Elliot's First Bath: Grooming Your Sport Puppy

Your puppy is going to need a bath. Your puppy is going to need his nails trimmed. Your puppy is going to need to be brushed. There’s a thousand grooming activities I could list but the point is, none of this should be stressful or a ‘big deal.’ Elliot’s first bath was three days after coming home. My approach to grooming is that it isn’t optional. I make sure my puppy understands early on that grooming and being handled is a normal and regular part of our routine. Creating this base understanding supports future success at vet appointments, and believe it or not even ties back into a greater picture of setting up my puppy to be confident in situations that are commonly associated with fearfulness or stress. It’s normal for puppies to want to jump out of the bath at first, but I don’t allow them to ever ‘win’ by practicing that behavior. Much of my training on and off the field revolves around setting up situations in which my dog only has the opportunity to practice the behaviors that I want. Getting in reps of the right choices to build muscle memory, even for grooming and handling. When Elliot tried to leave the bath I calmly placed his front paws back on the floor of the tub and continued the bath. Leaving the bath is simply not an option and it’s much easier to convince an 8 week old puppy of this then an adolescent. By the end of the bath Elliot was relaxed and happy to enjoy the warm water and positive interaction from me. No fuss, no fighting and afterwards he was ready for a nap!