Papillon

Grooming

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My Papillons are not conformation show dogs. I do show them in obedience. Here is the way that I typically groom my dogs regarding toenail trimming, feet hair trimming and a "potty path" so that feces do not cling to their culottes (the abundant hair on the back of their rear legs and butt).

All the pictures are thumbnails. Double click on the picture and the thumbnail should enlarge. 

This page could not exist without the help of my great friend Judy H who helped take the pictures or hold the dogs. Thanks Judy! Maybe we can talk your husband into getting a Papillon!

The descriptions, examples and pictures below are from the way I do things. I am not a professional trainer. You may decide to try them. 

IF YOU DECIDE TO TRY GROOMING YOUR DOG AS SUGGESTED ON THIS PAGE YOU DO SO AT YOUR AND YOUR DOG'S OWN RISK.

A small pair of electric clippers (in this case a small Conair however I like Wahl better), mine are battery operated

clipper blade coolant/cleaner (Oster Kool Lube is shown here)

an old knee high stocking

a hand held rotary tool (Craftsman single speed rotary tool is shown here; many people use a Dremel, you can find a Dremel at Walmart)

a brush 

a "snood" (which I made but you can use a sock if you cut the foot off of it)

And most importantly - TREATS! (not pictured here because they're in my pocket)

Start with your Papillon on a table that is high enough to control him. In this example I'm using Templar, my young Pap.

His ear fringe is long enough to get in the way of the rotary tool.

So I'm going to put a snood on him. 

I made the snood long enough to also cover his chest fur.

Now I'm going to put his front foot into an old knee high stocking. This will keep the extra fur around his toenail, and on the back of his legs, away from the rotary tool.

I push the toenail I want to work on through the knee high material...

(See the white tip of the nail? That is the part to be taken off. The pink part has blood in it. If you take too much off and get in the pink part you'll cause your dog pain and make him bleed.)

This is how I hold him since he will occasionally try to pull his foot away. I have him tucked under my arm and my elbow braced on the table. 

Now use the rotary tool (most call it a Dremel but Dremel is a brand name, here I use a Craftsman). Slowly grind the toenail down. 

If the toenail is long then you may want to cut off some of the tip with regular dog toenail clippers. I detest using plain toenail clippers since I've clipped the quick on more than one dog's toenail before and made them bleed!

I just go slow and check the toenail every few seconds to be sure the toenail is not getting hot from the friction of the sandpaper on the rotary tool. 

Here is a "before and after" picture of two of my Pap's nails. The one in the front has not been trimmed the next one has. (Normally my Paps nails are not this long! I let them go an extra week or so because I knew I'd be taking these example pictures.)

Now I'm going to trim the back feet. I've changed the snood to cover his tail. (The snood I made has a draw string on the face end so I can tighten it up to fit the tail.)

Tem-Tem (Templar) will stand still to let his back feet be worked on. All I have to do is stretch the foot out a little and slightly to the back. If he didn't stand still, I'd lay him down under the crook of my arm and expose his foot that way.

Feet are done! Treat time! In the beginning I'd give him a treat for each foot. Now he has to wait until all the feet are done.

Oooh! Tem-Tem,what long foot hair you have! Tsk, tsk on me! 

To begin, I'll hold the foot with his pads touching my palm.

I'll use the small clipper and run it down the edge of his foot to my palm.

Even when the clipper touches my palm it never cuts me. Be careful with your clippers though!

The back foot being trimmed.

I cut the fur just above where his paw hits the ground.

Now I trim in between the pads of the foot. (I do the same for the front feet.)

Living in an area that gets an abundance of snow, I don't like the dogs suffering through having snowballs/iceballs stuck to the bottom of their foot hair, thus I trim. If you live in the South you may want to leave that hair on the bottom of the foot alone as it will be a buffer between your dog's foot and the hot pavement/ground/etc he or she may be walking on.

Now in this picture I trust my skill without using the stocking to do the toenails on this foot. 

Plus the fact that there's no hanging dog hair nearby long enough to get entangled with the tool. I'm careful to hold the hair on the back of his leg away with the rest of my fingers. Please be VERY careful if you try it this way!

Here is Chevalier, "Chev", being my dewclaw example. Put the stocking over the foot and push the dewclaw through the material.

Now grind away. Be careful of the excess stocking! It can get caught in the rotary tool just like fur!

Here's a very hairy beginning! Many dogs will have yellow belly fur due to urination stains.

Here's the triangle, roughly, that you'll trim.

See his "pee-string"? It's between the dotted lines. NEVER trim that! A dog uses that to direct his urine downwards and away from his body.

Here I'm trimming the fur on either side of his penis.

Now I'm trimming up by the apex of the triangle, near his ribcage.

Note his tattoo? He's microchipped as well. All the better to find him with if he's ever lost!

Trimming a little more. Standing the dog will allow the hair to fall more naturally and show you if there's still some you still need to trim. 

But I'm still not touching his "pee-string"!!

Much better! I left the hair along his flanks (the edge of his stomach along his sides) long.

So when you look at him from the side, you cannot tell that he's had the triangle trimmed.

Thanks Tem-Tem for being such a good boy!

Don't forget to give treats!

Lots and lots of treats!!

Start by brushing your Papillon's culottes.

Tem-Tem, aka Mr. Hairy Butt, is brushed and ready to begin trimming.

I begin by trimming downwards past the dog's anus. To help control the dog, I tuck him under my arm.

Take the trimmer straight downwards from the anus so that poop will drop down the "chute" you trim and, hopefully, not stick to your dog's culotte fur.

I do not trim to the skin though! I only trim back some of the abundant fur.

Now trim upwards. Include the base of the underside of the tail; just about an inch.

Trimming around the anus also lets you keep track of his anal sack health. 

If there's drainage and an awful smell then you'll need to express his anal glands or have your Vet do it. Some people express them on a regular basis. I'm of the opinion that if there isn't a problem - don't mess with it! Thus there aren't any pictures of anal glands being expressed. Aren't you glad?! LOL!!

Voila! A clean "potty path"!

Did I mention giving treats?

Give your dogs treats during all this!

Your Papillon won't let you get near his foot with a brush/toenail clipper/rotary tool? You'll have to desensitize your Pap to these items! 

How? Well... 

Most importantly you must stay as physically relaxed as possible. If you are tense then the dog certainly will pick up on that and be uncertain to begin with!

Start with getting the dog accustomed to just holding his foot. Even if at first you are holding the dog and run your hand down the leg and away. Don't even stop at the foot at first. Give a treat. (Now when I say treat, I mean TREAT. Something the dog really goes wild for. Even if it's steak! A normal treat that he always gets won't cut it for this! Get something he'd try to stand on his nose for!) 

After a few times of running your hand down his leg and away, then pause at the foot a moment then continue to drop your hand away. Repeat several times over several days. Always try to move your hand on -just before- the dog jerks his foot away. Timing is everything! Give a treat if he doesn't jerk his foot. Keep doing that for a several days. Then pause at the foot longer and longer until you can actually hold the foot in your hand. Lots of treats!

Now get your rotary tool (most dog people call it a Dremel). When you feed your Pap have the unplugged rotary tool within view of the bowl (only when you can watch your dog! Don't leave them unattended together.) Let your dog get used to the sight of the tool while it's enjoying something like eating. Then get your Pap in your lap and pick up the -turned off- rotary tool. Pick it up, put it down, treat. Pick it up, bring it a little closer to your Pap, put it down, treat. Pick it up, bring it even closer, put it down, treat. Get the idea? Get to the point where you can pick it up, touch your dog's body with it and treat. Touch the dog's feet with it. Their belly with it. Their head. Everywhere! But ALWAYS have it turned OFF at this stage. Once you can do all that, then it's time to go to the next stage...

Get comfortable on your chair/couch. Have your Pap in your lap and treats handy. Show your dog the treat with one hand. Hold the rotary tool as far away from the dog as possible with the other hand. You can even hold it down over the side of the chair/couch arm and out of sight. Turn it on and give your Pap a treat (if he's still in your lap!). Turn it off. Turn it on, treat, turn it off. Over several days, bring the rotary tool into sight. Get it to the point where you can hold your Pap's foot with one hand and the rotary tool with the other. (Put a snood on your Pap once you start getting the rotary tool close enough to possibly entangle in hair if your Pap moves the wrong way suddenly.) Use one hand to splay the toes out a little. Bring the rotary tool up, touch one toenail and immediately remove the rotary tool! (use highly valued treats for this!!) Definitely use a snood once you start trying to touch a running rotary tool to your Pap's toenail. And don't be surprised if your Pap tries to bite the rotary tool. Give treats often through all this!! Don't treat if your Pap is biting, of course.

If your Pap leaps from your lap at the first sight/sound of a rotary tool that's been turned on, you may have to turn on the rotary tool and leave it running a good distance away from where you choose to sit with your Pap. Then gradually move it closer to you both. If you have someone living at home with you then have them turn the rotary tool on/off while you treat.

Once you can touch your Paps' toenail with the rotary tool while you are sitting on a chair or couch then you can try to do the trimming as I suggest above in the pictures. Use a table of some kind. If you sit with a dog on a chair or couch, it may give them more 'wiggling' room than a table would.

Don't forget - all this training is done over a period of WEEKS. If you go too fast and frighten your Pap then you may never be able to use a rotary tool on his toenails.

If your Pap never stops resisting no matter how many baby steps you break the desensitizing down into, you may have to seek a professional dog trainer. Or stop by your local veterinarian and let him/her trim your dogs nails for you. That may be worth the cost if trimming them yourself is too stressful for you and your dog.

Good luck!

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