Golden Retriever grooming is so much more beneficial than merely having your pooch look good. Don’t get me wrong; your great-looking canine partner proudly walking alongside you during a stroll through your neighborhood is valuable for both of you. I imagine you are proud of being a loving owner and your dog enjoys feeling good engaging in some exercise with you.
While looks are indeed important, other benefits of effective grooming include maintaining the cleanliness of your home, improved personal bonding with your friend, and keeping your Golden healthy. Grooming your dog is a valuable contribution to the emotional well-being of your four-legged friend. Just as humans respond to touch, animals do as well. Any dog, whether young or old, responds to a pat on the back, a refreshing massage during a bath, or a gentle brushing.
Maintaining the Tidiness of Your Home
It rarely fails. No matter how hard I try, there always seems to be a little bit of Golden Retriever hair on the carpet. The vacuum cleaner is one of my best friends. Over the years I’ve learned something that helps minimize that hairy situation and maintain the tidiness of my house. Regular grooming does the trick.
While cleaning up after my dog is still necessary at times, there is so much less to do when he’s been groomed. Regular grooming is a real time saver.
Caring Touch While Grooming
Touch is particularly important during grooming because it provides an opportunity to bond with your dog and earn their trust. We don’t always know how a new dog in our home was treated before they got there. He may have been appreciated and well loved, or he may have been mistreated. It could take some time before he trusts your touch. In that case, it’s important to be patient.
Even if your dog has been living with you for a while, it would still be beneficial to increase trust and bonding through grooming if you haven’t already. Letting your dog know that he is safe, cared about, and respected can pay big dividends. Developing a considerate and loyal relationship with your dog paves the way to an enjoyable life together.
Rapport building can be a positive step toward effectively training your dog. If the dog is secure that he is accepted as part of the family, he will often respond more favorably to obedience training. Obedience training can be a real positive for the dog and for you since a trained dog is a well behaved dog.
An older pet may require gentle touch during grooming to soothe aches and pains, as they get up in years. So if they are comfortable with being groomed, they’ll more likely respond positively to touch while being examined for health reasons.
Golden Retriever Grooming and Health
Well, how does grooming affect your Golden Retriever’s health? Conscientious grooming is an important part of contributing to the positive hygiene and mental well-being of your beloved friend. Since you love your pet, you want her to be healthy, right? Conscientious and consistent grooming of your dog is a crucial step to promoting a first-class quality of life and health for your animal.
The benefits of dog grooming include:
- Increased detection of minor skin irregularities – such as cuts, abrasions, or other skin abnormalities – before they become a greater issue. While brushing or washing your dog, check for any swelling, lameness, or skin sensitivity, which could indicate an underlying health issue. If you do detect anything unusual, contact your veterinarian right away.
- Providing overall cleanliness of your pet. I bet you like the experience of stepping out of a warm shower feeling clean and refreshed. Most people enjoy the sensation of having squeaky clean hair, moist skin, and clean teeth. Your dog is no exception, except they look to you to make it happen for them. If you don’t cooperate, they don’t experience what you are able to. Yes, our dogs have a natural tendency to try and groom themselves, however they cannot bathe themselves, brush her own teeth, or effectively clean their ear flaps.
- Reducing infestation of external parasites such as fleas and ticks is important for both you and your dog’s comfort. You might be able to notice fleas on your dog before you are picking them off your own skin. Yuck! The earlier you know there are fleas in the house the better so you can take care of them early before that entire house is infested.
- Your Golden’s beautiful hair and skin stay healthy when you groom regularly. The natural oils in their hair and skin are distributed evenly over the body when brushed on a routine basis. Because of their long hair, Golden Retrievers may require brushing several times a week in order to maintain their gorgeous hair in top condition.
- Having fresh breath is nice, isn’t it? We can enjoy fresh breath in our Golden Retriever too if we properly care for their teeth and gums. That’s not even the most vital reason to keep your dog’s teeth and gums clean and free of disease. Did you know that periodontal disease has been linked in pets to heart disorders and kidney difficulties? It’s imperative to learn how to care for your dog’s teeth in order to avoid possible internal medical conditions.
- Healthy paws are an absolute requirement for having a happy dog. Your grooming routine should include regular nail trimming and inspection of your dog’s feet. Your pet can experience difficulties with split nails, sores, or cracking of toe pads if not cared for properly. If caught early, you can attend to them or perhaps call your veterinarian. Injured paws will keep your dog from exercising and of course that is not a good thing.
The strategy is reasonably easy to grasp. Take care of your dog, and she will take care of you. If you haven’t done so already, introduce regular, consistent grooming into your relationship with your dog. Grooming a Golden Retriever is vital because dogs need physical maintenance to look and feel their best. The result is a much closer bond between you and your valuable friend.
