Grooming Your Golden Retriever

At Gap View Ranch and Kennel, we have a lot of golden retrievers to groom.  This keeps our staff busy!  There are some times of the year when grooming is a bit more intensive than others, and there are some tips you can take advantage of to make grooming your golden easier and more fun.

Basic Grooming - Puppies 

If you start to groom your puppy right after he or she comes home, grooming will become a routine that both of you look forward to.  Never be rough with your puppy as you are grooming, or for that matter, at any other time.  Be gentle, and let your pup know that he is safe with you.  
  
Use a soft brush on your puppy.  Later, when his fur is longer, you'll need some special grooming tools - but for now, use something soft that feels good.  Your puppy has sensitive skin, so being careful now will prevent him from associating grooming with discomfort.

Play with your puppy's toenails every day.  Rub his toes and paws, and file off the sharp tips with an emery board as he gets used to you playing with his feet.  Once he is used to that, use special toenail clippers to clip just the tips of his toenails.  Be careful not to get the quick - he'll bleed everywhere, and you might end up with a dog who hates having his feet touched.

Basic Grooming - Adults 

You'll need a few special tools for keeping your golden retriever looking good.  We like the furminator, and we also use a longer mat rake to get through long feathering.  If you brush your dog frequently, you'll never end up with mats and knots, unless he gets out and gets into something.  If he ends up with mats or knots behind his ears, you may need to take him to the vet or a professional groomer to have them removed.

Do NOT attempt to cut mats off with a pair of scissors!  Mats are often right next to the skin, and skin could be trapped inside.  Cutting a mat with skin trapped in it could cause a nasty gash and result in an expensive trip to the vet for stitches.  Prevention is the best way to keep any of this from happening!

When the weather changes, you might notice your dog losing tufts of his undercoat.  This is completely normal!  Take him outside or into the garage or another area where you can clean up easily, and get to work.  A long toothed comb like a metal flea comb works very well for getting in under the tufts and removing them easily.  Once, a lady visted Gap View and told us she had saved all this undercoat hair and made yarn from it with her spinning wheel!  She said she was saving it to make a sweater for herself.  You don't have to go to that extent - but you can use old panty hose filled with dog hair to keep rabbits out of your garden - or, you can just dispose of the hair.  We recommend you wear old clothes when you go for the undercoat, and you might have to brush your dog a few times for a week or two to get all the hair, since different areas shed at different rates.  Gap View's golden retrievers are all different - some lose their entire undercoat all at once, and others go in stages.  Just don't try to pull out any hair that's not ready, because this can cause discomfort.

Keep your dog's toenails clipped, and use a file to blunt any sharp edges.  Remember to get the dewclaw, too!  Remember, the more pleasant you make the whole process, the easier it will be for you and your golden retriever.