Day 9 -- Grooming

Getting Ubu use to having his teeth brushed is about the pay off. His big boy teeth will slowly be coming in and, if he has his teeth brushed every day, the likelihood of having dental problems later on decreases considerably.

As he gets a little bigger he can graduate to a toothbrush but, for now, we're still using the finger brush. We just brush the outside of his teeth, paying close attention to the back teeth. Normally I would be holding his lip up so I would have better access to his teeth but someone had to take the picture.

Once he starts to get regular grooming and they pluck his ear hairs, it won't be so difficult to keep his ears clean. Soak the cotton ball with ear cleaning solution and hold the ear up to straighten out the ear canal.

Gently massage below the ear until you hear a squishing sound (still holding the ear up which isn't shown in the picture because I had to have a hand free to take the picture).

Wipe the ear clean. The cotton ball should come out of his ear with minimal dirt on it. If you are getting a lot of dark debris or if there is an odor, you will probably need to take him in to the vet to have his ears checked.

And, of course, reward him afterwards for being such a good boy. This will help him associate ear cleaning with more positive things.

Other signs that things are amiss in the ears; shaking his head, scratching at his ears, yelping when someone touches his ears, red/irritated ears, and a bad odor.

I do his nails by laying him on his back on my lap. I gently hold his paws and breath. It's easy to get tense, hold his paw too tight, and hold your breath when you are doing nails. All of these things will cause him to worry. Stay as relaxed as possible, even if you accidentally hit the quick.

I need two hands to trim nails so I'm not able to take pictures of the nail trim process but I'm just taking the tips off. If his nails are trimmed once a week, you shouldn't need to worry about taking a lot off.

If you let the nails grow too long, the quick will grow as well and it will take a lot of work to get them short again. Best to just keep them short from the beginning. Luckily, he is really good about having his nails done so it should be easy to keep up with.

Don't forget to practice handling in between grooming sessions. It will make it so much easier for you and for him.