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All dogs require grooming no matter what the breed and the Dog coat requires to be groomed on a regular basis if you want to culture the beautiful, healthy coat that may have attracted you to the breed in the first place.
Having obtained a puppy it is most important that you set up the habits that will stand you in good stead for the future. A puppy requires very little grooming, perhaps a few minutes each day, but by the time it reaches adulthood, the full routine, groom out, bath and blow drying, may take a couple of hours. Establishing good practice while your puppy is small will save lots of grief for both you and your dog as the coat grows longer and requires more attention.

A good grooming routine is very important, allowing you to spend some one-to-one time with your dog helping to build a strong, trusting relationship.

Let us discuss bathing of the dog in this issue.

This topic is one that always raises loads of questions. How often should the Dog be bathed? Can you bath too often? What are the best shampoos, dog or human? Should I use conditioners? Should I groom first then bath, or visa versa? There is seldom a simple answer to any of these questions.

Frequency of bathing may depend on the dogs age, coat texture, coat length, sex or exercise environment. The best answer is generally to bath when the dog requires it. Provided you do not use harsh products that strip the coat of its' natural oils there is seldom any problem with bathing every week to ten days, if you choose to. A clean coat grows much better, is easier to groom, and more pleasant to live with. Show coats are usually bathed weekly and clipped down coats may only require full bathing once a month. You will need to assess what suits your individual dog's coat length and texture.

The array of shampoos available often causes confusion. Many of the pet store brands are detergent based and strip the coat of natural oils, or they completely change the coat texture making grooming more difficult so should be avoided if possible. Many of these shampoos were developed with the shorter, harsher fur in mind, not for dogs with coats that are more closely related to human hair texture. Try to find a good quality, mild, non-detergent based shampoo for dogs with long coats, in preference to human shampoos which are developed for human hair and are a different PH. The use of human shampoos can leave unwanted product residue such as silicones on the skin and hair, causing irritation and leading to scratching. This is probably the single, most damaging thing that a Dog can do to its' skin and coat.

With regard to the use of conditioners, most Dog owners would opt for using conditioner after shampooing to prevent static build-up and to protect the coat from the heat of the dryer. Again you need to try and find one suited to long, double coats without changing the texture too much! Just like in human conditioners, some leave a heavy residue and weigh the coat down and will contribute to the coat picking up more dirt on a day to day basis. Others seem to make the coats very soft and flyaway, with a tendency to making the coats easy to mat and very high maintenance. Try and choose one that keeps the coat in as natural a state as possible, preferably protein rather than lanolin or mineral oil based. A good rule of thumb is that if your coats seem to mat within a couple of days of bathing, you may have chosen the wrong product. You should keep in mind that the Dog coat is of medium texture, not soft or silky as in Yorkshire Terriers or Maltese.

Whether you choose to groom first then bath depends on the condition of the coat to begin with, i.e. is the dog badly matted or very dirty. Bathing a dog with a badly matted coat can lead to solid lumps that are difficult, if not impossible to blow dry out. However, if there are a few small tags in the coat, it is sometimes easier and less damaging to remove them while blow drying a clean coat. If the dog's coat is very dirty, again it may be less damaging to bath first, but be prepared to take more time and care in the drying stage, spray misting and gently teasing any knots with your fingers. 

The key points to remember when bathing is not to rub or agitate the coat, use a squeezing motion to distribute the products through to the skin, use products according to the instructions and shampoo every inch of the coat thoroughly paying attention to difficult to reach places, condition if you choose, and rinse out completely, then rinse again for good measure. Any product residue left in the coat will make the hair clump together in a gummy mess which may need to be cut out.

When you are happy you have completed the bath, squeeze the excess water out to the ends of the coat, wrap the dog up in a large, absorbent bath towel and squeeze or pat as much moisture out as you can. If your towel becomes soaked use a second towel to mop up the rest! It will speed up the blow drying process if you can encourage them to remain wrapped up for short time.