Grooming

I knew from my experience as a kid with our dachshunds that dogs need their nails trimmed and their teeth brushed. I also learned from that experience that, if you don't start early, you'll never get the dog to go along with your plans.

I started trimming Molly's nails as soon as we got her. She hated it right away. But she knew from the very first time that if she suffered through it she would get a treat. Every time I grabbed her, flipped her over and put her four paws in the air, she would resign herself to her fate and relax on my lap. Once she sensed I was done, she reanimated, flipped over practically in mid-air, leapt to the floor and made a bee-line for the cupboard where we kept the dog biscuits.

Brushing Molly's teeth was Bruce's job and he performed this duty every day of the dog's life - even the morning we put her down. Molly would also be flipped on her back for this procedure. Then Bruce would move a small brush loaded with chicken-flavoured dog toothpaste around in Molly's mouth. The trick was to get the dog's teeth brushed before she'd eaten all the toothpaste. 

Bruce was never certain that this accomplished anything, but, in all of Molly's long life, she lost only one tooth (a lower front incisor just fell out one day) and she never had any teeth extracted.

Then of course there were baths. Dogs in theory don't need baths. For example, the beautiful wolf in the shot below is quite dirty, but has her dignity and perhaps even her health intact.

Photo Credit: Mukul Soman, Your Shot, National Geographic

The received wisdom when I was a kid was that bathing disrupted the natural balance of a dog's skin. However, dogs - especially our dog, who sat on our furniture and slept in our bed - need a bath every once in a while. And dog cleaning technology has progressed by leaps and bounds. Products on the market today are so mild you can use them every day if you like - and if your dog likes.  

Molly did not like baths, even when there was a treat waiting for her. But Bruce - who most often was the one to give the dog her bath - noted that as she aged, Molly came to appreciate the hot water and wouldn't fight like a tiger to get out.

Molly fighting to get out of the tub.

Molly fighting to get out of the sink.

The only other grooming issue with the dog was her hair. Smooth coat JRTs don't need to have their coat cut or plucked. But, all owners of smooth-coated JRTs need a powerful vacuum cleaner. I used to say that Molly shed her own weight in dog hair once every two weeks. As far as I'm concerned that was the honest truth. For sixteen years our home, our floors, our furniture, our towels, our clothes and our guests were covered in a diaphanous coat of dog hair. 

I don't believe for an instant that Molly appreciated any of our efforts to keep her clean; I'm even more certain that she disagreed with other policies in place to keep her healthy, as you can read here.