With summer quickly approaching, it’s time to help get your pet ready to enjoy the warm sunshine. Here are some helpful tips for grooming your pet for those hot summer days:

1. Keep coats brushed and clean to remove dead hair and stimulate circulation. For longhaired dogs, brushing curries out the undercoat is very important to keep them cool. This helps allow for better air circulation within the coat itself.
2. Don’t shave him down. This is sometimes counterintuitive but coats on cats and dogs actually act like a house’s insulation keeping the temperature more constant on the pet. Dogs naturally cool themselves by panting whereas cats lick their paws, and as the saliva evaporates, it cools the cats.
3. Coats act like a natural sunscreen. So, on bare areas like noses and ear tips, apply some dog sunscreen, but be sure it’s specially made for a dog.
4. Keep nails trimmed. Trim more often and cut less off each time so nails can stay shorter and less vulnerable to injury.
5. Check between toes for briars and brambles after walks or romps in the yard. If a briar is left undiscovered, it could embed and cause a painful (and expensive) infection.
6. Extra baths may help cut down on parasites like fleas and ticks. Turn this dog wash time into a fun game with playtime with the yard hose. Or, if they like splashing around in shallow water, throw their ball into a plastic baby pool to get the bath time going.
7. If your dog swims, you can clean his ears out with ear wash to avoid “swimmer’s ear,” and be sure to wipe down the folds in their ear skin. You can help dry and cleanse your pet’s ears with the PetArmor® Ear Rinse.

8. Check for hot spots. Hot spots are painful, red, oozing sore areas made worse by licking and scratching. They can be started by an insect bite, an allergy, or just from your dog over-licking an area. Treatment includes first clearing any infection and second removing the irritant, which could be environmental from fleas, allergies, or from behavioral issues like licking from boredom or anxiety.

If your pet is struggling with hot spots, help treat itchy, irritated skin with the PetArmor® Hot Spot Remedy for Dogs.

9. Keep their bedding “groomed” too. Even with great flea control on your pet, they may carry new fleas from your yard into your home where they may housekeep in your dog’s bed or in your carpet. Wash their bedding at least once a week and vacuum as often as you can.
10. Give your dog sport a wet bandanna. Make sure it’s wet with cool water and check it often to make sure it stays cool and doesn’t dry out. If it gets warm or dry, it will just act like a little heater around your dog’s neck. So, keep it cool!
11. Keep ‘em in the shade, off the pavement, and well hydrated. Make sure they have cool clean water available all the time, and if you are out on an adventure, offer them water at least once an hour.