Best 10 Tips on Cleaning and Grooming your Dog’s Hair

How to Take Knots Out of Dog Hair

Tired of the knots on your dog’s matted hair? Want to know how to properly groom and take care of your dog’s hair?

Here are the Best 10 Tips on how to properly clean and groom your dog’s hair. They include a pro groomer’s tips on how to properly bathe a dog and how to remove and keep your dog’s hair from forming knots.

Also included are the top 5 best products on Amazon that you can use in taking care of your dog’s hair.

Let’s admit it. Being a fur parent isn’t always an easy thing to do, especially when cleaning and grooming your dog’s hair.

Knowing how to properly groom and bathe your dog is essential to keep it clean and healthy and help maintain a good environment.

Best 10 Tips on Cleaning and Grooming your Dog’s Hair

Bathe your dog at least twice a month or as often as necessary. 

Bathing is a very important process in general pet care. Depending on your dog’s breed and needs is how often bathing it should be done.

Bathing your dog helps remove unpleasant odor and dirt from your dog’s hair that could cause skin irritation and improves its hair quality.

This will also prevent your dog’s hair from forming knots, especially when used with good quality shampoo, conditioner, and other dog hair products.

Pro Groomers Tips on How to Properly Bathe a Dog

• Train your dog to enjoy bath time. Training your puppy or dog to enjoy bath time would help it familiarize the routine and help train them to stay calm and be comfortable while bathing.

• Mix the shampoo with water so it would be easier to spread it on your dog’s fur. This will also help save you some time and money.

• Use a very soft brush, and make sure to scrub gently but thoroughly those parts of your dog that dirt will most likely be hidden like between your dog’s toes, behind your dog’s tail, etc. On washing your dog’s face, gently put shampoo but make sure you don’t get it into its eyes. You may also want to use a washcloth in doing this instead of using a soft brush.

• Shampoo your dog twice.

• Use conditioner to help soften your dog’s hair and prevent your dog from getting skin irritations from being too dry. This way, it would also be much easier to brush it when it’s dry.

• Rinse your dog well until there is no more shampoo and conditioner left on its hair.

• Use cotton balls to clean your dog’s ears as gently as you can.

• Reward your dog with treats for its calm behavior during bathing time. This will help your dog associate bathing with positive things such as being rewarded by its favorite treat.

  Dry your dog well every time after taking a bath.

While bathing is an essential step, drying is equally as important. This is probably one of the most frequently missed out tips in general pet care.

Drying your pet well every after a bath makes sure it doesn’t catch any more dirt. Make sure to dry your dog well using a clean towel every after a bath.

You might also want to blow-dry your pet, especially for long-haired breeds. If you have a short-haired dog, you can skip this process of blow-drying.

However, you must use a hairdryer specially designed for dogs as the typical human blower might actually harm your pet.

Dogs have much more sensitive skin than humans, and using the ordinary blower might burn them if the temperature is set too high.

Brush your dog’s hair regularly.

Brushing your dog’s hair regularly will help keep your dog’s hair smooth and shiny, but most importantly, free from knots which is the most annoying part of maintaining your dog’s hair.

Brushing also helps your dog’s hair produce healthy natural skin oils, making its coat look shinier and fluffier.

Most dogs will also benefit from brushing as some stress reliever and strengthening the bond between the dog and its owner.

Trim excess hair.

Just like us humans, dogs also benefit a lot from hair trimming done every once in a while. Of course, this depends on what kind of breed your dog is.

Hairy dogs and those that grow long hair breeds like Shih Tzu, Afgan Hound, etc., need to have their hair trimmed more often to prevent them from carrying around heavy matted coats.

That will hinder them from living comfortably and might cause them pain. When that happens, the knots on your dog’s hair would not only burden itself but you, as its owner, as well.

Make sure to take the knots out of your dog’s hair.

Matted dog coats and knots form from lack of proper maintenance on your dog’s hair like brushing. Poor dog hygiene can lead them to suffer the consequences later on.

Knots on your dog’s hair can eventually cause skin irritation, can be hideouts for parasites like ticks and fleas, and in worse cases, becomes very tight to the skin. This can prevent proper airflow for your dog.

That is why you must take the knots out of your dog’s hair as soon as you notice any of it forming. But doing this is not always as easy as it sounds.

Some dog breeds just make it very hard, sometimes impossible, to untangle and take the knots out, especially when the case has already gone worse. Below are some steps you can take to take the knots out of your dog’s hair.

How to Take Knots Out of Dog Hair

• Use a detangling conditioner spray and try to loosen up the knots using your fingers.

• Once the knots have softened, slowly brush that tangled portion.

• Hold the knot’s base with your hand and try to brush as carefully as possible to make sure that you don’t hurt your dog by pulling so much on trying to detangle its hair.

• Take as many short breaks as you can and give your dog plenty of treats.

• Don’t use scissors to cut out your dog’s knots! It is very important to understand that using scissors to take the knots out of your dog’s hair might do them more harm than good as this might lead you to accidentally wound your dog. Consider using proper grooming clippers instead.

• If severe matting, it would be best to take your dog to a professional groomer instead. This will help you save more time and spare you from any disaster far worse than the knots on your dog.

  Provide your dog with quality food and healthy treats.

Good nutrition is essential for your dog for it to grow healthy and active throughout its life.

Providing your dog with quality food that contains the right amount of nutrition it needs will help them achieve their optimal health.

And it will manifest in their physical features like growing healthy and fluffier coats.

It is also important to make sure to avoid potentially harmful ingredients and limit artificial preservatives that might cause your dog to suffer in the long run.

Protect your dog against parasites.

Another way of taking care not only of your dog’s hair but its overall health is providing it ample protection against both internal and external parasites.

We all know that dogs can pick up parasites in so many different ways: from their food to the environment they live in.

The most common example we have are ticks and fleas.

Tick and fleas may cause skin irritation due to constant scratching and biting of your dog. It may not only compromise its health but as well as damage its hair.

Ensure proper sanitation with your dog and talk to your veterinarian on what other ways you can take to help prevent parasites from infesting your dog.

Use the right kind of hair grooming products.

Above all, knowing what kind of products to use best is the top-secret in cleaning and grooming your dog’s hair.

Below are the top 5 best products on Amazon that you can use to in taking care of your dog’s hair:

Vetnique Fur Bliss Dog Brush 

– can be used as a bathing brush to make sure your dog’s hair is well-brushed from dirt and can help remove tangled hair before they turn into locks.
https://amzn.to/3cv9WwT

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Hertzko Self-Cleaning Slicker Brush 

– most highly-recommend hairbrush to remove locks and mats out of your dog and prevent it from coming back.

https://amzn.to/3liO3od

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Oniesall Dog Shaver Clippers 

– designed to make hair-trimming for your dog more convenient and safer. This low-noise rechargeable shaver clipper is perfect for taking care of your dog’s hair to keep it at the right length and to keep the mats out.

https://amzn.to/2Q6q3cD

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iPettie Pet Hair Dryer 

– safe-to-use dog hairdryer.

https://amzn.to/3lh9ENT

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Warren London Hydrating Butter Leave-in-Dog Conditioner

– used to leave dog’s hair soft and hydrated, works like a moisturizer for dogs.

https://amzn.to/2NjoRSf

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To Learn More Grooming Products For Dogs, Click Here: 7 Grooming Products For Dogs

Find a professional groomer you can trust around your neighborhood.

Make sure you find a go-to professional groomer around your neighborhood who you can trust and who is capable of maintaining your dog’s hair.

Sometimes, it’s just harder for us to be doing all the work by ourselves in maintaining our dogs’ hair. When things go terrible, it’s a much safer option to save the work for the professionals to deal with.

Talk to your vet.

Trust me when I say that your vet will always know what is best for your dog, from parasite-protection down to a proper diet plan for your dog.

Make sure to have your dog regularly checked by its veterinarian. Keeping your dog at its best health will have so much to do not only in taking care of its hair but its general health as well.

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Author

Kathlene Han

Kathlene Han is a writer, a musician, and a full-time dog mom. She often writes about things she’s most passionate about like relationships, adventures, being a fur-parent, and is an advocate of mental health awareness.