Saturday, September 6, 2008

The Importance of Regular Grooming

While researching the Coton de Tulear, I read this and kept it in my journal.
"At 9 months, adult hair begins to grow. Special care must be given Coton de Tulear puppies at this time because lack of grooming may cause the hair to clump together and mat."
Armed with that information, I scheduled Bebe's first grooming appointment when she was 5 months old, thinking that if I groomed her every 6-8 weeks, then I wouldn't have to worry about the puppy hair & adult hair clumping together... that I would just skip right over that part !! WRONG !! Although I comb her out every night, it literally clumped together overnight ! Since then, I have done a bit more digging, and found out that you need to RINSE, RINSE, RINSE out the shampoo very good or it will mat the hair. So, maybe I didn't rinse her good enough, but I do now !!!!!!
My advise would be to comb on a regular basis, always brush or comb BEFORE you bathe your pup, ( or you'll end up with a huge mess ! ) then rinse out the shampoo thoroughly. I also use a conditioner for tangles. I would suggest a 'puppy cut' to get you through the 9-12 month period.
This is a photo of her 1st puppy cut at 5 months old.
At EXACTLY 9 months old, she had to be cut VERY SHORT due to her adult hair coming in, but it really was really nice to have clean carpet for the summer. NO LEAVES OR DEBRIS ! Yippee for the Puppy Cut ! Click here: for grooming products I use
This is a picture of Bebe's 1 year old puppy cut. Unfortunately, I let her outside before taking this picture, and as you can see, she went to play right in my mulch bed !