# Bucky has a warning for those pups who think grooming is a bad idea



## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

You will get nasty ugly dreadlocks that drag on your ears and rump.







You will get dew claws that curl around into your pad and that HURTS!








Please let your human brush your fuzz.
Please let your human play with your feet and trim your nails.
Tell them if they use bits of tasty food you can ignore the pulling and holding better.

Just got back from the vet. Bucky had complete circles cut from his rear dew claws with the ends of the claws buried in the pads. His vestigial toes bounce with every step so he likely was hurting just bouncing around like the young dog that he is. 

I think Bucky had a bad attitude about grooming from the start and was allowed to get away with it his entire life. I don't know that his 3" long dreadlock earrings hurt but they looked much heavier than a normal ear fringe.

I doubt he will be a little angel now though. Two years of fighting about getting handled is going to be hard for him to overcome. He's come quite a way just in the past week though. Most of his mats are cut out, his fuzz has been gone over many times with a pin brush - NOT a slicker. Slickers are evil apparently. I can handle his feet and pick him up with the aid of food in his face. We cannot wait to give him a bath to get the greasy feel out of his coat but don't want to push it too much too soon.


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## Hector4 (Sep 16, 2013)

Those claws look like cheerios.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

A bit larger. I knew they were long as with a very quick touch to the area couldn't feel any gap but didn't think they were ingrown.

Glad they are fairly skinny at least I have half a chance of keeping them sanded down. Max's rear dews were very thick with little space in the center of the curl.

I will be investing in a really large jar of peanut butter. He is a horrible food hog so probably I can do all sorts of scary things if there is peanut butter.


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## Nissa M (Nov 3, 2014)

I just saw this thread - this is incredible. Though I also just posted on it now and realize that the mats (not the nails) can happen so very quickly. Poor dog. Bucky is very lucky to have you to help him learn that grooming is a good idea. Good luck


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## jade5280 (Feb 20, 2013)

Oh wow! I'm sure he's feeling SO much better now.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

Thank you. And I need the luck too. Can I have some extra patience as well??? So hard to stop when just one more swipe of the brush or scissoring one more toe would finish the job.

He is feeling better. I even trimmed the fuzz off the top of 1.5 of his rear paws and was able to take a good look at the dew pads. They are all healed up but look swollen.


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## Amaryllis (Dec 28, 2011)

Nissa M said:


> I just saw this thread - this is incredible. Though I also just posted on it now and realize that the mats (not the nails)* can happen so very quickly*. Poor dog. Bucky is very lucky to have you to help him learn that grooming is a good idea. Good luck


Kabota's fur is so fine, it can matt in a matter of a day or two. (Bucky's looks the same.) I brush him every single day and still end up having to cut matts out from behind his ears.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

Bucky's coat is actually quite coarse, just the fluff on his ears is soft as well as the long undercoat on his back legs. I hope it softens up after old coat is completely gone by next year but I am sure it will be softer once I am brave enough to give him a bath. I bet most of the matting is because old fluff wasn't ever brushed or washed out because he was acting out. Almost the mats were in that awful undercoat that grows on back legs, ear fluff and the thick coat on the rump. I don't know what his coat is going to turn out to be but lots of fluff on ears and legs is gone now with brushing alone. He might have ears with short fluff like Ginger's in the end. 

Bet he matted up fast though. He's been picking up bur clover and a lot of fuzz comes out with them. Inside a couple days it would be a mess to get out. So far no returning mats in his ears, perhaps the stuff I cut out was the stuff that usually mats. Makes sense, most of his ear fuzz looked just fine and where the mats were is short hair now.

Big news today! I got out the nail file and was able to rub it to most of his front and even some rear claws. He wasn't flinching when I paired the dremel with chicken to his mouth today either. When he had had enough and was mouthing me he stopped sooner and didn't put any pressure on my hand. I dropped his foot and mega cookies for that! Ideally I'd be smart enough to stop the handling training before he starts mouthing me of course.

This is my ideal. Ginger is so relaxed upside down getting her manicure. See how her left front foot is relaxed on my leg?


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

2 week update, he's been here 3 weeks today.

Except for the stub of one ear mat all the mats are gone.
The last few pea sized mats on his belly and pits were pulled out by holding the mat and pulling the hairs off the mat, I consider that pretty advanced handling as it takes so long to get them out, be so much faster and easier on me to use a comb or scissors.
All his nails have been rubbed with the nail file, including all the dewclaws.
All feet have been scissored several times and the front feet have been trimmed on the bottoms as well.
He is less fussy about getting his tail combed out than Ginger is so long as there is cheese in his face.
I've removed just about all the dead undercoat fuzz from his legs and quite a bit from his ears using the stone, stripper and hand plucking. The fuzz between his legs is what catches burrs, great to get that out.
No blood lost on either side and much cheese consumed.

AND, drum roll please. He got a bath! 
Except that it was an emergency one a success too. He pooped in his pen when we were gone too long and of course tracked it all over so I got to spend an hour bathing and cleaning and showering and doing laundry once home. He allowed me to get him wet all over, shampoo thoroughly and brush him out. He feels just as coarse but not greasy any longer and now has an odd patch of wavy dead looking fur on his back. He did freak out and flail at the end of the leash at the thought of my daughter helping me but he wasn't upset enough to start reverse sneezing or threaten to use his teeth.


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## Amaryllis (Dec 28, 2011)

Yay!!! You might be surprised at his coat. Kabota's was greasy, coarse and smelly when I got him. Brushing and better nutrition made it soft and shiny.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

I hope so, was expecting big things from the bath though.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

4 week update.

We got dremel! ALL 20 nails got some sanding down on them last night. There are still holes in the rear dew pads but he allows me to hold them as I sand down the nails. I went over his feet with scissors top and bottom as well and pulled more fuzz off the ears even using a stripper rather than the easy to tolerate stone.

Best of all this was done on the table as it is much easier to get to all the feet and both ears up there. I had been grooming him on the ground or sitting next to me on a chair/sofa. Another month of that and he would have had a lopsided head! Cannot just pick him up as I please yet, I get a head whip if he isn't prepared.

Interesting to me is with all this brushing out he isn't retaining as much nature as he used to. Sure the foot long twig stayed tangled in his tail but several burr clovers fell out during the walk today with no help from me. Don't know that I have ever seen that happen.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

An amazing thing happened this morning during grooming. I was working on dremeling Bucky's back nails and messed up catching his tail feathers. I turned off the dremel and unwound the hair. He lost *one* hair. He did not flip around and panic. We finished sanding his nails and recombed his tail. He got lots of cheese!

The dremel stalls fast as it hasn't much torque and cannot pull out hair but at any point he could have pulled away and painfully pulled out hair or pulled away from me and gone running around with half a dremel stuck in his tail.

He also just flinches letting me know the dremel is heating up. He is also allowing me to turn him on his back for feet fuzz and nail trimming.

His fur is growing in now too. After the daily brushing outs to train him to allow handling he was just about naked for a while. I knew from this happening with Ginger that it would come back but it's still a bit stressful. He was apparently pretty dirty as after his bath this week he was suddenly nice and fluffy. Not as soft as Ginger but he feels really nice to pet now even on that strange shield/cape on his back.

Now he LOOKS civilized.


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