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.

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. 

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.  

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.  

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!

Shampoo Time 

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

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! 

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!