Dogs are one of the most adorable and benign living beings on Earth and no one can understand this sentence more than dog lovers. As with growing age, humans need special care your senior dog also demands some extra effort from your side. Bathing is a regular and important process to keep your dog clean and away from lice and ticks. Here we are going to discuss some tips to deal with bathing an elderly dog with some physical ailments like arthritis, gum diseases, Blindness, Kidney Problems like a kidney stone. A dog with these ailments requires special attention from you while taking bath because for dogs it is not an enjoyable process.
1. Try To Set A Bath Schedule For Your Dog
Making a bathing schedule for your dog is essential because it allows your dog to be ready from inside. Fix a day and time and make sure you are not in a hurry for something. You need to fix a time which suitable for both of you. For example, an early morning routine is ideal for you because you don’t have to take a day off but for your dog, it’s not good because early mornings are cold with less sunlight.
2. If Your Dog Hates Water
Don’t worry, there is a solution to every problem. Some dog breeds are reluctant to water and don’t enjoy bathing. In this case, bathing an elderly dog makes the situation more demanding. First try to sprinkle some drops of warm water on your dog, in some time he will get acquainted with it. Then you can pour some water using a small cup, the main instruction while bathing any dog is not to put water on his face, this makes them uncomfortable and they may get angry and bite you. So go slow.
3. Pamper Your Dog Before Having Bath
Everyone likes care and love and so these benign creatures. Spend some time with your dog before taking him for a bath. Dogs love when someone tickles their ears, back, and area under their neck. They cannot speak but dogs are really expressive. They used express through their eyes and some actions like liking your hand. Just play with them for few minutes and then slowly introduce them to the bathing process.
4. Go With Warm Water
Warm water theory is a scientific one. Warm water is a natural antibiotic as it has a tendency to kill germs and bacteria. Secondly, as elder dogs are also prone to diabetes, warm water helps in maintaining sugar level in the body. Also, it treats swelling and soreness in muscles and makes bathing an enjoyable experience, While bathing an elderly dog suffering from arthritis. You can wrap a hot towel around his legs make sure the water is completely squeezed out of the towel. In this way, the stem will penetrate inside the skin and relieve stress from the area.
5. Groom Your Little Sweetheart
The process of shedding in old age dogs does not remain worthier. However, dogs in older age depot as much hairs as in their middle-aged counterparts – sometimes even greater. This means that the amount of grooming must be similar, but with some greater amount in TLC.
Bathing and grooming for senior dogs become a really tough job as they often expand in arthritis and reduce flexibility. Therefore during the bath, they should be lowered into the tub gently and washed carefully. Additionally, it’s important to keep them away from getting chilled as you take them out of the tub.
During grooming please take special care of the areas of sensitivity on the whole body, especially on the back and areas close to joints.
For sure it’s a tough job to bathe or groom a senior dog with extra time and efforts but for sure you would love to see your dog clean, fresh and relaxed.
6. Use Handy Tools
As compared to an adult dog, senior dogs develop a very special kind of skin and coats. With developing age their coats will get coarser and their skin often turns out to get dry, therefore the best choice would be to use a conditioner or shampoo that is designed for this specific cause.
Other important tools include a soft comb or a brush, some couple of soft and warm towels and sometimes a gentle washcloth to use during bathing. Be sure enough to store these items close enough for easy and fast reach. Amazingly senior dogs get a bit different shocks from cold water as compared to younger dogs; therefore it’s necessary to wrap them up immediately just after they are out of the water.
7. Take Your Dog To Warm Space Afterwards
Allow your dog to sit in a warm space preferably in a garden after having a shower. Sunlight has ample amount of vitamin D and it is very important for bone health. Also, if your dog has a heavy coat of hairs, then allow him to dry completely in sunlight in this way he will not suffer from a cough and cold problem after bathing.
8. Allow Them To Relax
It’s usual for a normal being to become overwhelming on feeling stressed and nervous for long. Similar is the case with pets, especially old age dogs. They too experience anxiety and hold various levels and manifestation of emotions. Usually this is a result of the normal aging process and on the other hand, it can be a result of physical or psychological problems. Therefore it becomes a really tough task to calm and relax an anxious as well as old age dog.
The best possible points to make your dog a bit more relaxed resides in giving him security objects such as toys, belongings as well as the bed, use collars, sprays or room diffusers to naturally kill anxiety, restrict situational anxiety, use socks, night lights and mobility aids etc. Relaxation is very important while you are bathing an elderly dog.
9. You Can Call An Expert Too
There are local dog day-care centers from where you can call a grooming expert. They come with all the handy tools, like nail cutters, combs, shampoos, conditioners, brushes etc. These people are well trained to do the task efficiently.
You can check online or scroll a local directory and your dog’s veterinary doctor can also connect you with such people. They can assist you at your home while bathing an elderly dog.
About the Author:
Lori Longoria
I am a writer, blogger and much more. An interior designer. An artist. An entertainer. AND a person who genuinely loves interior design and the people living in it 😉 You can visit me at http://walkinshowers.org
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