Do you groom your own pets?

[lilyfoot]

Do you groom your own pets, take them to a groomer, or let the furry babies fend for themselves? (I hope nobody does the latter!)

I groom my 2 dogs. I have a Jack Russell Terrier and a Chihuahua/Pug mix. Both short hair, smaller dogs about 12-15 lbs each.

I bathe them, brush them, clip their nails, and clean their ears myself. They''ve never been to a groomer.

I''ve heard so many horror stories about groomers, I''m extremely paranoid of them. That''s not why I do it myself though, I just always have since they were puppies, so why not keep doing it?

My boyfriend has a Shih-Tzu he gets groomed, because he''s long haired.

How does everyone else groom their dogs or cats? (or fish, bird, etc lol)

 

[deegee]

I took my poochie to the groomer twice, and she came back both times extremely stressed out and acting weird for hours. I bought a furminator and good nail clippers, so hubby and I take care of the bathing, de-shedding, nail trimming and ear cleaning ourselves. Trimming the nails was the trickiest thing for me to learn because she has mostly dark, solid color nails. She has short hair, so no trimming or styling required!

 

[Haven]

We bathe our pup, clip her toenails, and brush her regularly. We''ve taken her to the groomer a few times but we realized she was super easy to bathe and started doing it ourselves. She has short fur, and she''s really good in water, so it''s not difficult to do.

However, I completely understand why a lot of people take their dogs to groomers because it can be extremely difficult to bathe a reluctant, long-haired dog yourself.

Our kitties groom themselves, and each other.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

noooo way! My female cat did need to be groomed. Once, we hired a "mobile groomer," and the woman arrived in a little truck ALONE and expected *me* to help her. I paid the lady $100 to put a muzzle on my cat while my kitty hissed and scratched just to get her tummy shaved. Ugh. That was a few years back. Now she may not look perfect, but I'd never put her through that again so she DOES fend for herself!

My other cat just gets brushed.

The fish tanks are properly maintained. . .water changes, conditioners. . .etc. . .I do all that. Takes about seven hours a week! Maybe more. . .I'm still new to fish.

 

[IdLikeToBuyAVal]

Our pets are home-groomed! We have a yorkie that we adopted and he was scared of his own shadow for the first several months we had him. Despite his name (Barkley) he didn''t bark at all for the first 3 or 4 months and when it was time for his first bath and nail trim it was pretty apparent that he had had some traumatic grooming incident(s) in his past. Luckily he trusts us completely now and loves his baths (not so much on the nail clippings still but he''s fine when there is a goodie involved).

Our other dog is a border collie x lab mix (Riley) and she just requires bathing and good, frequent brushings.

I also have a netherland dwarf rabbit (Hef) and before I adopted him I had no idea that rabbits molt...fairly frequently. He seems to always be either finishing a molt or starting a new one and cleaning up bunny fur has been a labor of love for several years now.

 

[lyra]

We do our own grooming since we have all the tools left over from when we showed our dogs. I do take my chihuahua to the vet to get her nails trimmed now though. They donate the proceeds to a pet charity, so we do that as our way of contributing something to other pets in need. win-win

 

[redfaerythinker]

I brush my kitty and give him the occasional bath... mostly when he dunks his tail in something he''s not supposed to.

I also clip his nails. He doesn''t seem to mind too much. As far as the turtle goes, we have a pretty awesome filter so his tank gets cleaned about once a month. Or more often if needed, but that''s usually not the case.

 

[Gleam]

I have a 60 pound dog, and I groom him myself. He''s pretty low maintenance. Just the occasional brushing and a bath (although it''s a pain getting him into the bathtub -- he loves water but hates baths).

It saves me quite a bit of money doing it myself. Groomers around my area charge $80 a session (I''m in Chicago).

 

[setell]

Date: 10/29/2009 1:33:20 AM
Author: lyra
We do our own grooming since we have all the tools left over from when we showed our dogs. I do take my chihuahua to the vet to get her nails trimmed now though. They donate the proceeds to a pet charity, so we do that as our way of contributing something to other pets in need. win-win

What do they use the nails for?

I''ve been grooming my maltese puppy since I got him a month ago. I trim his nails, brush his fur daily, brush his teeth daily, bath him, wash his face (maltese are prone to tear staining) etc. I pretty much do it all and I know I HAVE to take him to the groomers as he''s a long hair dog so he''ll need a haircut every once in a while unless I learn how to do it myself!

 

[Gleam]

Date: 10/28/2009 11:08:13 PM
Author: deegee
I took my poochie to the groomer twice, and she came back both times extremely stressed out and acting weird for hours.

Urgh, that frightens me... I always worry about leaving my dog in the care of walkers and groomers because who knows what kind of people they are? I DO get my dog''s nails clipped, but I stay with him the whole time. I actually insist on it even though the staff encourages me to wander around and come back.

 

[Loves Vintage]

We dremel our dogs' nails. Here is a great tutorial if anyone is interested in making the transition from clippers (and fear of potentially hitting the quick.)

How to dremel dog nails

We also bathe them at home, but they are both short hair and low shedders, so they are easy to groom.

 

[Erinleigh]

We take our Yorkie to the groomers and will bathe him at home in between trips if he''s gotten into something. He actually doesn''t mind baths and will just hang out there calmly while we do our stuff. We don''t think he minds going to our groomer (who happens to work out of our vets office), because he''s always happy to go with them... I think we''re partly lucky that he''s such an even-tempered dog (especially for a small terrier)!

 

[purrfectpear]

Yes, Trooper (Silky Terrier) is a former show dog. He''s been used to being groomed from 6 months old. He loves bath time, and thinks the blow dryer is OK too. I use a dremel for the nails.

 

[kenny]

I give our dogs haircuts.

It takes a long time to do a good job.

 

[lyra]

Date: 10/29/2009 8:36:18 AM
Author: setell

Date: 10/29/2009 1:33:20 AM
Author: lyra
We do our own grooming since we have all the tools left over from when we showed our dogs. I do take my chihuahua to the vet to get her nails trimmed now though. They donate the proceeds to a pet charity, so we do that as our way of contributing something to other pets in need. win-win

What do they use the nails for?

I''ve been grooming my maltese puppy since I got him a month ago. I trim his nails, brush his fur daily, brush his teeth daily, bath him, wash his face (maltese are prone to tear staining) etc. I pretty much do it all and I know I HAVE to take him to the groomers as he''s a long hair dog so he''ll need a haircut every once in a while unless I learn how to do it myself!

The vet charges $10 for nail trimming. The money goes directly to an animal charity foundation.

 

[soocool]

I have a 14 lb mini-schnauzer who loves his groomer. Believe it or not I interviewed groomers before I decided on where I take him now. The groomer has been in business for over 20 years and her staff has been there at least 15 of those years. They know my dog and he knows them and runs to them when we arrive. He gets groomed every 6 weeks ($45.00) , and except for one misunderstanding about the ear-plucking ( I don''t want his ears plucked because it bothers him immensely afterwards) they do a phenomenal job. They take him out before I get there so that he can relieve himself and will give him treats and water midday. I LOVE THEM! Last Christmas he got a stocking filled with homemade dog biscuits , a doggie toohbrush and a dog toy from them.

There is no way I could trim his fur around the genitalia and get mats out around his arm pits. I do brush him several times a week, clean his eyes daily, his ears weekly, and brush his teeth (at least 3 times per week) with a children''s toothbrush and alternate between the vanilla mint and chicken flavored toothpaste (no tartar whatsoever on his teeth!) I am afraid of trimming his nails, though I did when he was just a little puppy (he has some white and some black nails)

 

[April20]

He goes to the groomer. I''ve trimmed him a couple of times and it took forever and he looked like a kid who''s mom cut his hair.

I wish I knew how to groom him properly and in an efficient way. I did the math one day and figured out we spend as much on his grooming in a year as we do on my hair cuts/color!

 

[Bia]

I do it myself for two reasons: 1) No one ever does it the way I want and 2) I hate that my pooch gets so stressed out. She went three times and all three times it wasn''t worth the money or the stress.

Plus she''s only 9 pounds and I do a better job anyway

 

[Lauren8211]

The cats dont require much grooming, just some brushing, and they''re declawed, so no claw trimming. ( They''re rescues, they were not declawed by me)

The bird we take in. Im terrified of clipping his wings incorrectly. While we''re there, we trim his nails also. It''s less than 15 bucks for the bird.

 

[setell]

Date: 10/29/2009 11:54:41 AM
Author: lyra

Date: 10/29/2009 8:36:18 AM
Author: setell

Date: 10/29/2009 1:33:20 AM
Author: lyra
We do our own grooming since we have all the tools left over from when we showed our dogs. I do take my chihuahua to the vet to get her nails trimmed now though. They donate the proceeds to a pet charity, so we do that as our way of contributing something to other pets in need. win-win

What do they use the nails for?

I''ve been grooming my maltese puppy since I got him a month ago. I trim his nails, brush his fur daily, brush his teeth daily, bath him, wash his face (maltese are prone to tear staining) etc. I pretty much do it all and I know I HAVE to take him to the groomers as he''s a long hair dog so he''ll need a haircut every once in a while unless I learn how to do it myself!

The vet charges $10 for nail trimming. The money goes directly to an animal charity foundation.

Whoops...sorry misread your original post

 

[radiantquest]

My kitties groom themselves unless something particulary strange has gotten in their fur and then I help. DH trims their nails. We tried to bathe them once. We did not succeed. We tried with the small one. She managed to get wet, mildly soapy and rinsed and out she went. The big one required both of us and still only 3 paws got wet. We gave up after that.

 

[sctsbride09]

We groom our own dogs, 2 of them. We used to take our little one to the groomer before we got dog #2, but after a nail trimming accident, he is terrified to go back. So, needless to say thats why.

 

[lilyfoot]

Date: 10/28/2009 11:08:13 PM
Author: deegee
I took my poochie to the groomer twice, and she came back both times extremely stressed out and acting weird for hours. I bought a furminator and good nail clippers, so hubby and I take care of the bathing, de-shedding, nail trimming and ear cleaning ourselves. Trimming the nails was the trickiest thing for me to learn because she has mostly dark, solid color nails. She has short hair, so no trimming or styling required!

That''s horrible

Kudos to you for taking on the grooming yourself after seeing your doggies discomfort.

 

[lilyfoot]

Date: 10/29/2009 2:07:25 PM
Author: April20
He goes to the groomer. I''ve trimmed him a couple of times and it took forever and he looked like a kid who''s mom cut his hair.

I wish I knew how to groom him properly and in an efficient way. I did the math one day and figured out we spend as much on his grooming in a year as we do on my hair cuts/color!

This cracked me up. Seriously,you can always tell which doggie parents did a DIY haircut on their dog. Grooming is expensive, so I understand why people like to do it themselves, but it always looks so funny

Oh well, not like the dog cares ...

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

the kittens mostly groom themselves, but I had to give them a bath 2 days ago (giardia infection so cleaned their box, the bathroom, and then them). They were NOT happy at all. I dunked each one under the running tub faucet (with nice warm water) and got them wet. Put them on the toilet lid (since they''re scrambling to get away and I''m holding them with one hand), rubbed shampoo in, and repeated the faucet process several times until I got the shampoo out (all the while, I have a squirming, clawing, yowling cat in one hand). Not an experience I''d like to repeat - thank goodness they''re short-haired!

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Result of bath:

 

[Luckyeshe]

Lilyfoot, I do 80% of the grooming for both of my dogs. I say 80% because the papillion (10lbs) gets his nails done professionally since he won't stay still for me and I'm afraid to hurt him, but I bath him, clean his ears and teeth, and cut his hair any time it needs to be done. And for the husky (60lbs) I bath him and do everything else for him like his nails and shed him with the furminator, but sometimes I take him to the groomers to get a bath especially when I don't have time. Fortunately he gets bathed every 2-3 months. It takes me hours to blow dry him with my hair dryer so I do the groomers every now and then to save my blow dryer.

 

[miraclesrule]

I got a vision of me licking my cats when I read this title.