Friendly companion and a great lapdog with high activity level Shih Tzu dog has won the hearts of its owners.
Their cute physiques and traditionally grown long coat, if maintained and groomed regularly, also increases the life span of Shih Tzu.
The type and intensity of grooming and how you do it are the major constituents in making your Shih Tzu gorgeous. Know the question arises how to groom a Shih Tzu?
Don’t worry; we will be covering all aspects of how to groom a Shih Tzu under a broad spectrum.
Our goal is to inform you about all the grooming needs of your Shih Tzu and help you follow and maintain a healthy grooming schedule that can transform your Shih Tzu look.
Also, we will be proving out the myths, so stick with us till the end.
How To Groom A Shih Tzu?
A perfect grooming routine is one that is followed regularly and draws out better results. Some of the best ways are face grooming & bathing, ear cleaning & nail trimming, paw & nose grooming, etc.
Our team of expert professional groomers effectively shares tips and advice for doing each type of grooming, so don’t forget to comply with them. All these grooming ways in detail are:
Face Grooming And Bathing
The first thing people subconsciously notice in a dog is they look at the face. Face serves as an entrance gateway to a house; if it isn’t well maintained and welcoming, people won’t come in.
So do make sure to clean the face regularly.
The Shih Tzu breed, because of its beautiful facial hair, quickly picks up stains. It might be because of having small height and hair that help pick up the debris.
Their fine facial hairs attract and stick food particles and retain moisture and eye discharge. The hairs close to the nose, under the eyes, and above the chin and cheeks, if tingled up, would feel uncleaned.
For better looks and a healthy face, wiping out the face and cleaning the eyes daily is necessary.
Now the major question arises of how to do it. So I will be explaining it.
Try to wipe out the face with water, or you can also use some removers after every meal and outside play. Use a special eye wipe cloth to wipe the eyes, and be a bit soft-handed while doing it.
After that comes the bathing, you should bathe your Shih Tzu after mud baths, especially to cleanse out all the dust accumulated in hairs. For bathing, you can use a bathing shampoo of basic pH by consulting your vet.
Ear Cleaning And Nails Trimming
No doubt Shih Tzu are friendly and calm dogs, but this doesn’t mean there’s no need to trim their nails. The nail requires trimming once a week, depending upon their growth rate.
Whenever you hear any click clock sound while your Shih Tzu is walking, it indicates that the nails need a trim. Trimming the nails is a bit tricky job to do, so we recommend only hiring a professional groomer for it.
Ear cleansing removes dust and the accumulation of debris within the ears, which can cause hearing problems. If your Shih Tzu is in good ear health, you can simply use an ear cleanser prescribed by your vet.
Paw And Nose Grooming
One of the difficult areas of grooming a Shih Tzu is the paw and nose area. The nose is to handle with extensive care as in summers, it is the top part that is always facing the sun, and in winters, it is the part that is chapped the most due to cold. While the paws are responsible for walking and always get dirty.
Using a quality nose balm for a dry nose can be very effective in winter. You should apply it three times a day to cure any dryness, peeling, and cracking problems. Moreover, paw wax can help the paws in cold weather.
When to Groom A Shih Tzu?
Grooming a Shih Tzu is highly essential to keep the breed healthier and comfortable. The key to effective grooming lies in knowing precisely what grooming things to do, when to do them, the best duration, and the tools required.
Before we start, we will give you a general idea of the basic grooming tasks and how often you should do them.
For now, we have categorized the tasks based on their frequency.
- Daily: A regular face washing and eye wiping
- Once a Week: Brushing the Coat
- Once in 3 Weeks: Bathing a whole-Body shower, and clean up.
- Once a Month: Nail Trimming and Ear Cleaning
- Once after 3 Months: Paw and Nose Cleaning (should be done by a grooming professional)
- As per Health Conditions: depending upon the skin or coat disorders, you can consult with your vet about the grooming.
How To Groom A Shih Tzu With Long Hair?
You might have wondered how beautiful these Shih Tzu look with their long floating and cuddling hairs. Also, remember that this charming beauty can eventually become untidy ugliness if the hairs are not properly groomed and taken care of. Grooming a Shih Tzu with long hair includes the following steps.
Combing
Combing before the brushing is to remove all the tangles within the hairs. Usually, you see that long coats are prone to get stuck. So, a comb before brushing is very essential.
The comb you choose here should be a two-set comb with two different teeth arrangements, one with close teeth and the other with open teeth. Moreover, in areas where the hairs are tangled up, be more sensitive and careful in combing.
Brushing The Coat And Long Hairs
Brushing is one of the most essential tasks, without which grooming is incomplete. Regular and proper brushing can promote healthy hair growth and can make your Shih Tzu look more beautiful. You might be thinking about what benefits brushing brings.
There are many benefits of grooming long hairs via brushing. Brushing stimulates blood flow near hairs, and hence delivery of minerals and essentials to the hairs increases; as a result, there are more healthy and stronger hairs. It removes the dirt and debris, cleanses the hairs removes all sorts of tangled hairs.
Spritzing
Spritzing will keep your Shih Tzu look fantastic and more gorgeous. And will give a new look healthy look to their hair. It will help prevent split ends, prevent the coat from contact friction, and keeps the hair moisturized.
Again, in the end, you will comb this will give the coat a perfect finish. Brushes ranging from 16mm- 24 mm pin size would be perfect for grooming the long hairs.
Shih Tzu Grooming Kit
Hiring a groomer after every 4-7 seven weeks could be a challenging and expensive job. So mostly, people prefer to do the grooming job of their pets on their own.
As the owner spends time with the pet, he also builds a better and stronger bond. Professional grooming is hard, and most people ask how to groom a Shih Tzu at home. We would also be covering that.
To get started with the grooming of your Shih Tzu, you don’t need to be that extravagant. You can just simply start with a simple tool kit and can grow it over with time.
Because initially, if you buy the whole kit and won’t get much comfortable with the pet, then it would end up being useless. A basic simple home grooming kit should consider the following items.
- A brush with flexible and soft pins.
- A fine slicker brush and a Bristle brush.
- Comb with 2 two levels of teeth spacing, fine and coarse.
- Blunt-tipped pair of scissors
- De-matting Tool
- Dog Clippers
Once you have those essentials, then you can always go on adding more and more concerning requirements. So below, we have shared a list of a few additional grooming items.
- You will use a settle-down table to lay down your dog during grooming.
- Non-Slip bathing mat and a hand-held portable shower nozzle or a water spray bottle
- Electric nail sander or nail clippers
- Ear Cleanser and Emollient Shampoo (pH specific to dogs’ use)
- Cotton, Towles, Wash Cloths, Sponges, and eye wipes.
Grooming A 3 Months Shih Tzu
Talking about puppies‘ grooming, one has to work with them more carefully. Mainly the grooming needs we had mentioned earlier go the same for a 3-month-old Shih Tzu too.
But one major concern is oral health and periodic check-ups at the vet. So do care of them and keep inspecting the coat and the puppy behavior on your own so that we can cure any growing health issues early on.
How To Cut Shih Tzu Hair Around Eyes?
How to cut the hairs around the eyes of a Shih Tzu is a major grooming concern as these hairs are near the delicate parts, so we need to handle them with care.
For cutting the hairs around and between the eyes of Shih Tzu, first, comb those hairs slightly. Then use blunt-tipped scissors and cut the hairs starting from the top.
Moving towards the sides, the bottom ends above the cheeks and nose. Continue cutting the hairs until they are such small that they don’t block the eye’s vision.
Shih Tzu Haircuts
Shih Tzu’s compact size, friendly behavior, and long hairs with different hairstyles make him the most loved dog breed. The best thing about the hairs of a Shih Tzu is that they can be cut in any desired style easily, which gives the dog a new attractive and cool look.
There are many haircut styles for Shih Tzu; we will be discussing the top 3 widely used haircut styles of Shih Tzu.
Shih Tzu Puppy Cut Haircut
One of the best haircuts that make the grooming job even more accessible and simpler is the Shih Tzu puppy cut which people also call the Shih Tzu summer cut.
In this haircut style, we trim the Shih Tzu hairs until there are only 2 inches of hair in length left. This haircut mainly cuts up until getting short hair, making the puppy look even cuter.
The best advantage of this haircut is that we don’t need to worry about tangles and brushing.
Shih Tzu Teddy Bear Haircut
Keep in mind the teddy bear haircut whenever you see the round face, round eyes, and round legs prominent in a Shih Tzu.
In this haircut, the hairs of the head and face are left slightly bigger than the whole-body hairs, which gives the dog a fluffy teddy-like appearance. This haircut is low maintenance, with less grooming requirement, highlighting the dog’s friendly and playful nature.
Shih Tzu Show Haircut
If I call about the identity or signature cut of a breed, then we remember to show the cut as the signature haircut of the Shih Tzu breed.
This haircut consists of long floor-lying hair with a knot over the head. If you are among those who have a lot of time and can spend a lot on grooming, then this signature cut is genuinely the haircut you are looking for.
Final Words: How To Groom A Shih Tzu Guide
Grooming is much more than just trimming the hair and cutting the nails. Grooming your dog is one of the best ways to strengthen the owner and pet bond. The article above covers it all about Shih Tzu grooming, haircuts, and much more.
Also, it is helpful to look for the chances of any skin or coat problems at an earlier stage and then treat them before the situation gets worse. We shared a detailed guide on how to groom a Shih Tzu; to hope you found it helpful.
If you have any queries regarding the grooming of a Shih Tzu, you can reach out to us; we would love to hear from you.
Best of luck with grooming your Shih Tzu!
