Grooming
Yorkies!
The
grooming tips contained herein are geared toward the Yorkie owner that uses a
Professional Groomer every six to eight weeks.
I completely groom all of my Yorkies">
Grooming
Yorkies! The
grooming tips contained herein are geared toward the Yorkie owner that uses a
Professional Groomer every six to eight weeks.
I completely groom all of my Yorkies, but will not be covering the
actual clipping and trimming of the Yorkie coat! Grooming
Training! Regardless
of whether you plan on taking your Yorkie to a Professional Groomer or plan on
grooming him yourself, there are some basic grooming training steps you need to
teach the little Angel first! There
will be in between Professional Grooming chores you will need to do one-way or
the other. Grooming training should
begin immediately after your new puppy is comfortable in his new home within a
week or two. Start
by putting a heavy towel on top of your washer, a kitchen counter, a solid
table, or something similar. Have a few tiny little treats in your pocket.
You might try doing this before his meals and feed his kibble to him one
piece at a time. Stand
the puppy on the towel, holding him gently but firmly (wouldn't hurt to have his
harness on for an extra "handle"). Give him a little treat right away.
If he is uncooperative, keep standing him up and whenever he stands still for
even a split second, say "Good Boy!" and give him a treat. Do this for
a few minutes the first time, repeat several times a day for few minutes, and
gradually increase the time after a few days. Eventually he's going to start standing still for bits of
time anyway. Keep it up until he can stand several minutes while you pet and
talk to him. Once
you're making good progress on both fronts, you can put him on the table. When
he's standing on the "table" you can do the massaging, hands over the
entire body, lifting one foot at a time, handling toes and toenails, lifting his
tail, holding his head still while you handle his ears and head always short,
happy sessions with a gentle soothing voice and constant praise when he is
cooperative. In
Between Professional Groomings Bath
Time I
recommend a bath at least once every two weeks sometimes more often depending on
your Yorkie’s coat! If he is
dirty, give him a bath! Dirt is not
good! It will cause mats, tangles
and of course a stinky Yorkie! Brush
thoroughly through the entire coat! Any
mat or knot should be treated gently. Don't rip through the hair. Gently pick as
much apart with your fingers as you can and work from the ends up to get the mat
out. I use a metal comb gently, however a good mat rake may be
necessary if you Yorkie mats regularly, but daily brushing of the coat should
keeps mats and tangles at a minimum! When
the coat is brushed out, next I use an ear cleaning solution (any brand) in
their ears and gently with a q-tip and a baby wipe, clean them out. Do NOT stick the q-tip do too far down the ear canal!
If there is any hair in them, it must be removed. I prefer my fingers to
pluck out the hair, but sometimes the hair will be out of reach, a hemostat
works great but you can also use tweezers.
Those hairs have to go or your pup could get an ear infection.
If this is too much for you to handle, then have your Groomer or Vet do
it. The
next thing I do is brush their teeth before every bath. NEVER use human
toothpaste! Use doggie
toothpaste. You can also use teeth
cleaning pads. Regular Dental
care is important! Thoroughly
wet down the coat with warm water. Never
use human shampoo or conditioner on your Yorkies as the PH levels are different,
too harsh and could dry out you Yorkie’s skin and coat.
See my ABOUT US PAGE for my personal
recommendations for Coat Care products. Never
shampoo your Yorkie like you do yourself, he may love all the rubbing,
but his coat won't. Apply
the shampoo and gently work from the body down. Never rub the shampoo into the
hair to shampoo it. All that does is cause tangles and your dog isn't any
cleaner, just squeeze (don't rub) the shampoo through the coat, let it
soak a few minutes, rinse thoroughly and a LOT with a sprayer, always in the
direction his coat normally lays. Lift his tail and rinse, lift him up gently by
the front legs and rise his belly. I
often but not always use a diluted conditioner after the shampoo.
Again, be sure to rinse, rinse, rinse and rinse more! For
the face I'd stick to a warm soapy washcloth for the beard, and
"rinse" the same way. If you don't "scrub" him, the coat
won't get much more tangled than it is now anyway. Be sure to remove the eye goobers! Squeeze out the excess water and then wrap him in a towel for
a bit and let it absorb most the water without rubbing or heat. Toenails Drying
the Coat I
apply a no tangle spray to the entire coat and gently run a human plastic hair
pick through it to remove any tangles. I
have two hair dryers that I use on my babies.
A Professional Groomers dryer and a regular hand held human dryer.
Depending on the coat determines which dryer I use.
I dry the coat thoroughly but not completely on the medium heat setting
leaving it just very slightly damp as not to dry out the skin and coat from the
heat of the dryer. I aim the dryer
in the direction of the growth occasionally stopping the dryer, bushing or
combing the coat a bit and then starting the drying again.
I hope these
grooming tips have been somewhat helpful! If
you should have any questions or secret tips of your own that you would like to
share, please post them on our message board, join our Yorkie Club, or email me!
Remember, a clean Yorkie is a happy Yorkie and a happy Yorkie Mommy too! HUGS
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While you are in this training process, work elsewhere on handling his entire
body. The best time for this would be when he is having a nice little nap on you
lap! Start with his feet,
gently massaging his toes, gently handle and massage his ears, lift his tail,
stroking your hands all over his body, massaging under his eyes with your
fingers, massaging in and around the ear opening too. Use soothing words, a
happy voice, and treats for these things too. Keep sessions extremely short but
frequent. Keep at it until he lets you handle him pretty much as you wish
without panicking or fighting. If he fights, hold him firmly until he settles
down, then praise and set him down to play or whatever; don't ever let him
"win" by fighting you, only by pleasing you.
When you've done all this, perhaps you can enlist a friend to handle him the
same way, with your supervision, this may spook him a bit, so go at it slow and
easy just as when you first started yourself.
This whole process sounds like a lot, but with just a few minutes of work a day,
that within a couple weeks he'll be behaving pretty well on his
"table" with basic handling.
Ready for the Groomer
The first time or two should be a "puppy introduction to grooming"!
Whatever can be done with minimum stress and maximum "happy".
NO de-matting and NO owies. Provide
some micro-treats for your Groomer also. Be
sure to stress that to the Groomer! Don't
expect much in appearance. Maybe he'll get clipped a little, maybe he won't,
maybe he'll be patchy, whatever. Give the Groomer permission to clip or snip off
the mats if she can. The coat will
grow back and by the time it starts tangling again he'll be an old hand at
grooming. After all, you're setting
him up for a lifetime of easy grooming, so looking little "funny" for
a few weeks is not a big deal. Set the next groom for maybe a couple weeks, and
it may well take a third "baby" groom before he is used to the process
enough to go to a normal groom and schedule.
Once he's been clipped/snipped free of his mats, you can continue the
"table-training" at home, but adding a comb or brush, running it
gently all over his body, teeth against the skin, until he at least resigns
himself to that too, it will make it that much easier when enough hair grows
back in to actually comb. Shampoo
Time
I do this after bathing because the
toenails are softer and easier to trim. I
keep them wrapped up in the towel for better control.
Check the toenails, if they are too long, cut them. There are products
called "Kwik-Stop" or “Medi Styp”, be sure you have this on hand
prior to attempting any toenail clipping. If
they bleed, "don't panic", just
dab a little of the powder on the toenail and it stops the bleeding right away.
A good guide is the curve in the nail. I hold the clippers flat against the
upper part of the nail and whatever curves down into the clippers gets cut off.
Again, if this is too much for you to handle, then have your Groomer or
Vet do it. However, you need to
learn to clip toenails as Yorkie nails grow very fast!
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