Swank Pets Dog Blog

This is the second part in my series of “How to Groom a Yorkie or Maltese”. The first post was just an intro.

First, you will need to go through your dog’s hair and remove any snarles or mats. Snarles are just twisted parts of the dogs hair that can be removed with your fingers alone. Mats, however, are a little tougher. These are extremely tangled parts of your dogs hair, that feel like thick clumps. These are pretty much impossible to remove with your fingers so you will need to use a pin brush for dogs to remove the mats before bathing. Lots of mats are a sign that you are not grooming your dog enough or just not brushing their hair enough. I always brush my dogs hair on a regular basis to avoid matting since these can cause your dogs discomfort and itching.

There are some types of coats of hair where you will need to brush on a daily basis. This is just the nature of the coat, and they have a greater tendancy of becoming matted. A puppy cut is a good solution to rid your dog of mats, and make caring for your dog’s coat a lot more convenient. Removing mats can be an uncomfortable process for your dog no matter how careful or gentle you are, so I would strongly consider the puppy cut if your dog experiences lots of mats. My Yorkie has a puppy cut, and it litterally takes about 10 minutes to bathe and dry her. Plain and simple, its the easiest type of cut to maintain. I also think she looks cuter with this type of cut.

To actually remove the mats, use this slicker brush or pin brush. Place your finger at the base of the dogs coat right against the skin. Then gradually start at the base of the coat with the brush, and slowly work your way up towards your fingers. Its a slow and somewhat painful process, but a necessity. If you don’t take care of the mats now, they will only get worse.

After the mats are all removed you are now almost ready to start bathing your dog. Stay tuned for the next post on preparing the ears.