4 Benefits Of Grooming Your Cat Or Dog
Happy Tuesday!
How often do you groom your animals? Most often, breeds that have thick, long, or textured hair usually require more routine grooming. However, what most people don’t know is that even if your pet doesn’t necessarily fall into any of those categories, they should still be groomed. Today I am going to walk you through the benefits of grooming your cat and/or dog and explain the type of coats that my animals have.
My cat Felix is a short hair cat. Even though he doesn’t have as much hair as let’s say a Persian cat, he still sheds a lot.
Reason #1 as to why you should groom your pet: reduce shedding.
While consistent grooming will never reduce ALL of the shedding your animal will do, it does help with the overall amount. Plus, many of our animals have an undercoat that comes out during winter and sheds during the warmer spring and summer months. I try to brush Felix multiple times a week to get all of that extra hair off of him.
When you groom more consistently, this also helps keep your home cleaner. With any pet comes a ton of vacuuming, but when you’re keeping up with the fur, this helps to (somewhat) reduce the amount that you’re having to clean on a daily basis.
Reason #2 as to why you should groom your pet (cat specifically): reduce hairballs.
Since Felix was little he would always get hairballs. All cat owners who have experienced them know that they are absolutely disgusting and that the cat can’t help it. Cats are constantly grooming themselves which results in a lot of hair intake. Throughout Oscar’s life, Felix always took care of his brother in addition to himself. He would groom him and himself everyday which led to even more hairballs.
When you brush your cat(s) consistently, you’re helping to reduce the amount of excess hair that they can swallow, leading to potential hairballs. One of my favorite brands, FURminator, makes grooming brushes for both short and long hair undercoats. Both come in two sizes, small and large and they work really well. I’ve linked both below!
Reason #3 as to why you should groom your pet: to spread the natural oils on their skin.
Unlike all of the thick coated Labradors we have had in my life, Diesel has very fine and short hair (which is a blessing when it comes to cleaning haha!). Because of this, I wasn’t sure what type of grooming to do with him (if any) when we initially got him.
For dogs like this, the best grooming you can do is with a curry comb. Whenever I brush Diesel with his curry comb, I do get a handful of fur off from some of his thicker skin spots like his neck and his butt. When you consistently brush your dog, it spreads their natural oils on their skin around rather them keeping them in one spot. Doing this is really beneficial for their coats as it keeps them healthy and shiny!
Note: spreading oils is good for all dogs, not just dogs with fine, shorter hair!
Now, if you do have a dog with a thicker coat like a Labrador or German Shepherd for instance, your best bet is a FURminator type brush. My mom always had to brush our dog Nala in the backyard almost every day because of the insane amounts of hair that would come off of her. We would always joke that we could either clone her a thousand times because of all the hair or have a mini-her in the backyard from the amount of hair that would just be sitting out in the backyard haha!
Dogs like this have a ton of hair and a heavy undercoat which results in a ton of shedding. Keeping up with this not only is good for them but it helps with your cleaning! Below are two FURminator options that will do a great job!
FURminator Long Hair Undercoat deShedding Dog Tool
Reason #4 as to why you should groom your pet: to check for fleas/ticks.
This last reason is probably what all pet owners hate the most: fleas and ticks. When I was in college, one of my roommates had a cat who infested our house with fleas and it was my worse nightmare. Ever since then I completely freak out when it comes to fleas.
The best way to stay on top of this in addition to keeping your pet on proper flea medicine, is to check them from time to time for fleas.
**NOTE** Fleas/ticks can come from everywhere, even you! Fleas hop on to humans all the time and gravitate to your animals once they find them. If you take your dog to a park, live in a wooded area, etc. you are must keep your pets on flea/tick medicine!
Now, if you’re on flea medicine, and you happen to see one, chances are it will be dead soon because of the medicine. However, it’s never a bad reason to remove it once you find it.
You can find a flea comb at any of your local pet stores. I highly recommend checking in your bathroom so that you have quick access to a toilet, cotton balls, and rubbing alcohol. When you use a flea comb, the close teeth of the comb help to find the flea in the fur without removing too much fur, making it easier to see if you found anything. If you find one, have a cotton ball ready with rubbing alcohol to grab it from the teeth of the comb and then instantly flush it down the toilet.
If you just throw it away or do anything other than flush it, you will not get rid of the problem. Fleas have a hard outer shell, making it hard to smash them like your everyday bug. The rubbing alcohol helps to kill them and the flushing finishes the process.
What type of fur does your dog have and what are your grooming habits? I’d love to know! Please let me know if you found this post helpful in the comments below.
Photography: Brandy Lawrence Photography