How Old Should You Start Grooming a Puppy?
The ideal age for a puppy to start grooming is between 12 and 16 weeks, assuming they are up to date on their vaccinations.
Preparing for Your Puppy’s First Groom
Once your puppy has become accustomed to its new home and family, you can begin to prepare it for it’s first grooming appointment. The best way to do this is by handling the common areas of the body that will get touched during the grooming process. This should include their feet, ears, and face. In addition, it’s always a good idea to practice brushing their coat to get them used to the feeling. A puppy who is familiar with being handled and brushed will be easier to work with than one that has never been handled this way.
Your Puppies First Visit to the Groomer
The first visit to a groomer can be very overwhelming for a puppy. Even if you have already given them a bath at home, the tub at the salon may looks and smells differently. All novel stimuli, including the groomer, can be scary to a puppy. Grooming salons are full of sights and noises that your dog may never hear anywhere else. Nail dremels and high velocity dryers that are commonly used in the grooming process can be very novel.
It is not recommended that a puppy be given a full haircut at its first visit. The reason for this is because you are forcing the puppy to stand still for a long period of time during an already stressful experience. This is a lot to ask of a young puppy. For it’s first visit just the basics should be done. This will include a bath and gentle blow dry. Next the nails will be trimmed, paw pads and sanitary area trimmed, ears cleaned. The coat will be brushed and combed. In breeds that have longer hair, the feet and area around eyes should be trimmed. This is about all they can handle on their first visit.
The puppy will need to learn to hold still while being introduced to having scissors around their face and feet. Depending on how the puppy reacts to the first visit, the groomer may recommend doing more visits before the full haircut is done.
Making it a Positive Experience
Lots of love, patience, and treats will help the puppy form a positive association with grooming process. Even puppies that will not require haircuts throughout their lives should be brought to the groomer at an early age. The window for socialization starts to close at 4 months. This doesn’t mean you cannot acclimate your dog to grooming if they are outside of this window. It just means that it can get harder socialize at an older age. A one-year-old dog will most likely be much more stressed by the grooming process than a 6-month-old.
Many groomers may not be aware of proper socialization protocols for puppies, but many are very open to taking it slow when a dog is new to the process. For an example of quality puppy grooming in the St. Louis area, Petropolis: Empowered Pet Care has programs just for puppies to help acclimate them to the process.
