You may have even heard these lies from your veterinarian, although it wouldn’t really be their fault. The grooming industry has worked very hard to perpetuate these lies, going all the way back to the 1960s. And once “they” got all of us on the same page saying the same thing, then it became “popular wisdom“ and everybody believed it.
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So it’s not just your groomer. Or my groomer. Because I love my groomer; but my groomer has actually educated herself about the topics below, and she won’t be caught saying these things. But it’s also your veterinarian, your boarding facility provider, and even your local pet store. We have all heard the exact same stories since the 1960s when the National Dog Groomers Association of America was founded.
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The grooming industry is no different than the pet food industry or any other industry. The pet food industry started training people in the 1950s that “people food isn’t healthy for dogs and they need to eat pet food.“ TRUTH: The only person people food is not healthy for is the pet food industry!
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As the grooming industry grew, they deliberately cultivated a mindset or a culture that propagated the following lies:
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- If you bathe your dog more than two or three times a year, it’ll wash the oils off the skin. OK. But a groomer is happy to wash the oils off the skin every two weeks if you need to! What does oil on the skin mean? Why is there oil on the skin? Maybe because he’s dirty! Skin shouldn’t feel oily!
- Don’t get water in the ears. Seriously? Pay attention to your own ears the next time you take a shower. You definitely got water in them and you simply don’t get an infection from water in your ears! And dogs and cats can shake their heads at lightning speed to fling that water out of their ears. You and I have to get a cotton swab.
- Floppy ear dogs are more likely to get ear infections. FALSE. Ear infections very commonly come from dirty ears (which means you need to clean them more often! Duh…) or food allergies.When people come into my office with pets with skin conditions, I always look for food allergies.
- You don’t wanna get water in their face. Well, sure… nobody likes soapy bubbles in their eyes. We really can wash the dog’s face and get it clean just like humans and their infants can do. The general rules are these: Wet the washcloth with water and don’t stick your finger in their eye. There’s actually a reflex for dogs and cats so if you touch their face, they’re going to blink and close their eyes. It really is safe to wash a dog’s face.
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I never want to leave cats out of this. Cats actually are pretty good at grooming themselves. But if they get nasty, give them a bath.. Carefully.
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And why does this stuff matter? In Florida, especially in the summertime, but it’s happening all over the northern hemisphere right now, I see an awful lot of cats and dogs with skin conditions. Especially dogs.
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And one of the first things I’m going to suggest is cleanliness. Because if a long haired German Shepherd (for example) comes in with a thick, should be beautiful coat and he’s got oozing sores all over his body, the first thing we’re gonna do is get a bath and clean that skin and the sores. It might be every single day for a little while!
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This is difficult for pet owners because they’re dealing with 60 years of mental training by our society saying “don’t give your dog a bath more than twice a year.”
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And maybe this advice is why dogs don’t like baths. At least some of them. Because they aren’t used to it!
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But look at the little dogs, like my Maltese. She’s the stereotypical “little white dog”. She needs a bath every one to two weeks. Otherwise she becomes a gray brown pink blue with patches of white dog.
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Bathing doesn’t damage her skin anymore than it damages mine to take a shower every single day when I get home from work because I’m dirty.
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So let’s rethink conventional wisdom. Because there might not be a lot of wisdom in it. If our pets are walking around outside in the leaf litter, where all of the pollen is, we just might want to wash that pollen off the body and see if we can reduce some of the allergic symptoms.
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Still seeing patients in Clearwater, Tampa, and virtually.