Carolyn J. Braden • 4 Minute Read
How to Safely DIY Groom Your Pets at Home
We have owned long haired dogs and cats for over 20 years, so we’ve learned a thing or two about DIY grooming. Nothing can replace a really talented professional pet groomer, however you can do some grooming at home either to save money or to help your pet stay looking great in between grooming appointments. Dog and cat grooming can be easy to do at home if you know what you are doing. Read on to learn some of our DIY pet grooming tips.
This is Minnie Pearl as a puppy….her first snow!
Practice Makes Perfect
Let me state first and foremost that if you and your pet have never done a grooming session at home or at a DIY pet wash retailer together, you may need to start slow and definitely practice often. We started cutting our Maine Coon’s nails when they were kittens to get them used to it. The first few times, they struggled a bit, however, with time and frequency, they knew what to expect. We stick to the FFF (Face, Feet, and Fanny) as that’s all our pets usually need when it comes to at home grooming.
We trained our pups at a very young age to take baths
Everything we’ve done DIY to groom our pets, we’ve started when they were very young when possible. With our very first adopted cat, Phoebe, we started brushing her as soon as we brought her home from a shelter. She was older, seemed to understand grooming, so it went well. If this isn’t the case with your pet, you can still start grooming through gentle brushing, and they will start to understand what your intentions are if you do it often. You’ll also get better with practice.
Minnie Pearl’s rear, before a trim and after
If you give your pet a bad haircut the first time, they will still love you. Just GO SLOW so you don’t hurt them as some pets have very good memories! I’ll never forget cutting the quick on my former dog, Vegas’s, nails once. I had to give him peanut butter every time after that during nail trims as a peace offering so he’d let me continue to do it. I got better and so did he with trusting me.
We use a Tangle Teezer on sensitive dog skin
Inspiration + Rewards
Not sure you want to groom your pet or want to know what is involved? Follow pet groomer accounts on social media. I ADORE watching Gabriel Feitosa and his grooming crew turn dogs into RAINBOWS on TikTok. They also give tips in this video for dog grooming at home.
We love our silent trimmer by Scaredy Cut
After a good DIY dog grooming or a good DIY cat grooming session, it’s a good idea to play with your pet or give them a small treat as a reward. WE LOVE Bark Box toys from Target as most have proven to withstand our dogs love of chewing. Our dogs also love Grandma Lucy’s organic dog treats. A long walk is loved by our dogs as well as a ride in their stroller. Yes, our dogs have a stroller and they LOVE riding in it. Our cat likes rewards in play sessions, chin scratches and organic cat nip.
My female Maine Coon, Monica, needs weekly brushings
Nail Trimming
To trim our cat’s nails, I place them out onto my legs upside down (they are BIG cats, even as kittens) and pushed on their pads softly to extend the nail. I used small pet nail trimmers to take off a tiny bit. Get a professional pet nail trimming lesson here from Chewy.com.
If you are too scared to do pet nail trimming at home, you can ask your veterinarian do it for a minimal fee. It is very necessary to get frequent trims. We learned this the hard way when our Maine Coon had a long nail on her “thumb” get stuck inside her skin. We got it loose without hurting her, however, we now make sure to check her nails every other week to prevent this from happening again.
See me trim my cat’s nails (oh, Ross….we miss this big kitty so much still, but he lived a good long life) in my less than a minute video below:
For our dogs, my husband and I usually have to team up, one of us holding them like a baby and the other one using small trimmers for their tiny nails. It’s better to take off less than too much as they can bleed. Use trimmers with a light like this if you can and have styptic powder on hand in the event you accidentally nick a quick.
Our dogs love our DIY dog wash station
Fur: Clean, Brush, Trim and CORNSTARCH
We give our dogs a bath in our home DIY pet wash station. See how we created this on our porch in this article. Because they tend to have sensitive and sometimes itchy skin, we use Oatmeal dog shampoo and conditioner from Amazon. To make their white fur very WHITE, we use South Bark’s Blueberry shampoo prior to the Oatmeal shampoo.
We use cornstarch on our dogs and cats
Our Maine Coon gets mats in her old age due to being more sedentary and from the Southwest Florida summer heat. We use organic CORNSTARCH (Walmart) on her and it has made brushing through her mats so much easier! We sprinkle a bit onto a mat and then brush it out. We do this on dry fur only as we don’t bathe her in water as she really dislikes it nor needs it.
The Scaredy Cut is great for rear end trims
It acts like a dry shampoo, and also helps prevent further ones. This tip alone has saved us so much time and effort of dealing with her mats. We also use these animal handling gloves with her because she really hates to be brushed by her rear end, but it must be done.
This silent trimming kit is great for quick touch-ups
We use cornstarch on our our mini American Eskimo dogs too in between their infrequent baths. It helps get mats out around their ears too, which can be so difficult to deal with! Our pups are called “dry clean dogs” sometimes because they rarely get dirty due to a skin oil they have. “The oil on an Eskie's fur prevents dirt from adhering, so a good brushing is usually enough to remove it”…learn more about our Eskie’s here on the American Kennel Club’s website.
Brushes we like for long fur
We use this slicker brush for all our pet’s long hair, as well as a Tangle Teezer. The Tangle Teezer is mostly for humans, but our girl dog, Minnie Pearl despises her hair being pulled in any way, so daily brushings are best done with this brush.
Our Scaredy Cut Trimmer kit
We use the Scaredy Cut Silent pet grooming kit for gentle “fur butt” trims. They sent it to us to test for free, and we are now lovers of their product! Our dogs have long rear end fur which catches things we don’t want in the house. So, we do bi-monthly trims with this because it’s easy and quick. We trim on dry fur only.
See us use it in our 1-minute video below or via our YouTube channel @carolynjbraden:
It is a pair of scissors you attach guards to and it works like a dream, especially if your pets don’t like the sound of electric trimmers. As with all DIY grooming, it’s best to take off too little fur as you can’t put back what you cut off if you cut off too much.
I LOVE my pets so much and give them the best of everything that I can
If your pets don’t mind electric trimmers, you can get a dog clippers/dog grooming kit (we have one similar to this one on Amazon), and we use an Andis battery operated trimmer for right around their booty/base of tail area.
We like this pet blow dryer due to it having low temperatures for our dog’s skin needs. It’s a bit loud, so our male dog doesn’t love it, but it does work. We may start researching a new one.
We learned from our vet that Yorkies can have some of the worst teeth genetics
Teeth
We brush our dogs’ teeth two times a week. We tried with our male cat once and he did well with it too, but we admittedly didn’t keep up with it on him. The vet said we should, but his were so bad (his teeth genetics were terrible), that only a professional cleaning was best for him. We use this organic DOG toothpaste and brush kit via Amazon. Here is a less than a minute video via my YouTube channel @carolynjbraden showing my process:
Our male American Eskimo, Johnny Cash, was born with not great teeth, so to help keep them clean in between brushing, we also give him and his sister, Minnie Pearl, Whimzees dental treats and they have helped greatly at reducing tartar. We always buy the correct size and monitor them while they chew.
If you loved this article, then we know you’ll love this one too: How to Make a No Sew Dog Fleece Toy
Carolyn J. Braden is the owner of Carolyn’s Blooming Creations is a regular contributor and editor for CBC. She has been featured in numerous media publications such as InStyle Magazine, on HGTV, on Bustle.com, and more. She is the author of the books Georgia McMasters in Amethyst Lake Cemetery, How To Be Yourself: 3 Ways To Help You Being You, and the illustrator for the children’s book Bridging Connections. She is a former classroom teacher that now dedicates her life to educating others on how to live their most healthy, creative and happy life. Learn more about her visiting our About Us page.