Dog grooming is essential to a canine’s health and well being. Here’s a quick overview of the benefits and a brief introduction to some familiar dog grooming tools.

1. Caring for the coat with a simple brush and comb. Almost all of a canine’s most common pest issues can be prevented and corrected through simple dog grooming. Daily brushing for example, removes debris and tangles that if left alone, contribute to matting. Daily combing can remove fleas and other nuisances like dirt and plant debris. Both combing and brushing helps distribute dogs’ natural oils throughout its coat, helping to make the coat resistant to additional dirt and dust.
2. Caring for the nails with nail clippers. Clipping a dog’s nails once a month helps prevent overgrowth, breakage, and pad perforation. Dogs that have daily access to rough outside surfaces like cement for example, don’t need as much nail clipping as dogs that spend the majority of their time indoors.
3. Caring for the teeth with a doggy toothbrush and paste. Just like with our teeth, dog teeth can become victims to plaque and tartar buildup. That’s why daily brushing is so important – especially since plaque and tartar can contribute to gum disease. This too, affects dogs the same way that it affects humans.

The old argument against grooming is that dogs in the wild get along just fine without it, so it must not be that necessary. While the basis of that argument is true, it’s used in the wrong context. When we talk about grooming dogs with dog grooming tools, we’re not talking about grooming dogs in the wild. We’re talking about grooming dogs that have been conditioned to live within an environment built for humans. Our environment doesn’t provide resources for wild dogs. Our environment instead provides us with resources to help domesticated dogs survive in our setting.