• No Tranquilizers
• Anal Gland Expressions
• Dips for Fleas and Ticks
• In-Home Kritter Sitting
• Ear Cleanings
• Nail Buffs
• Hydro Surge Bathing System
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|  Grooming your pet is not only important to make sure they look their best, but is also an essential part of protecting your pet’s health.
Regular grooming and hygiene will keep your pet healthier and will alert you, the owner, to most health problems before they become increasingly dangerous.
Grooming should be done at home and by a professional groomer. Regular grooming appointments should be a time for haircuts, nail clippings, and emptying anal glands. Many other grooming activities can be done at home.
Before bringing your pet to K9 Klip'n, please fill out our Pet Release Form and bring it with you so that we can better care for your pet.
When grooming your pet, focus on the following body parts to check for any irregularities.
Eyes
Your pet’s eyes should be clear and clear with no excessive tearing or discharge. Cloudy or red eyes are a sign of irritation and should be treated promptly.
Ears
A pet’s ears should be free of dirt and a strong odor. Dogs with ear infections will commonly rub their ears against the ground or scratch their ears with theirs paws. Dogs with long ears are most susceptible to ear infections. Ears must regularly be cleaned to avoid serious infections.
Teeth
Clean and healthy are essential for the health of your pet. While commonly overlooked by pet owners, infected teeth can result in loss of appetite in your pet, red, swollen, and bleeding gums, excessive drooling, blood in the saliva, yellow-brown tartar on the gum line, broken teeth, and foul breath. Daily teeth brushings can help with removing tartar build up on your pet’s teeth. A yearly more thorough cleaning by your vet is also recommended for pets with tartar problems.
Nails
A dog’s nails should be trimmed regularly and can be done at home or by a professional groomer. Trimming nails can be a difficult task if your dog is not cooperative. Be careful when cutting the nails as cutting too much of the nail can result in bleeding. Remember, outdoor exercise on a hard packed surface will help to grind your pets’ nails down which will mean less nail trimmings.
Skin
Brush your pet’s coat to remove any dead hair, dirt, or dead skin flakes. As your grooming, take note of any irregularities on your pet’s skin including lumps, rashes, bald spots or sores. Brushing your pet’s coat will help to keep the coat from matting. Once a dog’s coat is matted, the only way to get the mats out is to shave the dog. Brush your dog as often as needed -- BUT ALSO run a comb through your dog's coat to check for mats once a week. Not all brushes can penetrate your dogs coat to the skin, your dog can appear to be brushed thoroughly, but you may be surprised what happens when you actually try to run a comb through to the skin! If a comb cannot penetrate your dog's coat, then we cannot get a long clipper blade through the coat either!
Our staff all agrees that if they were to send their pet to a groomer they would want personalized attention 100% of the time. Instead of being alone in a cage with air blowing at them, we'd rather our pets be held, touched, talked to, etc while being dried and groomed.
On short haired dogs like labs, we can dry and use a shedding blade and remove much more dead hair than would happen if the dog were cage dried.
On medium and long haired dogs, we can brush and blow out loose undercoat at the same time, removing more hair and saving your pet from a lot of tugging that would otherwise happen during the brush out stage.
Blow drying by hand is a great way for us to examine your dog's skin. As we blow air at your dog, the hair is parted (effectively drying the dog from the skin out), and the skin is easily seen. We have found many previously undetected hot spots, ticks and other health concerns using our drying time as an opportunity to observe the pet from the skin out!
Frequently Asked Questions
Why clip and file a dog's nails?
Dog's nails can often be sharper after being clipped. We don't want our clients to get scratched by their own pets, so we trim and file off the sharp edges on most dogs nails. Filing your dog's nails can also help save your wood floors! You can file them at home yourself to get your dog used to the procedure and save yourself and your floors between visits. You can also help them wear off the sharp edges by walking them on streets and sidewalks.
What is a sanitary clip?
Some dogs grow hair in areas that can tend to get stained and/or collect odor from urine and feces. A sanitary clip is what we do to remove the hair from these areas thereby keeping your dog cleaner and more sanitary.
Why do groomers trim hair under the dog's foot?
There are a number of good reasons to trim the hair around the pads of a dog's foot;
In the spring, summer and fall the hair around your dog's pads can collect a lot of mud and other debris such as burrs. Trimming the hair will keep this from happening and will keep your floors a lot cleaner too!
The hair between your dog's pads can also get matted. Aside from discomfort, these mats can cause sores between the pads. In the winter, the hair can collect ice -- causing frostbite, and salt -- causing damage to the pads.
If you have bare surfaces in your house, the hair on the dog's pads can cause a loss of traction which can cause dangerous situations, especially with older dogs that need traction to get up and walk.
MOST IMPORTANTLY -- get your dog on a regular grooming schedule so they can be kept at the length you like and they will enjoy their grooming sessions much more.
What's the best defense for flea and tick control?
We strongly urge our clients to use a topical flea and tick control product. They are much more effective in controlling flea and tick infestations on your pet and in your home. A flea bath is only a temporary solution to a larger problem as the shampoo only kills on contact and will not kill fleas introduced to your dog after the bath.
If there are fleas on your pet, chances are there are fleas in the places they spend most of their time; their bedding, your yard and even your car. Your pet can easily become re-infested shortly after a bath without the use of a topical control program.
How can I tell if my dogs nail's need trimming?
The best way to tell if you should trim your dog's nails is to look at your dog's feet when he is standing on a flat surface. Ideally, their nails should not touch the surface on which they are standing. If they do touch, then they should probably be trimmed. |
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