Grooming the Norwich, Page 6: Teeth Cleaning
March 7, 2012 by Pam Seifert • Categories: Health, Norwich Care
Teeth Cleaning by Victor Sattler
Like all animals, dogs can have dirty teeth and get gingivitis which may lead to bad breath and tooth problems down the road. You should get in the habit of looking in your dog’s mouth from the day you get your puppy. Puppy teeth should fall out on their own sometime around four months old. However they don’t always come out naturally and that can cause problems for adult teeth growing in. Just like humans, dogs can break or crack teeth accidentally. Dental health is important and easy to keep an eye on.
Rope toys and other doggy chew toys and dental treats make claims they replace the need to brush your dog’s teeth. Like anything in life, “Buyer Beware.”
Home Check-up
The key to checking teeth is to be methodical. Just like your dentist, start on one side from the top, work across and then do the bottom teeth. Look for any any obvious cracks or missing pieces especially on the larger canine teeth (which looks like a fang) and then on the rear teeth, called molars. Possible signs of trouble are:
- -tartar build up on the teeth
- -red inflamed gums
- -bad breath
- -loose or missing teeth
Left unchecked, something that could be quickly remedied can get complicated, even dangerous, if left too long uncared for.
Brushing your Dog’s Teeth
You should try to brush your dog’s teeth daily. Even if you only do it once a week that is better than not at all. You can get a doggy toothbrush and tooth paste at most pet stores. The finger tooth brush is the easiest to use. Like anything new, your dog will need some practice! Just like you would brush your own teeth, systematically brush your dog’s teeth. Be gentle and initial sessions should be very short … like not more than 30 seconds. Reward your dog with a healthy treat at completion.
There are product on the market that suggest that just adding a few drops to your pet’s water will adequately keep the dogs dental hygiene in check. I question if they work adequately and if they work so well why don’t they have the same for humans?
Tartar Scrapers
Your vet may tell you that your dog should have regular teeth cleaning done by a professional. Given that the use of anesthesia is always dangerous I would caution that if you can do an adequate job at home you can put off a professional cleaning for a very long time, if not indefinately. In addition to brushing your dogs teeth, you can scrape the tartar off relatively easily. First you need a dental scraper. I prefer a simple 90 degree flat head as the dental tool.
Gently, but firmly grasp the dog’s head so that you move the lips to expose the teeth. Put the head of the tool just slightly above the gum line, above the obvious tartar and pull down. The tartar should come off in bits. Just do one tooth at time and give your dog a few seconds break after each tooth.
Dental Rules of Thumb
Don’t let your dog chew on anything that is harder than their teeth. It cause unnecessary wear and may crack or break a tooth. Soft rope, or raw bones (never cooked since they become harder and don’t digest) are some alternatives. If you are going to use raw bones it is best to supervise your dog’s chewing as a simple precaution.
Grooming the Norwich, Page 5
March 7, 2012 by Pam Seifert • Categories: Health, Norwich Care
Using the Stripping Knife by Victor Sattler
Stripping knives do strip more hair quicker. For the beginner, more often than not, you will make a hole in the coat because the knife takes so much hair. However if your intention is to remove the entire top coat then a stripping knife will make short work of it.
Brand preference of stripping knives boils down to what feels comfortable in your hand. Different brands also have different blade sizes ranging from “coarse”, with the widest teeth size, to “medium”, “fine” and “extra fine”. The finer the blade, the smaller the teeth, the less hair it pulls. A coarse blade is generally for quickly removing the whole coat. A fine blade is for the face, paws or sensitive areas.
There is also a technique to using a stripping knife, regardless of the brand. Done incorrectly, you will cut the hairs rather than pluck them. A Norwich’s hair is banded. That means that there are bands of colour on each hair. If you look at a hair you will see that the darkest part is the tip and lightest is at the root. So if you inadvertently cut the coat the most brilliant colour is gone.
Here is how to use a stripping knife:
1 – Like in hand stripping, support the skin with your other hand, just above where you will use the stripping knife.
2 – Grasp the top coat between your thumb and the knife blade.
3 – Pull, without twisting your wrist or the stripping knife, in the direction the hair grows. Twisting the knife, or flexing your wrist will cut the hairs.
4 – Look at the sample you pulled. You should see the whole shaft of the hair … otherwise you did it wrong.
5 – Work on a small area and start with pulling only a small amount.
Using stripping knives is an art because different knives in the hands of different groomers accomplished different things. The video shows in just a few strokes of the stripping knife, the entire top coat is removed.
Hand Stripping with a Stripping Knife
Grooming, Hand Stripping the Norwich Coat Page 4
March 7, 2012 by Pam Seifert • Categories: Health, Norwich Care
Hand Stripping the Norwich Terrier Coat by Victor Sattler
Hand stripping a coat, in dog terms, is to pluck (or strip) dead hairs from the skin. If you don’t hand strip the coat it simply grows long and eventually falls out. Hand stripping the hairs speeds up an otherwise natural process. Done correctly, it is painless. The key is to only pluck a few hairs at a time. Pet owners find that doing this once in the spring and again in the fall keeps their Norwich looking clean and tidy. A show dog needs significantly more frequent “shaping”.
What needs to stripped? Of course, what needs to be stripped are the longer dead hairs. You can identify them by their length, usually in excess of an inch (2.5 cm). On red dogs they are often a lighter colour, especially on the face. Still not sure? If you have a latex glove put that on and run it down the back of your dog. The hairs that raise up from the static are the hairs that need to be stripped. This short clip shows the finger stripping method without any assistance of tools.
Beginners also comment that they can not seem to get a hold of the hair or that the hair slips out of their grasp. First, the hair does need to be long enough and ready to be plucked. A latex glove or a rubber finger thimble (finger clots) may be a useful aid to grab the hair.
The key to painless stripping is the following:
1 – Always pull in the direction that the hair grows.
2 – You must support the skin above where you are stripping. I can not stress this enough.
3 – Pull only few hairs at a time. Then comb and look again to see how much more needs to come out.
3 – Pull only few hairs at a time. Then comb and look again to see how much more needs to come out.
Cutting Toe Nails Page 3
March 7, 2012 by Pam Seifert • Categories: Norwich Care
Cutting Toe Nails by Victor Sattler
Care and maintenance of your Norwich’s toe nails is important. Ideally, once a week, they are either cut or “dremeled” with an electric rotary tool. If you hear your dog’s toe nails clicking on the floor that is the sign they are too long. If you don’t cut your dog’s toe nails often enough the quick in the nail grows longer with the nail. So when you finally get around to cutting the nail it bleeds, the dog yelps and you don’t want to do this again!
Most dog owners are accustomed to the guillotine style nail clippers. They are simple to operate but often they are held upside down. The photo on the left shows how to correctly hold the clippers. This is important because holding it any other way the blade won’t cut as smoothly because the leverage is wrong for the tool.
Note also that the blades MUST be sharp or what happens is you crush the toe nail instead of cutting it. You can usually get replacement blades from the store you bought your clippers.
next question is how much should you clip off? It is hard to know exactly where the quick is on black nails, so I suggest that your do a little at a time to figure out where the quick is. Again, make sure that the blade on your clippers are sharp!
At a minimum, you can clip the nails to remove the point. Then a little more at a time. Every dog’s nail is a little different. Clearly if you make the dog bleed that is probably enough for this time.
If you make the dog bleed simply apply pressure for about 60 seconds and the bleeding will stop. You can also use “Quick Stop” which is a styptic powder that stops the bleeding very quickly with a little pressure.
Dremel Tool Nail Grinding
The alternative to using a guillotine clipper is using a “dremel” tool. This is an electric, high speed rotary tool that you can put a drum sanding bit on (see photo left). This is the preferred option of many professionals. There are numerous inexpensive (about $10) rotary tools available. Use the fine, 120 grit drum sander. More coarse sanders can shred the nail. I do not recommend any stone type sanders because they heat up with use.
Grooming the Norwich Terrier, Page 2 Equipment
March 7, 2012 by Pam Seifert • Categories: Norwich Care
Combs and Brushes
Greyhound Comb
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The one comb you should not be without is a Greyhound comb. It is used for regular combing of your dog. It helps remove dead hair and generally keeps the coat clean and free of tangles. It is steel, about 7 inches long and looks like this:
Stripping Knives
There are all kinds of stripping knives that come with different handles and different blade sizes and coarseness, from extra fine to coarse. You should order one based on if you are right or left handed. Brand name is personal preference. Coarseness is based on what you want the blade for. Extra fine and fine are for the face and sensitive areas. Medium is generally coarse enough for complete stripping of a coat.
There are also a number of other products that groomers use for hand stripping a dog. From pumice stones,
Stripping Knives
There are all kinds of stripping knives that come with different handles and different blade sizes and coarseness, from extra fine to coarse. You should order one based on if you are right or left handed. Brand name is personal preference. Coarseness is based on what you want the blade for. Extra fine and fine are for the face and sensitive areas. Medium is generally coarse enough for complete stripping of a coat.
There are also a number of other products that groomers use for hand stripping a dog. From pumice stones,
to Michelangelo Sculpting stones, there are numerous items that groomers use to strip hair. Again, these are all personal preference. Without a doubt, the best tool for hand stripping is your fingers because they take a little bit of hair at a time. The only thing I will add is latex gloves or finger clots seem to be a favourite for people who can not seem to grab the hair with their bare fingers.
Scissors
In a perfect world, the only place that one should use scissors is between the pads of the feet. Everything else should be hand stripped.
Grooming Tables and Arms
A grooming table is great because it is made for grooming at a comfortable height which is easy on your back and the dog is safe and comfortable on the table. The table height should be for a toy dog, typically 36 inches, with table top of about 18 inches wide and 24 inches long. You will also need a grooming arm. It should be adjustable from 18 inches to about 36 inches. The grooming arms generally come with the grooming noose.
Grooming the Norwich Terrier
December 27, 2011 by Pam Seifert • Categories: Norwich Care
Grooming the Norwich Terrier by NTCA member Victor Sattler, Wildgoose Norwich Terriers.
A properly groomed dog shows pride of ownership, is a delight to the eye and is a tribute to the breed. It should also be part of the routine care that you give your dog. The following information will take you through the basics of grooming your Norwich Terrier. While there is certainly a bit if artistry in grooming, with practise you will get better at it. If you make a mistake … it is only hair and it will grow back! Take your time and enjoy grooming your Norwich. It is quality, one on one time, that you can spend with your dog.