Having a Maltese as a pet can be a pretty fun experience especially if you enjoy grooming long haired dogs; the Maltese breed has soft and silky hair that hangs down to the ground when they are fully grown. Having a Maltese can mean a bit of maintenance on your part since the lovely, long hair can become a scraggly and messy mop of hair that you may not even want to touch. Constant grooming and care of your Maltese as well as its beautiful length of hair need not be too much of a problem if you take note of a few of the tips Maltese dog owners use to keep their pets clean and well groomed.
Bathing Your Maltese
Since this breed is the kind of dog breeds that have long, silky hair, you may need to bathe your Maltese more often than other breeds that have short coats of hair. Bathing your Maltese should be likened to bathing a baby. Care should be taken that no water gets into your dog's ears. Water in the ears can be a source of ear infections for your dog. Since these dogs have rather long coats, even if you do decide to give it a puppy cut to help keep their hair at a more manageable length, you will need to use a conditioner on the coat of hair to help keep it supple and easy to manage after shampooing. You will need to bathe your Maltese in warm water and you may want to use a dog shampoo that is gentle on your dog's eyes or a "no-more-tears" formulated shampoo. If you want your dog's fur to shine brilliantly, there are also shampoos that will help you achieve this, although extra care may be needed when using since these shampoo types are not eye friendly.
Combing and Brushing
Just like people with long hair, the Maltese needs to be combed at least once a day to get rid of tangles and to make their coat look neat and attractive. You will need to use a brush or a comb that will not hurt the skin underneath the hair and you will need to get your Maltese used to this daily grooming regimen from the day you bring them home. The combing and brushing of your dog's coat can be done easily with the help of hair softening and grooming materials like a spray-on conditioner or a little coat oil. These two grooming liquids can help keep the dog's hair shiny and mess free as well as easier to comb.
Keeping your Maltese combed or brushed and properly groomed without tangles in his coat not only keeps him looking nice and neat, it also keeps the possibility of parasites infesting his long mane of hair since it is kept clean and devoid of any tangles that can be the breeding places of such pests. You should comb your Maltese in the usual downward motion that is typical of combing a person's hair. Considerations should be made that the comb or the brush does not scratch the dog's skin or pull at the hairs and causing the dog pain or excessive loss of hair due to brisk brushing or combing.
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