Dog Grooming Supplies Part 1 – Bathing

At some point in owning a dog, you’ll definitely need some dog grooming supplies. It’s all part of keeping your dog healthy!

In this two-part series, I’ll focus on the basics of bathing in this post and brushing and combing in the following post.

It can be pretty overwhelming to walk down the grooming aisle of one of those super-pet stores. There are a thousand different combs, brushes, shampoos, conditioners…even perfumes!  When choosing your dog grooming supplies, it pays to simply stick to the basics.

Bathing

Normally a dog will only need to given a bath twice a year, or every few months.  Unless the dog has gotten into something bad-smelling or has a skin or coat condition that requires more frequent bathing, it’s better to limit baths to as few as possible.  One of the reasons for this is that frequent bathing will dry out the skin and the oil glands will begin to over-produce oil to replace what was lost in the bathing process.  So then you bathe your dog to get rid of the doggy smell the overproduction of oil is causing.  It can be a vicious circle once started.

One of the dog grooming supplies you will need for bathing is, of course, shampoo.  I really like natural oatmeal shampoos because they are gentle yet effective and not overpowering with their scent. If your dog is a short-coated breed, you can stop after shampooing and rinsing well and towel them off and voila!  Clean doggie!

If you have a long, or rough-coated breed, you may want to look at some dog grooming supplies called coat conditioners or detanglers.  These act to smooth the cuticle of the hair, and will make the brush-out afterwards much easier!  Again, I recommend oatmeal-type conditioners because they are natural, effective, and will leave your dog smelling really fresh and clean.

Drying

After the bath, you can either towel dry your dog and let them air dry the rest of the way, or blow them dry with a hair dryer set on low.  Always keep the hair dryer moving though, and keep  it about 16 inches away from the skin at all times so as not to burn your dog.

When it comes to dog grooming supplies for after the bath, you’ll need a comb, brush, and a small pair of blunt-edged scissors for trimming.  We’ll talk about these in my next post!