Bathing Your Chihuahua
How To Give Your Chihuahua A Bath
Bathing your Chihuahua is usually an interesting event
depending on the temperament of your dog and you at the time.
Although Chihuahuas are very clean animals some people still
bath their Chihuahuas every week.
Weekly bathing your Chihuahua is rarely needed and sometimes
can lead to skin problems. Monthly bathing of your Chihuahua is
a more usually schedule for Chihuahua owners.
Since Chihuahuas are small dogs you can usually wash them in
any sized sink. When you do wash them use warm water. You have
to be careful so that the water is not so warm that your burn
their skin, but not so cold that you freeze them. Remember
Chihuahuas have very little body mass, and so it can be hard
for them to hand onto their body heat.
When bathing your Chihuahua make sure you only use shampoo
designed to be used for dogs. Human shampoos, including baby
shampoos can cause harm to the Chihuahuas skin. They even make
tearless dog shampoo now, but it is still a good idea to avoid
getting any shampoo into your dogs eyes.
When bathing your Chihuahua you also want to be careful not
to get the ear canals wet. This can usually be prevented by
careful washing or by placing cotton balls into the ears. Wet
moist ears are a perfect place for bacteria and yeast to grow,
so make sure you keep the ears dry.
After you have completely lathered the dog, make sure you
thoroughly rinse all the shampoo off. Residual shampoo can
cause skin irritation leading to redness, flakiness, and
scratching.
Have lots of towels near by when you are done and it is a
good idea to also have them scattered around the rim of the
skin to soak up any splashes. Dry your Chihuahua thoroughly
when you are done.
Chihuahuas are small and have trouble maintaining their body
heat if they are wet. Try to avoid using a blow drying or
heating lamp. It is very easy to burn the dogs skin this
way.
Another good thing to do while bathing is to trim the nails.
Water makes the toe nails softer and easier to trim. When you
are done with that you can also clean out the ear canals.
Remember your Chihuahua is a very clean animal and does not
require bathing very frequently. Although small it helps to
have another person when bathing our
Chihuahua.
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