Grooming for a senior dog? Also medical question

[Aleron]

I work at two different grooming shops and always find myself wishing people with elderly hairy dogs would just do their dogs a favor and have them shaved. Most dogs coat texture is already ruined by spaying/neutering anyway and once a dog is in his teens, who cares if it doesn't grow back quickly or comes in patchy? I really think it's kinder to the dog to just keep them short if they hate the grooming process or are unable to physical tolerate a lot of brushing/dematting. And I say that as someone who used to be horrified when people shaved their hairy dogs

[chaospony]

You could always take scissors and cut the long parts short. That's what I always do with my senior Afghan hounds. We always cut them with scissors to keep a little more length than shaved. It can look funny for a week or two then it evens out.

[GoingNowhere]

Originally Posted by Aleron

I work at two different grooming shops and always find myself wishing people with elderly hairy dogs would just do their dogs a favor and have them shaved. Most dogs coat texture is already ruined by spaying/neutering anyway and once a dog is in his teens, who cares if it doesn't grow back quickly or comes in patchy? I really think it's kinder to the dog to just keep them short if they hate the grooming process or are unable to physical tolerate a lot of brushing/dematting. And I say that as someone who used to be horrified when people shaved their hairy dogs

This.


I wrote a bunch more but the spam filter (new apparently) wouldn't let me post without entering the words and then deleted my entire post.

The gist of what I said was just if you don't want to shave him is there a reason you can't brush him while he's lying down?

[OwnedByBCs]

Yeah, we are just going to go in and pull that tooth. He is going to have blood work done to be sure he can handle being put under, but I feel like the tooth is so risky being untreated that I need to just do this.

As for the grooming, I decided to partially shave him- his pants and his front legs, which will look silly but it will be more comfortable for him.

Basically grooming him on each side is ok, but he is so stressed the entire time. I also think its a battle I might not win, with poop getting stuck in his pants almost every day.