Beauty Parlor Time for Your Min Pin
Two of the most frequently asked questions I hear in regard to Min Pins are “How often should I bathe him (or her)?”, and “How do you trim their nails?” Both excellent questions and ones you need to know the answers to if you have on of these balls o’ fire living in your house.
Let’s start with bathing – I think we can all agree that dogs need to be bathed from time to time – some more than others. In fact, some dogs have a very distinctive “doggie odor” than can be downright … um… unpleasant.
Well, I’m glad to say that Min Pins don’t fall into that category – they’re relatively odor-free, unless there are some unusual circumstances, like ill health or they tangle with a skunk or roll in something icky and stinky. Other than that, these dogs are pretty clean and aroma-free – but they still need a bath occasionally.
The problem is, giving a bath too frequently can remove essential oils from the coat and skin, leaving your Min Pin with unwanted skin conditions. There are a couple of ways to keep your darling clean and glossy without bathing him or her too often.
Min Pins have a short, sleek coat that doesn’t shed much and only requires a brushing about once or twice a week to remove any loose hair. Use a short, natural-bristled brush and start at the head – working back across the spine and down the shoulders to the legs – following the direction of the hair growth. Continue across the back to the hindquarters, and down the back legs. Brush gently – because their coat is so short and sleek they generally don’t have a lot of padding and you don’t want to turn what should be a pleasurable brushing experience into a painful one. A final brush or two across the tummy should do the trick.
Next, take a washcloth, and soak it in warm – not hot – water, no soap, and starting at the face and working backward in the same direction you just brushed, wipe your Min Pin down from head to hind feet, paying particular attention to the face, especially around the eyes. Be careful not to drip any excess water in the ears – in fact, if you find this is a problem, many people take a couple of cotton balls and gently place one in each ear to absorb any water that trickles by.
In effect what you’re doing is giving your dog a sponge bath (well, a washcloth bath, if you want to get technical about it) which eliminates surface grime without full immersion in bath water that would remove essential oils. Your Min Pin shouldn’t be soaking wet when you’re done – just damp – but make sure he or she is completely dry before going outside, especially if the weather is cool.
A full immersion bath shouldn’t be necessary more than about once a month, or even every other month – unless as I said your Min Pin rolls in something nasty. Because they’re small and compact (don’t tell them that – my Min Pin thinks she’s the size of a Rottweiler!) they’re relatively easy to bathe.
Fill the sink or tub or wherever you’re going to be giving the bath with lukewarm water (not hot) and soak your dog’s skin completely, again being careful not to spray excess water into the ears. (Try inserting a cotton ball in each ear.) Using a small amount of doggie shampoo, start shampooing from the back of the neck, down the shoulder and across the back, before finishing up on the tummy and down the legs. Use a shampoo formulated for dogs, rather than people, because the ingredients will be less likely to strip those essential oils from the hair and skin. Once your Min Pin is all “sudsed up” – rinse thoroughly with lukewarm water – making sure that all the shampoo is rinsed out. (If you leave shampoo in your dog’s coat it will dry and flake, causing itching and discomfort and all sorts of skin conditions – so make sure you get it all.
Then, if desired, you can follow up with a treatment of dog skin and coat conditioner. There are literally dozens of these types of products on the market – it’s like buying conditioner for your own hair – not so much as a detangler, because a Min Pin’s coat isn’t long enough to tangle, but as a way of restoring some of the oils removed by bathing. Finally, towel dry your Min Pin of excess water, and either blow dry the rest, or let him or her run around the house like a banshee until air-dried. (That’s the protocol at my house – it wouldn’t be bath time unless it’s finished by a road race around the house, over the couch and into bed, where I always find a nice damp spot where she’s burrowed under the sheets!)
Next up – the pedicure. Funny how the thought of trimming a dog’s nails strikes fear into the heart of most owners. Relax – it’s not that hard – in fact, it’s no harder than trimming your own nails, once you get the hang of it. First, you need the right equipment – in this case simply a pair of “parrot-type” nail trimmers and a styptic pencil – a medicated stick that stops bleeding quickly. (I’ll explain that in a minute – it’s not as bad as it sounds!)
Just like the condition of your own nails can be an indicator of overall health, your Min Pin’s nail can give you valuable clues to the health of your little brat. Nails that are cracked and splitting can point to a problem with diet and nutrition, long nails on one individual paw can mean your dog is reluctant to put weight on that limb – possibly indicating a joint injury or soreness, etc.
Some dogs don’t mind having their nails trimmed – others hate it passionately. If you’ve owned your Min Pin since he or she was a puppy, you should have started handling their feet regularly since that time – the sooner they get used to having their feet handled, and their nails trimmed, the sooner they’ll stop fighting the process. If that’s not the case – either you got your darling as an adult or simply didn’t know to start handling his or her tippy-toes, it’s not too late to start now.
If your Min Pin is anything like mine – they love to cuddle – sitting on your lap, behind you on the couch, in bed next to you when you try to enforce your right to at least a portion of the bed – this may be the original Velcro dog! Well, now you can put all that togetherness to good use – when you’re watching TV, or reading a book, and your Min Pin is beside you, simply move your hand from its normal place scratching behind the ears to resting on top of a front foot. Do it casually, as if you aren’t aware that you’re touching the paw. Wait a second or two, then remove your hand. Repeated often enough, and casually enough, this will reassure your dog that you’re not out to grab his or her foot and subject it to being snipped off with a pair of clippers. It may take a while, but you can eventually retrain the way your dog thinks about foot handling.
A Min Pin’s nails should be clipped about every two weeks to prevent overgrowth and splitting – not to mention having cracked or rough nails getting caught in rugs, bedding or on furniture and presenting a very real possibility of breaking a leg.
A dog’s nail is supplied by a blood vessel that runs down the middle of the nail – if your dog has light-colored nails you can often see this blood vessel through the nail material as a pink or red-shaded area. It’s much harder to see, if not downright impossible, if the nail is black. This is important because you don’t want to trim the nail back so far that you cut into this blood vessel – not only does that hurt your dog, but it bleeds, in which case you’ll need to have that styptic pencil on hand that I mentioned before. A styptic pencil is simply a stick made of a specific medication that inhibits bleeding almost immediately – if you do happen to trim too close to the blood vessel, apply the styptic pencil and the bleeding should stop quickly.
I prefer the “parrot-style” of nail trimmers – they’re available from any local pet supply store, and are specifically designed to trim dog nails quickly and easily and leave a clean sharp cut on the face of the nail that shouldn’t need filing. Keep them sharp – or plan on replacing them about once a year.
The easiest way to trim your Min Pin’s nails is to lay your dog on its back with his or her feet up in the air (you may need help with this part to get your dog to lie still) and start with a hind foot. (It doesn’t matter which one.) Grasp the foot gently but firmly, and spread the toes out so you can see each nail. Slip the nail trimmer over the tip of the nail, and trim it back in small increments. Cut too much off at one time and it’s like when you tear a nail off below the quick – it’s going to hurt, and your dog will immediately start to pull away. Repeat on all the nails on that foot, then proceed to the next. (Foot, I mean!)
Ideally, the nail length should be just touching or just above the ground as the paw is standing square on the floor. In other words, when your Min Pin is standing there looking up at you for a treat in reward for being such a good boy or girl while having a pedicure, the nail should be just off the ground. By trimming your Min Pin’s nails every two weeks, you’ll keep them at the appropriate length for running, playing, hiding, digging and of course, walking on your head in the middle of the night.
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