Know Your Pooch
VK Joshi
The writer is former director, GSI, and an avid animal lover. His understanding of man's best friend comes from over six decades of dedicated association with it
Many times, we commit mistakes unknowingly. It is common to see people acquiring a particular breed of dog by the sheer beauty of his hair. For example, the long shining and flowing hair of an Afghan Hound or that of a Lhasa Apso or we fall for the tinsel ribbons tied on the top of the head of a Shih-tzu holding a tuft of hair. This list is endless. Before acquiring such a dog breed, one must read as much as possible about it or discuss it with experienced people.
Once a pup of a long-haired variety reaches your home, the family falls in love with the roly-poly, cuddly puppy. In the first year the pup grows very fast and so does his hair. The beauty of these breeds lies in their double coat, i.e. an inner woolly coat and an outer coat of long hair. The cons of these breeds is the tangled hair which is several times more difficult to untangle than that of a girl or a woman. The tangled hair, apart from the inconvenience to the dog/pup is an open invitation to external parasites like ticks, fleas, and mites. These can sometimes be fatal for the dog.
What is the solution to this problem? A simple answer is to shave the dog or crop his hair! If so, then why did you go for such a breed? A dog with cropped or shaven hair is hideous to look at, secondly, have you ever thought why the people in Saudi Arabia wear an attire that covers their entire body including the head? This is because that kind of attire saves them from the perils of heat in that region! Likewise, the aforementioned breeds have long hair to keep them safe from the vagaries of weather.
Therefore, the solution for such hairs I to keep them groomed all the time. You might be thinking, what nonsense, I don’t have time for all this! Then you should not have acquired such a breed. Grooming is the only way out to keep such dogs looking shiny, cuddly, and happy. You might contest, ‘My dog doesn’t allow anyone to touch him, what to think of grooming him!’ There are techniques for that if you have time or send him to a parlour daily if you can afford to do so. A great majority of dog lovers cannot afford regular visits to a dog parlour; hence the simplest way out is to teach our dog to accept a grooming brush.
It is the simplest yet one of the most difficult tasks to perform. Those moms who have groomed their daughters will recollect how difficult it was to comb their hair. The child would often shout or cry or even run away. To make it a pleasant job what did you do? Either you narrated a fairy tale to her, sang a song, or kept her attention diverted by talking about things she enjoyed.
The basics of grooming a dog/pup are the same. They are creatures of routine with a strong memory for reward and punishment. While your child is mentally more evolved hence more difficult to train for acts that give her the slightest pain. And remember some children protest more while others accept it as a routine. Once again, the same scenario amongst dogs, some are hyper and cranky while others are cool and even-tempered. Therefore, to teach a dog how to accept the comb and or brush and even a vacuum cleaner and or hair dryer, the first thumb rule is to make it a pleasant experience. To do that, arrange a table of a suitable size and place a cloth cover/large towel on top, to make it non-slippery. Always remember, everyone is scared of heights and has a fear of falling. Dogs are no exception. To overcome this phobia, just pick the pup in your arms, stand near the table and while talking sweet nothings to him, gently place him on the top of the table and make him Sit on his haunches. Caress him profusely and keep talking sweetly. With your left-hand fingers caressing his back from head to the root of the tail and right palm placed in front of his chest, keep him from becoming fidgety.
Most important is to keep a treat of his choice handy and after mentally counting ten gently, put the reward on your right palm and place it in front of his mouth. Go on praising him and let him have it. Thereafter gently lift and place him down on the floor. Repeat this routine daily at the same time, initially for ten seconds, and increase it to a minute. On the third or fourth day, before giving the reward, give the command to stay, preceded by his name. Count up to ten on day one and gradually increase the count. If you have already taught him to Stay on command while feeding him, things will be easier on the table, for you from day one.
By now the pup understands that sitting on the table and allowing his body to be touched gets him a reward and he will accept the routing happily. So, you have already crossed one hurdle. It is time to keep the grooming tools like a comb, brush, and or a grooming rake and a packet of good-smelling talcum powder ready. The idea is to let him smell these articles. Dogs associate things with smell and especially those things which ultimately lead to a reward become their favourite.
Like every day, start with caressing his body with fingers, and in one of those moments, pick up the brush and run it down gently from head to the root of his tail once. Thereafter, reward him and put him down. Follow this routine for two-three days then increase the number of strokes of the brush and also run the brush first from the root of the tail to his head and vice versa.
By now your dog has accepted the brush. Gradually associate him with the metal comb and or grooming rake as per the breed requirement. Such small sessions can now be held twice a day and gradually increased with age to four to five times a day.
In short, your dog is now effortlessly trained to accept the brush and the comb. It is time to make him accept the vacuum cleaner and or the hair dryer too. The whizz sound of the motors of these gadgets scares the dog like anything. Hence make the dog sit as usual on the table and begin to groom him. Take the help of an assistant to switch on the gadget in an adjoining room, and let it remain on for 10 seconds. Reward the dog as usual and bring him down. Gradually, reduce the distance between the dog and the gadget. This should be done with care and very gradually and each session should end with a reward. Soon the dog will accept his coat to be dried with a hair dryer or vacuum cleaned.
The method of training described above for a dog to accept the brush/comb/dryer/vacuum cleaner applies not necessarily to long-haired breeds but to all dogs. However, the long-haired breeds need many sessions of daily grooming, while the short-haired ones need to be groomed daily once or twice.
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