When it comes to grooming dogs, you will look for a pet-caring service. What do you do as your furry friend needs to be groomed? You will go to a pet salon with it and let staff do their job maybe. However, you can choose another way. How about cutting your dog’s hair by yourself? You have to find out how to groom a dog at home with scissors.
Instead of taking your dog to a pet salon, you can do it yourself if you’re well-prepared and follow instructions. Give it a try!
How To Groom A Dog At Home With Scissors?
Your first time to groom your dog is probably a success if you’re well-prepared and follow steps below. Make your pet comfortable and design new gorgeous hair for the furry lovely friend.
1. Preparation For Grooming
You need to equip with a full set of scissors. Only one pair of scissors is not enough. You must prepare several tools to groom your dog properly because different steps require different tools. Good – quality tools will make the pet feel comfortable when you cut their hair.
You should go to a pet supply store and buy some items. The first tool is the straight grooming shears which are used for general cutting. Next, to round off layers of hair, you need curved scissors. Thirdly, the thinning shears will solve hair in the problem area and create a natural edge for the pet’s coat. The final item is rounded safety tip scissors used to trim the tail and face.
Keep scissors sharp and oiled. Because dull scissors will drag hair and make your dog feel pain, you need to check the scissors before trimming. Avoid hurting your furry friend and make sure that it’s sharp enough. New shears are often sharp. If they’re not, you can drop scissors oil on the blade. You can get the scissors oil in stores where you buy scissors to groom your dog. For scissors used several times, they need to be sharpened.
Create a grooming area. Why do you need to set up a grooming area? While you cut hair for your dog, its hair will fly everywhere. You need a solution to keep your room clean. An idea is putting a mat under your dog to catch falling hair. If you raise a small dog, you can place a mat on the table and put your pet on it.
After finishing grooming, you can pick up the mat easily and throw away hair. It’s necessary that all tools are in your reaching zone, so you can get any tools while grooming your dog.
2. Taking Care Of The Dog’s Coat
Comb the dog’s hair. Use a standard comb to brush its hair. If you meet a knot, hold it gently with one hand and swatch the comb to your other hand. Slowly and gently comb it out, so you shall avoid hurting your pet. Many people groom their dog’s hair after they have a bath because hair is easy to cut when it’s slightly damp. If the dog’s coat has many knots, you should trim it before giving your dog a bath.
How long will you cut? If your dog has long hair and you want to keep it long, be sure to trim enough in places that are prone to matting, such as the belly and tail. Use your fingers as a guide to making sure that you don’t cut too much off. You don’t have to cut all of the hair to the same length. For instance, you might cut the dog’s sides to finger length but the belly to half a finger length.
In case you like to keep the length of dog hair, you can trim only hair in the belly or tail. Your finger can become a ruler. You use the finger to measure the length you cut. It will help you to avoid cutting too much off. Remember that you don’t apply the same length for all parts of the dog body.
Start grooming your dog with the straight shears cutting hair in the area at the top neck. Trim down to the tail. Don’t groom the tail hair immediately. Cut the hair down the sides of the belly and legs. If you have a dog with thick fur, and you want to create a lighten-up effect, you use thinning shears to cut the area with different lengths.
You have to groom your dog carefully and slowly. Avoid hurting your pet because it will become terrified if it gets hurt. Use your time effectively. If you trim dog hair carefully, you can reduce mistakes.
Only cut hair that you can hold and see it through. In case the hair is so thick that it’s difficult to move and see light through, it’s possible to cut too close dog skin. You should put a comb between your scissors and the dog’s skin to avoid hurting its skin.
It’s good to cut gently. Don’t chomp the blades down fast and strongly. This way helps you to realize if the scissors are close to dog skin, then you can stop immediately before making the dog injured.
Read more: Why Is Your Dog Acting Weird After Grooming? What You Need to Know
3. Grooming The Sensitive Area
It’s great to know how to groom a dog at home with scissors. Groom sensitive areas. Cut the sides and legs before you start on more difficult parts like the face, ears, feet, and tail. That way, you can be sure to get the bulk of the cutting out of the way. If your dog gets skittish at the end and you have to stop, it will at least have been mostly trimmed
You should try other areas before cutting hair in sensitive areas. At first, groom sides and legs; then trim the hair in face, tail, feet, and ears. if you solve the sides and legs at first, you will almost finish the whole job. Sensitive areas don’t have too much hair, but you have to focus on your cutting job. In case your dog becomes annoying, you have groomed so much hair on the sides and legs.
You need concentration when cutting hair in sensitive parts. Don’t cut off too much. The important thing is getting rid of hair in the right places and avoiding getting your pet hurt. Focus on removing any hair around the eyes, and removing excess hair on the ears and tail. You will need rounded tip safety shears to have a sensitive area groomed.
For its feet, cut the feet hair from the back, near the leg, up toward the toes. You also use rounded tip shears. Only cut the longer hair in the feet. Be careful to avoid making your dog hurt.
It’s time to use thinning shears and make your dog’s hair look nice. Because you can make a mistake while cutting, you will have to edit some areas as the last step. Repair matted areas or patches of thick hair. You must choose the right length for each area so that your pet friend has a good-looking hair coat.
Watch this video to learn more tips:
Conclusion
Do you figure out how to groom a dog at home with scissors? Buy essential items, read instructions, and tips before beginning the scissors tour. Be concentrated and careful while grooming! You will be able to give your dog a new look.