Tips For Your Skin When Grooming Your Dog

Fussy right before a much needed haircut.

          I do all the grooming on my dogs which are all English Springer Spaniels with the exception of one Chinese Crested. So not only do I do trimming with scissors I also use a clipper to keep them all nice and trimmed. But anyone who has clipped snippets of fur off a dog knows that those little bits of hair likes to collect on your skin and even stab you. OUCH! Not to worry as I am going to give you some tips to help save your skin and make cleaning those little stabby hairs off you a bit easier.

          First you want to make sure you are wearing the proper clothing for the job at hand. Long sleeves will help be a barrier for you arms but if that is to hot short sleeves will work. You don't want to have anything with a low cut neck unless you want hair going down into your shirt. I like to groom wearing a old T-shirt. Long pants are best but once again if that is to hot to wear shorts will do. If you go with shorts I would recommend them not to be super short shorts. I normally wear jogging pants, jeans, or if it is hot out a long short. As for footwear I like to use gym-shoes but any shoe that covers your foot completely will also work. You don't want to wear sandals or you run the risk of getting a hair splinter in the bottom of your foot, also you don't want anything with an open toe just in case you drop your scissors.

          Second thing to do is wear some type of grooming smock. There is a wide variety of grooming aprons and smocks that range from short to long length, long sleeve, short sleeve, or no sleeve, and even in different types of materials. Pick one that fits your needs and that you would be comfortable wearing. I personally have a bunch of different types of aprons and smocks that I use. For quick examples I have a long heavy water proof apron for washing dogs, long sleeve smock for when I have to do a bunch of haircuts, and a lightweight small apron for brush-outs.

          Now you got your clothing and apron on, what is next? You need a skin barrier. Products such as: Oster Clear Glove (I mainly use this one), Gloves In A Bottle (I also use this), Liquid Gloves, and Invisible Glove. Before you begin to groom you will want to apply one of these to your neck, hands, and arms. What these products do is to create a barrier between your skin and any hair that comes in contact with you. When using this you are less likely to have hairs stabbing into your skin and it makes it much easier to wipe the fur off your skin.

          After you finished clipping make sure you run a horse hair brush or other soft bristle brush over your dog to remove any loose trimmed hair. Next you now need to get any hair that is on you off. Before you jump in that show get a dry small towel and use that to dust yourself off. Clipped dog fur likes to stick to wet skin so by using a dry towel first you will have an easier time knocking off the hair. If you don't feel any hair splinters or see any clumps of fur on you then you are ready for the shower. Afterwards you will want to check your fingernails, you may see tiny bits of trimmed hair under your fingernails. If you do take a nail trimmer and pull out that metal file that is attached to it. On the end of the file is a hook use that part to go under your nails and gently remove any hairs you see.

          I hope you found my tips helpful and maybe even learned something new. If you know a tip or trick that you use to help with keeping the fur off your skin I would love for you to share it.