bunny in that Holy Grail sketch by Monty Python) and they actually had to muzzle him, but not me. He's very submissive. He does try to hide when I try to pull his ear hair out(the vet advised me to do it), but otherwise he'll just subject to whatever I do to him. His case is a bit extreme, but in general, dogs should submit to grooming. If they don't, your role as the dominant alpha has likely not been fully established. Fortunately, the grooming in itself helps in that direction.
(04-15-2013, 09:45 AM)RiF Wrote: None, actually. He bites groomers, like the ferocious 5kg beast he is(you know, like the bunny in that Holy Grail sketch by Monty Python) and they actually had to muzzle him, but not me. He's very submissive. He does try to hide when I try to pull his ear hair out(the vet advised me to do it), but otherwise he'll just subject to whatever I do to him. His case is a bit extreme, but in general, dogs should submit to grooming. If they don't, your role as the dominant alpha has likely not been fully established. Fortunately, the grooming in itself helps in that direction.
That is indeed odd. My Shih Tzu gets mad at the person who used to groom him. She was a household help. But when it comes to groomers, he's like an angel. It's weird.
When I leave him with other people, he doesn't exhibit the dominant behavior. But when it's that other person, he'll growl at the clippers and every other grooming tool that's used at him.
He's not a dog who's a big fan of treats so it figures that making him enjoy the grooming experience is still a challenge for me. 5kg? Sounds like a heavy dog, what breed is he? A Schnauzer?
We never took our dogs to a groomer. It is not something, which ever even occurred to any of us. If any of us had thought of it, we would probably have regarded it as too expensive anyway. There was a groomer quite near to us, which had humourously called itself, "Doggy Style". Nonetheless, we did not take either of our dogs to them or anyone else. One of our dogs had a very short coat anyway. As a result, it would never have been necessary to take her to a groomer or for anyone to trim her coat. She was a Basenji. Besides, she was so aggressive she would probably never have let anyone near her to try to do anything like that. With scissors around, it would have been too dangerous both for her and anyone around her. I suppose we could have taken the other dog. She was a Collie-Labrador cross and had a much thicker coat. She was much more docile and would probably have enjoyed the attention, to be honest. However, since we would have regarded it as largely cosmetic, the idea never even arose.
Do any of you guys ever trim the hair between their pads on their feet? I can't remember what I heard about it, it makes their nails grow less fast perhaps? I think that's what I heard, although I'm not exactly sure why that would be. I know it can help them not slide around so much on hard surfaces. In the winter, it can help stop ice/snow from collecting on their feet too. I don't trim mine's often, she doesn't get too shaggy between her toes, but once in a while I trim it back a bit.
