5 Simple Ways to Groom Your Lhasa Apso

The Lhasa Apso is just like any other dog in certain ways; it gets all dirty, and it needs a trip to the groomers every once in a while. Dirt always finds its way into its thick beautiful coat, and you can find yourself going to the groomers multiple times a month. The fact that the Lhasa Apso fur sweeps the ground as it moves around doesn’t help one bit. All that beauty comes at a price, and that’s why it’s pertinent to learn how to groom your Lhasa Apso yourself. There might be something you can do without having to visit the groomers’ all the time.

Before you can successfully groom your Lhasa Apso, there are a few steps that you must properly follow. Grooming your Lhasa Apso is a full-time commitment and nothing, but utter dedication will do. Grooming your dog regardless of the breed is a major task, and it should be treated as such, so this means:

5 Simple Ways to Groom Your Lhasa Apso:

Trust building exercise
Bathing
brushing
Trimming
styling

Trust-building exercises

The Lhasa Apso was a Tibetan guard dog, some resistance is to be expected. The dog is naturally abhorrent to strangers and awkward situations so you can’t just sprinkle water on it and start the grooming process, special steps have to be taken to ensure the dog does not respond aggressively. You have to ease into it. Lhasa Apso has good memories.

If you brush her hair and you pull some out, you’ll have a hard time getting her to let you touch her hair with a comb again. So, you need to get her used to the discomfort and slowly build your way up. Use treats to trick her into loving the grooming process.

The easiest way to train your dog and get her accustomed to grooming is the reward system. Every time you attempt to groom, don’t do it empty-handed, always arm yourself with a box of treats or something.

Start the grooming process by brushing her fur lightly. This is not too stressful, and she won’t fight you too hard. Only stick to light brushing, and remember always to have a treat handy, that way if the hair is pulled out in the process, there are always means to make her come back for more. The treats will help her get accustomed to you touching her in sensitive places, and it will build deeper trust and relationship with your dog.

A good pat on the back hurt nobody. Always pet her when you attempt to groom her in any way, as you wash her fur gently stroke her. You want to let her enjoy the grooming process as much as you do.

Bathing Your Lhasa Apso

Once you’ve mastered the trust part of grooming, then you move on to bathing or washing her fur. A Lhasa Apso low sweeping fur can carry a lot of bacteria, and that is why its necessary to wash their coat every few weeks or so. Bathing a dog is a unique experience, and the Lhasa Apso is no different.

Washing your dog’s fur at least once every few weeks is an excellent way to prevent skin related and other diseases that are associated with the breed. The Lhasa Apso weighs about 18 lbs. So bathing it in a small bowl or in the sink should not be an issue.

Bathing the dog is an art form and requires a delicate touch. The fur of the dog must be properly divided and washed from top to bottom to prevent mats. Mats are when the fur clumps up below the outer coat a dog, it’s commonly found in double-coated dogs like the Apso. You must remember not to wash in a circular motion as this is the fastest way to cause mats.

When washing the dog, you must also remember to keep your conditioner and your detangler handy as they make the process more fun and more comfortable for you and your dog. The conditioner must always be diluted because a regular conditioner is harder to wash out and irritable to their delicate skin.

When washing, a wide-toothed brush or comb is preferable, they are more comfortable on the fur, and they cause less skin irritation. After soaping out her body, you go to her face. When washing her face be careful not to get any soap in her eyes, nose, ear, and mouth.

They are a very delicate part of the dog. After washing, rinse the dog out slowly and dab her dry. Remember not to rub her fur dry because as you’d probably guess they also cause mats. After washing set the blow drier at a low setting and slowly dry her fur out in sections.

This should conclude the washing part of grooming. Washing Is probably the most intricate part of caring for your Lhasa Apso. It is an effective way to groom your dog as a pet owner. (Check out our recommended Bathing Products)

Brushing Your Lhasa Apso

Brushing your Lhasa Apso is probably the only way you can groom her every day. Brushing her coat every day is sometimes not enough, once a week or so a through session should be carried out. You should pay attention to every strand of her coat.

Full coated Lhasa Apso’s tend to drag dirt around with them, and good brushing with the right tools is bound to get her looking prim. Brushing a double-coated Dog like the Apso is a challenge and a process; for a daily brush just get a brush and gently brush her coat by taking it layer by layer, going from the undercoat to the outer coat.

Remember always to use a detangler and a coated metal pin brush. The detangler lets you get into all those mats, and the brush allows you to go through every hair and its easier on the dog. Although you can save those stuff for the intense sessions.

An intense session should take longer than the regular sessions. Brushing the Apso should take about 15 minutes or so. You should apply both the detangler and blunt-tipped scissors carefully against her fur try not to cut too much of her fur.

Set her on a grooming table or your lap and apply a spray conditioner to avoid breakage before you start brushing. Comb through her coat from side to side and finish off by carefully combing the hair on her face. Then you should have successfully brushed your dog, and you can move to more pressing concerns. (Check out our recommended Grooming Products)

Trimming Your Lhasa Apso

This is the most challenging part of grooming, and its always better to leave to the pros. After all the Lhasa Apso is a show dog, and if you plan on entering it into a contest, you need to give it the type of care that you probably can’t provide. But if you’re bent on grooming your dog, then you should get a couple of tools and carefully go through these steps.

Trimming is about well trimming everything. From the Nails to the coat to everywhere else. The process is very complex, and most times explanations like these won’t do much in the way of getting you there.

You start with the basics which are getting rids of the mats in the coat. This can pose quite a challenge in long-haired Lhasas, you don’t just want to cut the hair mat off, it’ll leave a hole in their coat. You want to spray it abundantly with the detangler and then slowly manually separate the tangled hair and then comb it thoroughly. This might take a while, so patience is vital in an activity like this one. You should also pay attention to the part of the dog like the pads. You should monitor how mats generally build up in that region.

Trimming different parts of the dog is also under trimming. You target important places like the face and foot the pads and body generally. Lhasa’s have been known to fall over. This happens when their hair grows out too much. They tend to trip on their feet fur, and that’s why it needs to be trimmed from time to time. It also looks very unsightly when it mats up. Find a suitable pair of shears and carefully cut the hair, there is no need to rush. Cutting your dog in the paw could lead to distrust and infection.

While you’re at the paws, you might as well trim their nails. Cutting the nails is probably the most delicate part of the entire feet grooming exercise. There’s a blood vessel in every dogs’ nails. It’s called the quick, and it’s particularly hard to cut a dog nail without hitting the quick. You need a clipper or nail buffer that can take the nail down quickly without any prolonged delays. Always be careful not to hit the quick. It’s better not to attempt this part of grooming, it’s meant for professionals like vet and professional groomers.

Cutting the hair around the face is always a good idea. Especially the ones in between the eyes, it limits the vision of the dog, and it can sometimes be a problem. When you want to shave the hair off that section, you want to get a blunt head-scissor, something that can get the hair out without injuring your dog’s face.

When you’re trimming, you should also pay attention to the ears of the Lhaso. This particular dog breed is known to have severe cases of ear infections when the hair has grown out of control. So, you need to grab a pair of tweezers and dig in. Pluck out some of the hair, and if you feel like they are ineffective, you can always dig in manually. (Check out our recommended Grooming Products)

Styling Your Lhasa Apso

This is the final part of the grooming process. It involves virtually giving your pet a haircut. This consists of browsing through the plethora of dog hair styling choices and hiring someone to make that dream come to life. Messing with your dog’s fur is never s a good idea unless you’re quite experienced in the field. Focus more on other things actually cutting your dog hair. You could focus on the fall.

Lhasa Apsos are naturally hairy, so much so that their hair often grows out so much that it gets in their eyes. Numerous solutions have been conceived to deal with the hair. The top knot has been known to handle the excess hair effectively. A top knot involves styling the dog’s hair using an elastic band. An elastic band will do for that matter. You could use the elastic band you use for your kids. The top knot ends up looking like a, and it manages all that loose hair.

There is also the option of simple combing. This is an age-old trick; most Lhasa Apso are show dogs, and they have had their fall combed at one point or the other. This trick is simple, it involves parting the hair in the middle and brushing it side to side. Brushing the hair aside will give the dog a better vision.

Of course, styling the Lhasa Apso wouldn’t be complete without a little haircut. It’s not recommended but if you feel you’re up to the task get a clipper and some scissors and lightly trim her fur. That will reduce the length of her fur, and she is less likely to pull in the dirt with her coat.

When it comes to real haircuts, I wouldn’t recommend shaving her coat down too much. The Lhasa Apso is a double-coated dog, and its fur is its first and last line of defense when it comes to the elements. Its soft skin can get easily irritated, and it can become infected fast when exposed to the elements.

A scheduled visit to the vet should be included in the entire grooming process. I understand that it isn’t actually grooming, but a visit to your local vet can reveal things that you never knew about your dog. They could tell you the type of coat she has. Lhasa’s have been known to have coat variants, and they should be groomed according to their coat types.

There are three basic coat types. One is thick and difficult to take care of, the other is normal, and the last is light and requires delicate attention. The vet could also tell you the health status of your dog and give you guidelines if she is getting sick or something. Lhasa Apsos are known for their susceptibility to diseases and hereditary conditions.

Blindness is one of those hereditary conditions, it usually manifests in an Apso in her later years, and they are caused by genes, poor diet, believe it or not, hair. A visit to the vet will remind you that you’re on track.

Now that you’ve correctly groomed your Apso you should know some other things that might help you better take care of her.

Bathing your dog every week is not feasible, you should brush her every day instead. Most groomers actually recommend brushing over bathing as its less hard on their sensitive skin. The chemicals in shampoos and soaps could leave their skin irritated.

You should trim her every six to eight weeks, that is the ideal interval time. I recommend taking her to the groomers each time you want to trim her down. Doing it on your own could be especially challenging. These five tips or process will help you take care of your dog properly.