Face Washing

A few weeks ago I saw a post on one of the forums, where someone asked about getting shampoo in a dogs eyes.

I was really surprised at the number of answers to the post where other groomers talked about washing face, or lack there of.

A surprising number of groomers talked about avoiding shampooing the face, or talked about using a washrag on the face.

Some even talked about not getting any water around the eyes.

I am a BIG believer in getting a face clean, clean, clean!

I feel that if a face is not clean, then the dog has not been groomed properly.

As for shampoo in the eyes....

 I am very careful to shampoo all around the eyes.

I go out of my way not to get shampoo in the eyes.

I also get as close to the eyes as I can.

I watched a video on youtube a while back and was shocked to see the groomer rubbing all over the dogs face and over the dogs eyes without taking any care at all to avoid getting shampoo in the eyes.

I feel safe using all of my shampoos on the dogs faces.

I have had a ton of dogs, over the years, shake and get shampoo into my eyes.

I don't remember any of them stinging my eyes.

In all of the years that I have been grooming, I only remember one Schnauzer puppy that rubbed his leg across his face while bathing and rubbed shampoo directly into his eye.

The problem was that we didn't notice right away.

Even though we flushed the eye as soon as we noticed, he was still favoring the eye after the groom was done.

We sent him to the Vet for drops and paid the bill.

He was okay.

I used to have dogs turn their head, once in a while, right into the shampoo that I was applying from a small bottle, but I would flush the eye immediately and had no problems.

Most of the time, now, I put the shampoo on my fingers, or in my hand, and then soap up the face.

I feel like I have more control over where the shampoo goes.

It is so important to have a clean face.

Most of the time that is the first place an owner puts their face when they pick up their dogs.

I have my face and nose in my dogs faces all of the time.

I hate a stinky face.

I really hate a stinky bread....

......and, stinky eyes.

I start washing the faces by wetting them down first.

This helps me to spread the shampoo all over their face better, because I like to use a higher concentrate of the shampoo on the faces.

 After I get their faces wet, and before I shampoo the face, I move the hair out of the dogs eyes.

I get their hair away from their eyes as much as I can.

I will also clean out the eye boogies after they have soften up.

I will scrub the beard, rinse and scrub it again.

This is the time to make sure that you scrub all of the food out of the beard.

Lift the lip and check to make sure you are cleaning all of the food off.

If you can't get all of the food with your fingers, use a fine tooth comb to comb out the clumps of food caught in the hair.

I do this while the hair still has soap in it.

Be very careful, because the dogs skin is very tender when wet.

Carefully work your fingers all around the eyes.

Make sure that you scrub good between the eyes also.

 I like to get the whole face good and soapy.

I even get short haired dogs and dogs with just a little hair on their faces good and soapy.

I want those faces to smell really good.

I like to wash the faces first and let them soak while I soap up the rest of the body.

Just keep an eye on that soapy face and make sure that soapy hair does not fall into the eyes or that the dog rubs its face.

I start rinsing the face by putting the sprayer right against the top of the head.

I let the water run gently off of the top of the head, and over the eyes.

Some dogs keep their eyes open.

Some dogs close their eyes.

I never spray the water directly into the eyes.

The water flushes any shampoo away from the eyes as you rinse.

I am very careful not to get any water into the nose.

If the dog turns its face into the hose, or water runs into the nose, let the dog put its head down and sneeze if he needs to.

Then I take a towel and dry off their nose and go back to rinsing.

After the face is rinsed, I carefully move all of the wet hair out of the dogs eyes.

I am also feeling and checking the face for any shampoo that I may have missed.

Especially between the eyes.

The eyes are fine after the face has been bathed.

 Nice clean smelling eyes.

A clean, fluffy, food free beard.

Best of all, a cute, clean smelling face.

So don't be afraid to wash those faces really well.

Just use common sense, take your time, and be careful around the eyes. :)

Happy Grooming, MFF

Trip to Rock State Park - by Hanna

Hi my name is Hanna.

My special person is Lisa, I like to call her Mom.

She usually writes this blog, but she said that I could write todays post, because today we went for a hike to the Falls in Rock State Park.

And she owes me.

A hike.

I love going on hikes.

Mom picked me and Hunter to go.

We had to park and walk about a mile to get to the Falls.

That was fun.

The trail runs all through the woods.

It was sunny and 86 today here.

When we got down to the Falls, my Mom wanted to go to the other side to get some pictures, so we had to cross the water.

Jessica and her boyfriend carried Bentley and Cooper across the water.

Bentley and Cooper are Jessica's fur babies.

Then Mom let go of Hunter so that he could run across the water to Jess.

That crazy guy.

He was so ready to take off after them.

Mom let go of his leash and told him to go....and he went.

Then, half way across, he suddenly realized that he was running through water...the goof ball.

He stopped dead in the middle of the stream and looked like he was going to freak out.

Don't tell Mom, but I was laughing my Poodle tail off.

He finally got to the other side, and then Mom and I started across.

 Only I stopped and Mom kept going.

She thought that it would be nice to get pictures of me figuring out how to get across.

I didn't want to look like a goof ball, like Hunter.

So, I stopped on the same rock that Mom stepped on, then I just stood there waiting for someone to come carry me like they did Bentley and Cooper.

Dad walked towards me but did not pick me up.

So, I am not stupid, I followed him and stepped on the same rocks that he was stepping on.

It didn't always work.

I still ended up getting my feet and legs wet.

I was very careful and took my time, like the lady that I am.

But, at least I didn't get as wet as Hunter did, and I didn't look as silly as he did crossing the water.

Finally, we all got to the other side of the Falls.

Mom got her pictures of the Falls.

 Isn't it cool?

There was a nice breeze and we got to walk all around the rocks.

There were other silly people there, getting in the water.

They can have the water.

I wasn't planning on getting in that water again anytime soon....

...or so I thought.

 The next thing that I knew, I was watching Jess, Ben and Brett climb to the top of the Falls.

Bentley and Cooper got all upset that they were left behind.

So guess what happened next?

 

You guessed it, we climbed up next.

The only problem was that Mom had not taught Hunter his manners.

He was not letting me go up first.

He was trying to pass me.

So, I decided that I would teach him a lesson.

I didn't mean for him to fall all of the way back down.

Really, I didn't.

He was okay.

He turned in time and landed on his feet.

It also didn't stop him from barreling his way back up.

Next came Bentley and Cooper.

They wanted to get to Jessica so bad, but they were just too little to get up the steep rocks.

So this time Dad picked them up, and helped them get to the top.

Guess what happened once we got to the top?

We had to cross the water again!!!!

I couldn't believe it.

Mom was calling me over.

I stepped on the first rock....

....I started to step on the second rock....

Then I changed my mind and went back.

Let Hunter go first.

He took his time this time.

Then he stopped right in the middle of the stream again.

He didn't freak out this time because Mom kept on encouraging him to come to her.

He made it.

Now my turn...again.

Whose bright idea was it to cross this stream in the first place?

Mom!

I don't like you right now Mom.

Lets try this rock thing again.

I really don't want to get my feet wet again.

Let me just check this water out again.

Nope.

I don't like the water.

I hear you calling Mom, but I think that I will just stay here and wait for someone to carry me.

How about you put that darn camera down Mom and come get me.

What Mom?!!

Did I just hear you tell Ben to give me a little pull?!

Really?!

I thought that I was never going to get to the other side.

So did everybody else.

I don't care how many bones you offer me.

I AM NOT GOING BACK IN THAT WATER!

Really Mom....

Look at me......

I look a mess.

Jessica was going to come across another way, but there was no way she could jump across with both Bentley and Cooper.

So, they had to come the same way that I did.

 Only this time Jessica didn't carry them.

Because she didn't want to fall in the water.

See Mom!

Jess didn't want to get wet either.

Look at Bentley and Coppers faces.

They can't believe Jess left them.

Well, it was about time they got wet just like me and Hunter. :)

Okay Mom, time to head back to the car before you get any other bright ideas.

 Did I say that I like hiking?

How about finding a nice, flat, grassy field to hike on next time Mom.

Bye for now, Hanna :)