Pet grooming is essential for a strong, healthy, clean and high life expectancy of your animal. The same statement holds true for pit bull owners. If you own this one of a kind dog breed, you will have to take measures that aim to keep your dog clean and well-groomed at all times.
How often should I bathe my Pitbull?
One such way is bathing your dog at least once after every six months. Bathing him once a month is also ideal though this bathing routine might change due to a number of factors. For example, if your pit bull normally goes outside to play or roll on mud frequently, you will have to clean him often.
Even though bathing your pit bull might be as infrequent as once every six months, you will have to brush his fur and coat more often, a few times a week. They usually have short fur and average shedding. Also, they have natural oils that protect their fur and skin from dirt and bacteria, and this reduces the number of times they need a bath.
Brushing their coat with a rubber brush whose bristles are firm and flexible is a maintenance method that will help keep your dog clean.
Tips to Keep Your Pit Bull Clean
Actually, keep your pit bull clean is quite simple and involves looking out for the following issues:
1. Selecting an Appropriate Shampoo for Your Pit Bull
Whenever you’ll be planning to clean your dog, you need an appropriate shampoo for your pit Bull. Always use a shampoo meant specifically for dogs and not your human hair shampoo. Human hair shampoos might irritate and harm your pit bull’s coat because of ingredients used in making them such as fragrance. After purchasing pit bulls’ shampoo, be keen to follow the instructions.
When bathing your dog with warm water and dog’s shampoo, take care not to let the soapy water get into your dog’s eye(s). Just like shampoo irritates our eyes, dog’s shampoo will irritate your pit bull’s eyes and hence causing uncomfortable bathing experience to your pit bull.
Ensure you make your dog very comfortable when bathing him so that you can have an easy time during the subsequent bathing sessions.
2. Brush Your Pit Bull Regularly
Just like we’ve already seen, you should bathe your dog only once a month or once every 6 months. Besides, overbathing your dog will cause loss of the natural oils which will, in turn, result in irritation, flaky skin and a dull coat. But does this mean you only have to groom your dog once a month?
While you should bath your dog once in a month, you should also brush his coat with only the recommended brush for pit bull daily or a few times a week. Brushing his coat daily is a complimentary grooming method that ensures your dog remains clean and free of dirt and bacteria at all times. Brushing your dog daily is beneficial since it removes dead hair, dirt and bacteria and also spreads your pit bull’s natural oils for efficient body, skin and fur protection.
3. Protect Your Pit Bull’s Ears
When you are bathing your pit bull, remember that water might enter his ear and harm the soft and delicate membranes. This necessitates the need to keep your dog’s ear clean and dry at all times to prevent infections. But what’s the best way to keep your pit bull’s ears dry while you’re bathing him?
Placing a soft cotton ball in each ear will help keep water out of your dog’s ear. Make sure that the cotton ball is large enough to hold onto your dog’s ear because the wrong size might pose a hazard to your dog’s ear.
For example, a smaller cotton ball size might get lost inside your dog’s ear canal. Another way of protecting your dog’s ears from water is by avoiding showering the head directly. This will keep your dog’s mouth and eyes from water as well.
4. Brush Your Pit Bull Thoroughly
Brushing your dogs’s coat should be a daily grooming routine. Also, it should be something that you do right before bathing your dog. Pre-bath brushing is ideal for your dog because it removes all the dead hair on your dog’s skin.
Also, it undoes matted hair which can sometimes cause improper hair dry and irritated skin. As such, you should brush your dog’s hair thoroughly before bathing him. Once you have considered the above issues, you can go right ahead to bath your pit bull. Bathing your dog should be fun for both you and the dog.
Make sure you make it a pleasurable experience for the dog if you want to have a hassle-free experience next time you will be bathing him. To have a hassle-free pit bull bathing, you should acquaint him with water at a young age when he’s still a puppy.
Conclusion
Pit bulls are energetic and playful. Therefore, they tend to accumulate dirt and bacteria more often than other breeds. The great news is: they require less bathing! Cleaning them by shower once a month is enough. But if you have a busy schedule, you can bathe your Pit bull just once after every 6 months but make sure to brush his short hair a few times a week. You already know a few issues to consider before cleaning him.