Friday Favorites - Grooming Tools

My Favorite Grooming Tools

Grooming your pet is a necessary task. Even if you take your pet to a professional groomer, there is still some 'touch-up' work that needs to be done in between visits.

I do all the grooming of our six pups here at Cody and Company. It now takes a little longer than it did when I only had three dogs, but it can still be a good task without a lot of fuss and drama.

The most important thing is to have the correct tools. I am very impressed with the Lil Pals Grooming Tools. I like the way they are perfectly proportioned for grooming my little dogs. I think they are calmer during grooming because the brushes are small and not overwhelming them with a brush that is as big as they are.

You may be able to find this brand of grooming tools at some pet supply stores, but my usual go-to place is to get them from Amazon.

My favorite brush is the Slicker Brush. It slides through the hair of both smooth coated Charm, as well as the others with their longer hair. It has little rubber tips on the ends of the bristles. Over time and use, they do tend to lose these, but it has been my experience that it takes a long time and a lot of use for this to happen.

Next up in my grooming favorites is the Bristle Brush. This one tends to be my favorite for Charm, with her smooth coat and shorter hairs. It is also good to use around the dog's faces, without the worry of possibly poking them in the eye with one of the metal bristles of the Slicker Brush. The bristles are very soft on this particular brush.

I don't use the comb a whole lot, but will use it most often on the leg featherings and back bloomers, after I have run the brush through these areas and I am confident that there are no tangles. The Double Sided Comb is nice because it has two size options for the spacing of the teeth, giving it a more comfortable tool for your dog.

No grooming kit would be complete without tools for clipping your pet's toenails. I personally prefer to use clippers, rather than a Dremmel tool or other pet nail grinder. Trimming your dog's nails can be a stressful thing for both you and the dog, but the Lil Pals Nail Trimmer makes the job an easy breeze. I love this trimmer because it's small size works perfectly on the tiny nails of my dogs. There is nothing worse than trying to wrangle a large nail clipper while trimming tiny little Chihuahua nails. They make clipping the nails too short a thing of the past!

There is also an accompanying Nail File that can smooth out any rough spots left on the nail. 

The only thing that this brand lacks is a good pair of small scissors to trim the hair on the pads of the feet, or any other trimming you may need to do. I recently purchased this set from Lily's Pet and have been quite satisfied with it. They come in a variety of colors.  Some of the scissors are much larger than what I need to use, but it is nice to have them, just in case. The thinning shears are also nice to have on some occasions.

I try to do a simple brushing and nail trim of the dogs each week, with a full grooming that includes the paw hair being trimmed up and any trimming of excessive 'floofs' and a bath, once a month. While many people like the 'grinch toes' of long hair on the paws of their Long-haired Chihuahuas, my personal preference is for them to be trimmed neatly. It is probably a carry-over from my dog showing days, but I also feel they help to not drag in dirt and wetness when the dogs come in from outside.

Some of my dogs have very long hair on their tails and back bloomers and I will trim that up some, for the same reason, as well as for some bathroom hygiene reason. This is where I like the longer blade scissors in the Lily's Pet set. 

My dogs do not dislike their grooming sessions. As soon as one is done and set back down on the floor, the others are dancing around me, practically saying "Pick me! Pick me!" Finn has been known to actually fall asleep while being groomed.

Baths are not a favorite activity, but they usually have a lot of fun running around afterward!

I hope that this has been helpful for those of you who are looking for a good set of grooming tools for your pet!

Cheaper By the Half Dozen..???

If you had told me a few years ago that the day would soon come that I would have SIX dogs, I would have shook my head and walked away laughing. Laughing hard.

But, life has a way of turning the tables on you, now doesn't it???

We have grown our little pack to a sizeable pack of six Chihuahuas, almost overnight it seems.

I wrote a blog post called It's Been A While that brought everyone up to speed on Charm and Tallie joining our family, as well as the passing of Shimmer. We were now a happy little family of 4 - Cooper, Scarlett, Charm and Tallie. 

There is a saying that no one can eat just one potato chip and the same sort of thing obviously works for acquiring Chihuahua pups. In the last year, we added two more boys to our family. They both came all the way across the country from Florida to make a life with us here in Oregon.

First came Finn, just a few days before Christmas. Best. Christmas. Gift. EVER. I mean, when you find out that this little cutie could be coming to live with you, how do you say anything except Yes, Yes, YES?!?!

So, come he did and he settled in perfectly.

Finn is the sweetest dog I have ever met. He is so gentle and good natured. He loves to play, loves to chase squirrels and most definitely does NOT like to model clothes for me! He will be a  year old next month and has grown into a beautiful boy with a gorgeous fluffy coat.

Five felt like a pretty good number. I even managed to get a not-totally-crazy photo of everyone for Mother's Day! We dubbed them the Fab Five and we were happy!!

But, I soon fell in love with a little fluffball that was born to Finn's mother, way over there in Florida. Oh, he was irresistible and in no time at all, just in time for my birthday in fact, we had suddenly jumped to that magical number six!

Meet Tucker!

He was so fluffy, it was like holding a cloud! A walking fluff ball with tiny little legs. He is beginning to lose some of that extreme fluffiness and become a little taller and lanky. Don't get me wrong, he is still just the cutest thing, but sigh, he is growing up, having just turned 4 months the other day. He has the shrillest bark you have ever heard! It can seriously make your ears ring. He loves to torment his brothers and sisters into playing with him. He plays till he drops, then he wants to be held by Mom to take a nap.

This is the closest I have come to a group photo, but I need to start working harder so that I have one for our Christmas card!

Despite all this influx of cuteness, I am still managing to keep sewing and creating new designs for our shop. Tallie is a top-notch model (despite her sticking her tongue out at me in the photo above), loving to pose for the camera and puts up with my crazy ideas.

There is a never ending supply of dog hair on the floor, nose prints on the patio door, and toys constantly strewn everywhere. But, I love it. I love these pups and couldn't imagine life without a single one of them. They all have different personalities, but together we make a family. We are now the Sensational Six. 

Hang on for the ride -- the fun is just getting started!!

Organizing A Multiple Dog Household

I get lots of comments and questions on my social media accounts about my organizational abilities. Organizing is a hobby and a passion for me, as well as a survival standard. Many of you may not be aware that my husband and I are the parents of seven (yes, SEVEN!) children. We were foster parents and adopted several of the children we were caring for, as well as two biological sons. So, for many years we had six children that had a wide age spread and our household was very, very busy. We adopted one of our grandchildren a few years ago and she is now seven years old and the only one living at home with us as the others are all adults and some even have families of their own. If I hadn't been organized through those years I literally would have gone insane!

So, having five dogs now doesn't seem so bad, huh?

Because I get a lot of questions, I have decided that I will start an organizing series to share what I do to keep our house running smoothly, as well as not look like it is being run by the dogs.

Firstly, being organized is more for my sanity than the dogs. I have two great passions in my life: a clean, organized home and dogs. Those two battle each other on a daily basis. 

To start this series, I am going to share with you a cupboard in our kitchen. This cupboard did not originally start out as The Dog Cupboard, but has evolved over the years.

It is an unassuming looking cupboard next to the trash compactor. (Please note the chewed corner of the cupboard to the left, proof that we have indeed been growing out three puppies in the last two years. There are several corners that look that way). Behind this door are three drawers that keep the bulk of our dog necessities.

Because I love to label things, and because we have a vinyl lettering machine, you will often see that there is rarely confusion over what goes where.

The first drawer is, obviously, the dog food. This is the kibble that is the base of our dogs' daily meals, to which I add various homemade supplements (that is a whole other blog post!). The kibble is stored in this drawer, while the homemade items are kept in the refrigerator.

This bank of drawers and cupboard were built by my husband, lovingly referred to as Shawn-the-Wonder Guy. This first drawer is divided into two sections. I am currently trying to treat a possible food allergy to chicken protein with two of our dogs, so they are eating a salmon based food, which is in the back section. The front holds the food that the two other adult dogs currently do well on. Usually the puppy food is in the back, but has been moved down to the next drawer until I can get this situation resolved.

This is the second drawer. Another thing I am greatly fond of is baskets. I like to corral things together and not have a drawer of chaos rolling all over. One doesn't have to spend a lot of money on baskets. These two came from the Target Dollar Spot and were $3 each. You can also find great ones at The Dollar Tree. A cut down to fit box works just as well also. The Baggie on the right has Finn's puppy kibble. The front basket holds everyone's go-to walking harnesses. Underneath them is a plastic box that holds my grooming supplies of brushes, nail clippers, scissors, etc. 

The second basket has the tiny harnesses for Finn and Tallie. It has been a challenge to find ones that fit them, but I am very pleased with the Lil Pals brand! I believe Finn will mature into a size that fits the Puppia ones that the other adult dogs wear, but Tallie is only 3.2 pounds and the smallest size Puppia is still too large for her, so the Lil Pals is working great.

Within this basket is a smaller basket in the back that holds the tooth brushing supplies, the pill cutter, a travel pill box and various other items. The little oval blue basket holds some Cranberry pills left over from a bout of UTI that one of the dogs had last year as well as some tiny collars, again for Finn and Tallie. You will also see not one, but TWO bottles of Bitter Apple. Refer to earlier statement of three puppies in two years....

The last drawer holds clean dog blankets and potty pads (again, three puppies, two years. I should buy stock in these things).

We have a very large kitchen/dining room open floor plan and the dogs are primarily in this area, so to have all of these supplies there makes sense. I realize that I am very blessed to have a large enough kitchen that I can dedicate a whole cupboard to dog-related items, but if you think outside the box, you may find solutions for your needs. Free standing drawers that are available in anything from plastic to wood are available and can sit in a corner.

This is an idea from Pinterest. It looks like it might be in the garage. The supplied link on Pinterest goes to a dead address, so I cannot provide any other information, but I have seen similar type drawers at Ikea, Target, and Walmart.

via A Polished Habitat

This cupboard is located in a laundry room. The link for more info about it is below the picture. 

Obviously, since I have five dogs, the amount of space I need to store their items is greater than a person with one dog. My hope is that this gives you some ideas, as well as an insight into how I have organized for our household.

As this is the first of a continuing series, I would love to hear from you on anything specific that you would like for me to address. I am always happy to talk dogs or organizing!