We get a lot of questions about puppy grooming – when should my puppy get its first groom? what if my puppy hates grooming? how long does it take to groom a puppy? and so on. In this post, we will cover all the questions we got from our customers, and also will explain steps we take and techniques we use to groom a puppy safely.
The most common question we get is “when should my puppy get its first groom?”. To be honest, the earlier the better. However, to be on the safe side, we recommend our customers to bring in their puppy for the first groom after a week of their final vaccination (usually from 13 weeks). The problem here is, puppies go through their socialisation period from 3 to 12 weeks. When they come to our grooming studio, their socialisation period is well over. So, when our customers call us to book for their puppy groom in advance, we always recommend them to brush, comb and touch around their puppies’ body and face regularly so puppies can get used to the grooming process. This will reduce stress your puppy gets when they are professionally groom for the first time in their life.
When a puppy walks into our grooming studio to get its first groom, we start accessing their demeanour and temperament. We go through a short play session with a lot of treats so they feel safe with us. When we know that the puppy is not nervous around us, then we start grooming them.
At Paws in Style Pet Grooming Studio, we take 3 grooming sessions for a smooth transition to a full groom:
1st Grooming session – Sanitary clipping and nail clipping
2nd Grooming session – Sanitary clipping, nail clipping and wash and dry
3rd Grooming session – Sanitary clipping, nail clipping, wash and dry, body and face clipping and
scissoring (full-groom)
Throughout these 3 grooming sessions, we use desensitisation technique to make sure puppies get used to the sound of a clipper, sensation of a clipper touching their body, us touching their body, legs and nails, sound of a dryer, wash process and us being busy around their face with scissors. Hence, by the time they get to 3rd of 4th grooming sessions, they will be calm and comfortable through the grooming process making them and us happy :).
Sometimes, our customers does not want to go through all these 3 sessions but want a puppy full groom for their puppies’ first groom. It’s totally fine with us. It’s just that the grooming session will take longer (up to 4 hours) than a usual full groom (up to 2 hours) because we allow the puppy to sleep or play in-between grooming and also spend enough time to make sure the puppy is desensitised properly and socialised enough with us.
Lastly, quite often we get an adult dog who hasn’t been professionally groomed throughout its entire lifetime (e.g. 11 months, 3 years or even 10 years). Although it’s an adult dog groom, we treat it similar to a puppy socialisation groom. We will deal with this topic more in depth later in our blog.
At Paws in Style Pet Grooming Studio, we believe that proper desensitisation and socialisation of grooming process and strong bond between a puppy and groomer lead to stress-free and fun grooming time for both the puppy and groomer 😊
Looking for a groomer to do your puppy’s first groom? Have any question regarding puppy groom? Contact us at 021 881 679 or pawsinstylenz@gmail.com.
