How To Groom Golden Retrievers – Top Tips And Tricks

A beautiful and healthy coat is an indicator of your dog’s health. If the coat is dull and brittle, dandruff appears, an unpleasant odor from the mouth and ears may indicate improper selection of food, allergies, worms, blockage of the anal glands, or even hormonal disorders. Without eliminating the causes of ill health, beautiful wool simply cannot be.

Next, you need to look at the vitamin supplements your dog is getting. To maintain the coat in perfect condition, supplements are needed, even if your dog is fed high-quality dry food, since any food is designed for an average dog, and the Golden Retriever has a thick and rather long coat, which often needs special care, of course, if you want to Your pet looked like a picture. There are a large number of vitamin preparations designed to improve the condition of the skin and coat. Of the B vitamins, the use of preparations Brewers Yeast Plus, Vetzym With Garlic, Vetzym B + E, brewer’s yeast, food sulfur can be recommended. From fat-soluble oil vitamins – Vetzym Dry Skin (oil for dry skin, especially important in winter), Vetzym Moult & Coat (oil from shedding), Exmarid Dry Skin Supplement (vitamins in oil for dry skin), Nutricoat 8 in 1. To brighten vitamins containing seaweed or carrots can be added to the pigment or given in their natural form, not forgetting to add to vegetable oil. In any case, it is worthwhile to simultaneously introduce only one type of drug into the diet, since allergic reactions or itching may occur in case of an overdose and give courses for 3-4 weeks, then a week break.

Oddly enough, with all today’s advances in progress and the development of cosmetology, there is still an opinion among dog breeders that the dog should be washed as rarely as possible – 1-2 times a year, or even it is not worth doing it at all, in extreme cases, it should be cleaned snow or bathe in a pond. As a rule, there are often references to books from 20-30 years ago and assurances that detergents remove the protective layer from the hair. In fact, this is only true for soaps, which are really not intended for washing dogs due to the lack of matching the pH level. It is quite another matter – professional cosmetics for dogs – brands All Systems, Bio-Groom, Pet Silk, Iv Sen Bernar, Ring 5. The main thing here is individually selected cosmetics of one brand. An important role in choosing a specific brand is played by the structure of the dog’s coat and the hardness of the water with which you wash your pet.

It is recommended to wash the dog at least once a month, and if you plan to make an exhibition career for your Golden – even more often. One should not forget the simple truth – “only clean wool grows”.

The dog should be taught to wash from puppyhood, to show what a hairdryer is, that it is not scary at all, although it buzzes like an animal, but if you calmly stand for a little bit, then they will praise and give something tasty, teach the dog to stand calmly on the table – it will be very useful when, after washing, you need to prepare the wool for an exhibition, and to dry and properly lay the wool while sitting on the floor – believe me, this is a very tiring exercise, especially for the owner’s back.

To properly wash wool, you must follow several rules:

1. The water should be slightly warm, not hot, which can in no way be useful for the coat, since the scales that make up the hair open up under its influence, the hair is stratified and split. Coldwater is also only harmful – in this case, bathing can end with a cold.
2. Moisten the coat evenly with running water starting from the head. No need to wrinkle or rub the coat. Disassemble the hair on the feathers and tail with your hand, try to prevent water from getting into the ears and eyes of the dog.
3. Most of the shampoos produced now are concentrated, so carefully read the order of their use and, if necessary, dilute the shampoo to the required consistency. Apply shampoo, lightly massaging the coat. After thoroughly rinse off and apply shampoo in a smaller volume again. This time it can be shampoo of the same brand, but with a different action, for example, if you are preparing a dog for a show, then the first time you use, for example, Super cleaning shampoo (super cleaning – from All Systems), and then it can be PFWhitening ( whitening – All Systems), or Bio-Groom shampoos – Protein-Lanolin shampoo (protein-lanolin shampoo) and then Extra Body (for volume) or Bronse Luster (bronze for brightening bright dogs) or Super White (super white for dogs of almost white and cream colors). If this is not an exhibition fee, but a hygienic washing of the dog, then you can use Groom, n Fresh (deodorizing) or shampoos with the scent of apple, freesia, honeysuckle – all these shampoos are from the Bio-Groom brand.
4. Then, after thoroughly rinsing, it is necessary to apply a conditioner (remember that it can also be concentrated and then you need to dilute it with warm water), which is needed to moisturize the coat, stick damaged hair scales and protect them from the negative influence of external factors – for example, dry air at home in during the heating season, car exhaust, a sharp difference in house-street temperatures in winter. The oil contained in the conditioner envelops the hair, creating a protective film around it, which retains moisture, preventing the hair from drying out. It is also necessary to choose the conditioner that is right for your dog – from Bio-Groom it can be Silk (silk) – recommended before the show or Super Crem (super cream), Vita oil (fortified), or Mink oil (mink) oil – increased protection in the inter-exhibition season. At All Systems, it is recommended to use Botanical (vegetable conditioner) from exhibition conditioners, and for Super-rich (protein) or Pure Lanolin (lanolin) care, in winter, Hemectant moist oil conditioner moisturizing with oil is very good. The applied conditioner is left on the coat for 3-5 minutes and then washed off with running water. If this is a hygienic wash, then you do not need to wash it off completely, but leave a little on the wool. It is advisable to rinse more thoroughly before the exhibition. If you still do not have much experience in choosing shampoos and conditioners, you can always turn to the sales consultants of large pet stores or experienced groomers for help.
5. After they give the dog to shake off and dab the coat with a towel or cotton sheet, do not rub and tangled the coat, it is better to change towels several times. Then the dog is wrapped in a sheet and allowed to dry for 20-30 minutes.
6. Next, the dog is placed on a table covered with a sheet or a non-slip mat (there are special grooming tables with rubber mats on sale) and dried with a hairdryer, combing with a massage brush. It is better to choose a hair dryer powerful (1800-2000 W), with a temperature controller. Do not bring the hairdryer closer than 30 cm and be sure to monitor the air temperature – do not burn your hair, while combing the hair, move along the growth of the coat, and not against. Do not make a “blast in a macaroni factory” out of a dog’s coat – then it can be very difficult to correct an incorrectly dried coat and often the dog looks like a porcupine. Problematic areas (in some dogs, after washing, a wave on the rump and back may appear) can be evenly laid using an antistatic agent (available in all firms), which is applied either to the wool or to a massage brush (the latter option is preferable since the uniform application is achieved).

In any case, make sure that there are no drafts at home and the dog does not catch a cold. After washing, you should not go for a walk for at least 5-6 hours. In general, it is best to wash the dog in the evening, after the last walk, of course, if you are not walking at 10 o’clock in the evening, because the washing procedure is quite long. If I scared you a little with such a laborious procedure at first glance, then, believe me, all this is not so scary. Firstly, after the second time, you will feel like a professional and understand that everything does not take so much time, and secondly, you communicate with the dog, stroke it, tell how smart and beautiful it is, and believe me, the dogs themselves begin to like this procedure, and, of course, an incomparable pleasure afterward, when you see how your dog has transformed, how his fur shines, how his fur smells fragrant. And your friends on walks will surely shower your pet with compliments, which will be another recognition of your labors.

Yes, a few more points – Goldens love to swim. Summer, heat, pond – you can’t pull the retriever by the ears from the water. Swimming is a great thing, joints are strengthened, muscles are pumped up. BUT do not let the dog bathe late in the evening, the last bath should be such that the coat has time to dry before bedtime, otherwise, it may happen that the coat “coats” and then you get an unpleasant odor from the skin, weeping eczema, pink, clumps of hair coming out.
And in the off-season, when there are slush and a mess of dirty snow, machine oil, and reagents on the street, you just need to thoroughly rinse your paws, and, if possible, take the dog out in a waterproof overall.

And one more thing – do not comb dry dirty wool – this will only break its structure and simply “whip” – apply a conditioner diluted in a spray bottle or a hair remover, antistatic, shampoo without rinsing on the massage brush – this will help you easily and quickly comb even problem areas, disassemble the matted coat.