Owning a dog is much more than just walking and feeding, as there is a great deal of ‘canine maintenance’ that is also required to keep your much-loved pet as healthy as possible. This includes cleaning their teeth, bathing them, clipping their nails, checking their ears and checking their eyes for infections.
There are many great things about having dogs, but hygiene is not considered one of them! This is a slight sacrifice you must make if you are going to enjoy keeping these pets. Dogs aren’t hygienic, they will urinate on your carpet from time to time, and they do “bring things in from the garden”. While the housekeeping involved for a home with a dog is likely to be rather harder work than for a home without pets, it doesn’t have to be difficult as long as you know how to act around them and how to ensure that you are as hygienic as possible in your interactions with your pet. Here we will look at some dog hygiene basics and how to avoid letting your dog spread illnesses.
Brushing your pets’ teeth
This is one area that many pet owners neglect simply because they don’t know any better. And for most pets it doesn’t become an issue until they get older, anyway (if they are eating predominantly dry kibble, for example). However, if your pet’s teeth are yellow or brown in color, they have lost teeth, or they seem to have trouble chewing, then you are probably looking at some serious dental hygiene issues. These problems can be easily avoided by arranging cleanings with your veterinarian or simply brushing your pet’s teeth.
Bathing your pet regularly
When your pets start to smell, it is a good indicator that they are in desperate need of a bath. But if it gets to this point, a bath is probably long overdue. Failing to bathe your pets regularly dogs in particular can result not only in odor problems, but also issues with fur matting, shedding, etc. and skin dryness, flaking, or itching. This is a sorry state for your animals and it is clear that you need to pay more attention to their hygiene.
Cleaning your pets’ ears
Ear cleaning is an essential part of your dog’s basic grooming routine. All dogs should have their ears cleaned from time to time, but some dogs need more frequent and thorough cleaning than others. This is especially true for dogs prone to ear infections. Fortunately, it’s easy to clean your dog’s ears at home. You just need to ensure to do it properly so you don’t do any damage.
Trimming your dogs’ nails
Regularly trimming your dog’s nails is a necessary part of raising a healthy and happy furry friend. Without proper trimming, nails can crack and become infected. Just like us, a dog’s nails grow throughout his life. Now that most domesticated dogs spend more of their time inside, their nails don’t naturally wear down as quickly as they grow. If you don’t trim your dog’s nails, they may snap and break and cause him pain.
Trim your dogs’ fur around his eyes
Excess hair around your dog’s eyes can increase his chances of developing eye irritation or infection. A veterinarian or professional groomer can trim away the hair surrounding your dog’s eyes using a blunt-nosed scissor. Please do not attempt to cut hair around your animal’s eyes as you may cause injury. Seek the help of a professional groomer or veterinarian.
Clean dogs are usually healthy dogs, but practicing good hygiene takes practice! If the “practice” starts during puppyhood, chances are keeping your dog clean throughout his life will be easy.In the wild, dogs maintain their own hygiene without human intervention, but this level of cleanliness is seldom adequate for human interaction.
While most dogs aren’t offended by the smell of their canine friends, humans are. And while dirty feet in the forest aren’t a problem, muddy paws on the living room carpet are a big no-no.Humans and dogs have different ideas about what counts as “dirty” so the regimen we impose on our pets may be contrary to their nature.
Dogs don’t instinctively brush their teeth, take a bath or clip their nails so we must orient them as pups to the hygiene requirements of domestic life with humans.