Grooming is important to keep a dog healthy and happy. Proper grooming ensures a dog is free of tick and mite attacks, allergies and body odors. If a dog’s pelt looks dull and its skin looks dry and flaky, the dog is definitely not well-groomed and needs immediate human attention. After all a bright, shiny coat, smooth skin, and normal body odor provides proof of a dog’s health condition to everyone around him. Grooming Eyes, Ears, Nose, Nails Grooming does not only mean brushing and combing. Grooming also entails trimming the nails, cleaning the eyes and ears and giving periodic baths, not to mention brushing the teeth. Many require haircuts too. For example, the coat of long-haired dogs tend to tangle and become smelly, thus they needregular brushing. The ‘silky-coated’ Setters and Spaniels have abundance of dead hair that needs to be removed by hand as the matted hairs become very painful. Wire-haired dogs need stripping of the coat at least once a year. Even the hairless dogs need special care. Dogs like American Hairless Terrier or Chinese (Hairless) Crested have delicate skin that cannot take direct sun rays, thus they require sunscreen lotion before being taken outside. Dirt and moisture tend to find home in the wrinkled or creased skin of dogs like Pug, Shar Pei, and Bulldog that needs to be cleaned everyday with a damp cloth to avoid skin disorders. Dogs like Chihuahua, Boston Terrier or Pekingese have prominent eyes where dirt tend to collect. Also, dead hair tend to accumulate in the eyes and ears of dogs having hairy coat like Affenpinscher, Golden Retriever, Japanese Spitz, etc. Cleaning is necessary to wash away the gathered dirt, hair, wax and even mites inside the eye and ear ducts. Dogs like the Toy Poodle, the Dachshund or the German Wire-haired Pointer needs extensive brushing and combing several times a week, if not more. Whereas the Basset Hound or the Doberman Pinscher can do with a little brushing. Thus the level of maintenance or grooming depends on each individual breed itself. Grooming vs Shedding Shedding is a natural process of discarding dead hairs off the body. A heavy shedder or a seasonal shedder will continue to shed when its shedding-time comes. Many suffer from the misconception that a dog that sheds little need less amount of grooming and the ones that shed heavily need extensive grooming. For example: Dogs like the Collie, Spanish Mastiff, or Alaskan Husky shed heavily twice a year but Don’t need much grooming apart from regular brushing and combing. On the other hand, dogs like the Kerry Blue Terrier, Poodle, Bichon-Frise need Extensive grooming but they shed little to no hair. Grooming encompasses, not just brushing and combing the coat, but cleaning and taking care of eyes, ears, nose, skin and nails of your dog. Shedding is but a natural of getting rid of dead hairs, and whether your dog is a heavy or light shedder, grooming is a daily dog care routine. Proper grooming might reduce shedding but it will not stop the process altogether. Subscribe to a Free Course on Dog Grooming and learn all about how to groom your dog at home, how to use different grooming tools.