Grooming Your French Bulldog
Bathing Your Frenchie
The soft, smooth short coat of a Frenchie is easily maintained in a glossy condition with occassional bathing in a quality dog shampoo. Unless you share your bed with a Frenchie (a lot do) a fortnightly bath is usually enough.
Don't use people shampoo as it is the wrong PH balance for your dogs skin.
Everytime you wash your Frenchie you are removing the natural oils from the coat and skin so a good reason not to over do the shampooing. The more you wash your dog the more shedding of hair occurs. If your frenchie is prone to itchy scratchiness don't over do the shampooing.
The usual rule is to dilute 1 part shampoo to 10 parts of water and apply to the dogs skin. Straight shampoo on the skin results in dandruff 1 or 2 days later and an itchy scratchy dog.
Rinse the coat well with clean water to remove shampoo.
Medicated shampoos are usually applied straight from the bottle and not diluted follow directions on the bottle.
A pied Frenchie will benefit with a whitening (purple or blue) shampoo to make the coat whiter than white.
As show people we tend to spend more on our dogs shampoo than our own LOL. The results speak for itself when your dogs coat is healthy and shiny.
Healthy coats are free of excessive oiliness, redness, parasites, and there should be no bald patches of hair loss. It is normal for dogs to have a hair shedding cycle.
Facial Creases of Your Frenchie.
The facial creases of the Frenchie need to be kept clean and dry in between bathing. A wipe when needed with a soft damp cloth to remove dirt and examine the skin is beneficial for your dog. Don't leave the area to get sore and red before attending to your dogs needs. Apply gentle soothing creams to the creases if the need arises. A medicated shampoo used directly onto the creases will kill bacteria if the area is red and sore, but be careful not to get it into the eyes of your dog. We use a small paint brush to apply the shampoo in this area so as not to sting the dogs eyes and get shampoo in the nostrils.
Tail Area. If your frenchie boot scoots or rubs his behind it could be his tail area is filthy and in need of a clean. Not just faeces which is obvious, there is sometimes a fold or pouch like area where dirt and moisture will accumulate. If your frenchie doesn't have much of a tail it can be hard to get up under there. Wipe out with a cloth or better still squirt some shampoo into the area on bath days and use your finger to work the dirt out. Rinse area really well and dry thoroughly. Puff of talc if it's a really tight area. Don't leave it damp it will get itchy. A cotton bud works well if it's uncomfortable for the dog when you are trying to clean the area or a small paint brush.
Be observant to changes to your dogs skin /coat and address these changes promptly.
It's normal for dogs to drop their coat twice a year. Winter coat falls out before summer and summer coat before winter. There will be light shedding of the coat in between which is normal. The more you wash the dog the more hair falls out. Pied dogs appear to be dropping coat all the time simply because the white hair is more noticeable. Brindles drop just as much hair. There should not be chunks of hair falling out and causing a moth eaten look.
Worm your Frenchie regularly, treat parasites as they occur and give Omega oils daily to enhance the skins condition.
Frequently check your dogs’ paws. The thick, pigmented, tough footpads are excellent shock absorbers. Since your dog walks ‘barefoot’ and this is a very moist area, the inter-digital area can be easily irritated. If your frenchie is constantly licking it's feet, if left unchecked the area between the toes and under the paws will become inflammed.
You will need to treat the area with a medicated shampoo from the vet, possibly washing the feet every 3 days until the condition settles. Leave shampoo on for 10 minutes then rinse and dry well. We would use a powder such as CURE RASH (baby product) for a final dust of the feet after bathing to make sure the paws are completely dry. The irritation is usually set off by wet grass. All dogs can be irritated by wet grass it is not solely a "Frenchie" thing.
Your Frenchies’ whiskers are long, stiff hairs located on the muzzle, upper eyelids and cheeks. They are used as feelers and are especially handy for navigation at night or in dark areas. Show dogs commonly have these whiskers trimmed for presentation in the ring. It doesn't hurt the dog to remove the whiskers. As a pet owner you may like to leave these untrimmed.
Cleaning your Frenchie's ears see "Bat Ear Hygiene"
A well fed, well housed, and well cared for Frenchie will have few health problems.
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