grooming

Topics, guidelines and tips for coat and skin care and grooming Chow Chows.

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Bill

grooming

Post by Bill »

I am the owner of two female chows. I live in Northern New Jersey. I need to find a good groomer who is familiar with the specific grooming needs of the chow. Any assistance would be greatly appreicated.
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carolyn dewrance
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grooming the Chow Chow

Post by carolyn dewrance »

GROOMING YOUR CHOW CHOW. Tool and equipment required.
Grooming,
Brush with long bristles Wide toothcomb
7-inch scissors.
Electric hair dryer.
BATHING
Shampoo for extra dry hair Conditioner for extra dry hair Sponge
Cotton wool for ears Vaseline for around the eyes Castor oil drops for eyes Toothbrush
Tooth paste, or boracic powder into a paste Chamois leather 3 towels for drying 1 face cloth "dogs own".
The standard requires a double coat. The undercoat being soft and woolly whilst the outer coat should be somewhat course in texture. The two coats must not only be abundant and dense but they should be straight and stand off the body. The coat is easy to maintain, as it does not need any fancy cutting, particular care is required during the season of molting, change of puppy coat and with bitches after whelping as they usually loose just about all their coat due to hormone changes in the body.
METHOD
Grooming is started from the extremities, gradually working upwards brushing the hair down layer by layer, if a hair dryer is used at the same time this helps not only to see any mats close to the skin, but helps separate the hair during brushing as well as removing any dust. Hair should be removed from between the pads of the feet by scissoring, and extra long hair that grows on the feet should be removed. The coat should be brushed daily or at least twice a week. Make sure all brushes and combs are kept clean and in a handy place. A grooming table is very handy, as it saves a lot of backache and makes the dog easier to reach.
Lie your dog on the table on his left side and brush his fur to looser, the knots, it is then advisable to take your wide tooth comb and carefully brush or comb your dog first doing the right leg and rump, comb the fur away from you in sections, in this way you will be able to see any raw spots and be able to treat them before they break into sores, part and comb up along the side of the dog as well as it's back. Comb the underneath furs on its stomach and be careful to the bitch’s nipples. Clean the penis of the dog; at the same time you can cut the hair very carefully away from the sheath of the penis. Then turn the dog on to his other side and proceed in the same manner. Care should be taken behind the ears and under the joints, where it is most likely to mat. The *Censored Word* area may be scissors for the sake of hygiene; The Chow Chow coat does not become spoilt by bathing and should always be done before a show. Never ever show your Chow Chow dirty, it will loose points or even placing, and the judge does not want to keep washing his hands after every dirty dog he judges, a clean dog is a healthy dog. Eyes should be cleaned daily and wiped over the stained patches with peroxide 10 volume dilated with a little milk will eventually remove the tear stains. A great many Chows have this problem. Ears should always be cleaned with a little peroxide, on the tip of an ear bud to remove any choose dirt and wax, for if not clean infections can set in.
Nails not forgetting the dewclaw on the front legs should be kept short so as to give the Chow the look that he is walking on tiptoe like a ballet dancer. The teeth should be kept clean and I find this easy with a child’s soft toothbrush and a very small amount of normal toothpaste. Brush each tooth separately and examine the mouth at the same time for any left over food in the crevices of the folds of the skin around the mouth, this is if your Chow has a very short mussel. Inspections of eyes, ears, teeth, and mouth can all be made while the dog is in a relaxed position, while he is being groomed or while he is resting. When you bath your dog make sure you use a shampoo suited to his fur, there are some very good brands on the market, a conditioner for extra dry hair is also advisable. Unfortunately I cannot name the standard shampoo that we use for the dogs, but the best is only the best for your dog as well as yourself. This is how I prepare my Chows for a show.
The week before a show I condition their coats with a good rubbing of pure Technical Oil for cosmetic use available from your chemist, this I allow to soak in for a week, giving a good brush every day to loosen any knots the may have. Technical Oil helps break down any matted fur, and makes it much easier to bomb out on the day of the bath. The day before the show,
I make sure I have everything I need for the bath then I place my dog in my own bath. You may not like this idea, but due to living in a flat, I had alternative.
Lie your dog on the table on his left side and brush his fur to loosen, any knots, it is then advisable to take your wide tooth comb and carefully brush or comb your dog first doing the right leg and rump, comb the fur away from you in sections, in this way you will be able to see any raw spots and be able to treat them before they break into sores, part and comb up along the side of the dog as well as it's back. Comb the underneath furs on its stomach and be careful to the bitch’s nipples. Clean the penis of the dog; at the same time you can cut the hair very carefully away from the sheath of the penis. Then turn the dog on to his other side and proceed in the same manner. Care should be taken behind the ears and under the joints, where it is most likely to mat. The *Censored Word* area may be scissors for the sake of hygiene; The Chow coat does not become spoilt by bathing and should always be done before a show. Never ever show your Chow dirty, it will loose points or even placing, and the judge does not want to keep washing his hands after every dirty dog he judges, a clean dog is a healthy dog Eyes should be cleaned daily and wiped over the stained patches with peroxide 10 volume diluted with a little milk will eventually remove the tear stains. A great many Chows have this problem. Ears should always be cleaned with a little peroxide, on the tip of an ear bud to remove any loose dirt and wax, for if not clean infections can set in.
Nails not forgetting the dewclaw on the front legs should be kept short so as to give the Chow the look that he is walking on tiptoe like a ballet dancer. The teeth should be kept clean and I find this easy with a child’s soft toothbrush and a very small amount of normal toothpaste. Brush each tooth separately and examine the mouth at the same time for any left over food in the crevices of the folds of the skin around the mouth, this is if your Chow has a very short mussel. Inspections of eyes, ears, teeth, and mouth can all be made while the dog is in a relaxed position, while he is being groomed or while he is resting. When you bath your dog make sure you use a shampoo suited to his fur, there are some very good brands on the market, a conditioner for extra dry hair is also advisable. Unfortunately I cannot name the standard shampoo that we use for the dogs, but the best is only the best for your dog as well as yourself. This is how I prepare my Chows for a show the week before I condition their coats with a good rubbing of pure technical oil for cosmetic use available from your chemist, this I allow to soak in for a week, giving a good brush every day to loosen any knots they may have, Technical oil helps to break down matted fur, and makes it much easier to comb out on the day of the bath. The day before the show I make sure I have everything I need for the bath then I place my dog in my own bath, You may not like this idea, but I find it much easier then bathing him outside in the cold where I have no access to hot water.
I have no option but to bath him in the bathroom. I thoroughly soak his fur with warm water, using a hand shower attachment on the taps, I never allow the water to become to hot or to cold, once the dog is wet, I apply the shampoo firstly to the back legs rubbing it in well, then the body follows and lastly I do the front legs as well as the face, I find a face cloth is far easier to wash the dog face with and it avoids getting soap in it's eyes and ears* The ears are stopped with a wad of cotton wool covered with a little Vaseline, I then rub the shampoo into a good lather all over them, using a body massage brush (glove) to rub up the skin and to make sure they are rid of all dirt, then rinse them twice with luke warm water and then again I apply a small amount of shampoo to the tail and the lower legs to make sure that no residual dirt that has been washed off the body is still clinging to the legs, then rinse off the shampoo twice more with warm water. Now I use the chamois leather to towel dry them before I apply the conditioner. I may use up to a half a bottle of conditioner on the dog, but each and every bit of fur is to be covered, I then take my wide tooth comb and gently comb it through the hole coat, right down to the undercoat. Once the conditioner is well into the fur, I allow the dog to relax for at least 10.15 minutes depending on the time of the day and the time of the year that I am preparing him for a dog show. If it is mid summer and very warm outside I will allow him to sit in the sun for an hour to two so as to soak the conditioner in. Once the conditioning time is up I once again wash the dog off, of all traces of the conditioner and will then rinse him until his fur looks healthy with a glossy sheen. I then rub him down once again with a chamois leather that has been soaked in water as hot as my hands can take it, wrung out and then rubbed over the dog, This I continue doing until the dog is almost dry, then I lift him out of the bath and allow him to shake his fur into position before I finish him off with the towels and hair dryer. Then I give him a good brush, while my helper stands with the hair dryer, blowing the hair away from his body. This really gets them good and dries. Once dry I allow him out to have a walk and to relieve himself before I once again put him back into the kennel to keep him clean for the show the following day, I never feed my dogs the evening before a show, but I do make sure they all get a dish of milk with a raw egg well mixed into it which they love and a liter of milk is very filling. The following day there is no carsickness, and they don't embarrass me by a sudden stop in the ring while the judge is judging them.


Bill I do hope this helps you a little when grooming your Chow Chow.
Carolyn Dewrance
4 Fernwood Close
Richwood
Cape Town 7441

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Jeff&Peks
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Post by Jeff&Peks »

Those grooming techniques are all great for the well groomed show Chow about town but like a few others in here some of us are lucky to get our Chows into a bathtub or even get within a foot of our chows with a grooming brush. I think I have the worst Chow with an attitude then the others but if I ever tried to cut her nails I would have to wear steel armored gloves with 5 people holding her down. My Chow was raised with proper grooming her first 3 years but then we adopted her and she became a hobo Chow, not only will she not let a groomer come near her but no groomer will let her through the door they fear for their lives. If I sneak up on her I can run the comb down her back a few times so she does have a 3 inch streak down her back that looks great.

The bowl of milk and raw egg sounds good though Pekoe would love that, how muck milk do you give them and how often?
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kingalls
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Grooming

Post by kingalls »

Introduce your Chowling to grooming as soon as possible. I didn't have Mr. Nahkohe groomed until he was almost a year old. I have to give the groomer alot of credit for taking on the challenge. Mr. N was very aggressive and had to be muzzled right away. We immediately established the fact that I needed to stay while the groomer brushed, raked, and brushed for 3 hours. Bathing was out of the question! He has been to the groomers twice since then but he still has to be muzzled. He doesn't bark as much but whenever he catches a glimpse of the groomer he - as the groomer put it - would like to "bite my face off"...
So start grooming at home now and get to the groomers early on so that it is a normal thing to do.
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Zhuyos mom
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Re: grooming

Post by Zhuyos mom »

Bill wrote:I am the owner of two female chows. I live in Northern New Jersey. I need to find a good groomer who is familiar with the specific grooming needs of the chow.
Bill,

Have you tried groomers at your local PetsMart? Below is a link to the NJ stores. If you are not showing your chows, this could be a good start. First go there without your girls and interview the manager and ask lots of questions. Find out if they are use to grooming chows and if there is one you can see that they will be grooming soon. That is for you to get a feel of their work. If you choose to go there, then make an appt. with their top chow groomer and see if they can just do a 15 minute brush with you there (or somewhere in the store if you feel comfy with that). My chows' PetsMart groomers have chows themselves.

They will have you fill out a profile and at my store they are now computerized (a year ago, they were still using file cards), be very specific on how you want your chows cleaned. For instance, my boy is prone to ear infections so in bold "cotton in ears always", also I'm allergic to fragrance so "hypoallergenic soap/conditioner only. No fragrances!", also in bold "does not like water, works better with a female groomer", and most importantly on all three of our chows "NO LION CUT! Do not shave with out calling." Specific.

If they are not use to being groomed or prefer home bathing, then take their lead and don't send them to a groomer. Our late, Sunshine, was like that. She was never sent to a groomer and when my sister tried, Sunshine made a fuss. So she was backyard bathed from there on.

Good luck!

http://www.petsmart.com/global/storeloc ... 19a791972a
carolyn

grooming

Post by carolyn »

Hi Jeff, I give my chows a cup of milk and an egg twice a week and they love it.
As for the grooming I thought the article I sent in would help those who were having problelms. I myself have problems with grooming my chows, as they all have their likes and dislikes, some wont get into the bath and other chew up the brushes or take them away from me, but all in all Chows are wonderfull and if taught to be groomed they will eventually love it.
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Post by Jeff&Peks »

Its true starting a Chow off with grooming and getting them use to being groomed there won't be any problems but once you get them in a grooming routine don't stop. I have told this story a few times on the old site but what happened with Pekoe was when we first adopted her she had no problems with grooming you could tell her previous owner took great care of her. Pekoe was so well trained that on walks she would walk right next to your leg and instantly stop when you stopped and moved when you moved. It drove me crazy I kept telling her to just go were she wants and quit waking next to my leg. We were taking her in for grooming once a month then after a few months she got really bad skin problems, knawing, scratching and ripping her hair out, we were rushing her to the Vet almost 3 times a week and like most Vets knew nothing about diets and thought great more pills to sell so was just pumping her full of cortisone shots and antibiotics and told us not to groom her for 6 months. The 6 months of not be groomed and becoming spoiled by us was all it took. When we finely took her back to the groomers she went crazy and attacked everyone, from that time on grooming became impossible. Thanks to this sight and learning more about Chows and their diet her skin problems went away and never had another problem but good bye to grooming.
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carolyn dewrance
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Skin problems.

Post by carolyn dewrance »

Jeff I have found that some of my chows do get skin problems in summer, I have my own solution to solving this that you might like to try, I mix a bottle of 10per cent peroxide with a small bottle of gention violet in a spray bottle with a little water to dilute it and spray it onto their sore spots, this clears it up with in a couple of days, no more cortisone for my dogs. I also find that if you give them a course of Sulphur 200 strength tablets from the homeopathic shop once a week it is a great help with skin problems.
Hope you find this useful.
Carolyn :lol:
Carolyn Dewrance
4 Fernwood Close
Richwood
Cape Town 7441

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