Cocker Spaniel Puppy's First Bath | Jess Rona Grooming

It's time for your first bath. I love you. Oh, you smell like a puppy. The main thing that I do with puppies' first baths is I just desensitize them and get them used to it and try to make it as fun of an experience as possible. Let's get started. So puppies have to get used to not only the actual feeling of the water, but they have to get used to the sound and all of the senses, all of the sensations. So I'm just gonna let him sniff. I'm gonna let him hear the sound of the water. I'm just gonna start with some touch and then with sound and then with feeling. And let him sniff around. Make him think that he's in charge a little bit. Have him sniff my little pad with some ear cleaner on it. And I'm just gonna touch, touch, touch, touch, touch. No big deal. It's a little wet and cold and weird, so I'm just gonna do my best. Just gonna do my best today. I'll probably have to put him on a leash just so he doesn't move around too much. Since he's having a reaction, I'm just gonna touch, touch, touch, touch, touch. Touch, touch, touch, touch, touch. Sometimes you have to go backwards. Touch, touch, touch. So now I just wanna get him used to being touched in his ear. He's a good boy. So we're just gonna touch ears. There we go. So they'll start to trust a little bit. So if you have a puppy and you just wanna get them used to stuff, just get them, just start by touching. So he went from avoiding and not liking it to now he's now used to it. So we'll have another moment of protest. That's okay. So I just wiped out his ears. I don't wanna make it too big of a deal. For him, I'm not going to start with this hose because it's kinda scary. This hose right here. I have a mix of water, warm water and shampoo. I'm just gonna put it directly on him and it's gonna be a lot cozier. So I'm just gonna slowly work in the shampoo and just put it right on his coat. Good boy. This might be his very first bath. Who knows? We're just getting him used to the feeling. Cocker spaniels have these heavy floppy lips. So you just wanna make sure if your dog has a floppy lip situation that you clean underneath those floppy lips. I'm focusing on the top of his head. I'm just seeing if I can get this to just roll down. Just get him wet this way. Yes, a good boy. He's doing so great. It's okay, he got a little water around his nose. It's totally okay. I'm just gonna saturate his whole body. And also the water is nice and warm. I'm just gonna get it all over him. I'm using my left hand to just saturate the coat and just really work in the shampoo to the skin. And if you don't have a squeeze bottle at home, you can work with a pitcher. He's got some big old feet. He's gonna be a big boy. Look at his big feet. You're nice. Good boy. So by the time they're kind of more wet and saturated, they start to settle and get used to it. I focus on one leg at a time. And just like one little section at a time. He's doing great. You're so nice. What a nice baby you are. Trembling is nothing that really is alarming to me. It's just very normal. Dogs have a higher body temperature than people do. And I just feel like, I think that when we wash them, their body temperature drops, but it's nothing that is like bad for them. I'm really scrubbing the back of his back legs. So I'm gonna wet his face with this shampoo water. But because it's just not clean enough, I'm going to also use the facial on him. Good boy. Look how much more used to it he is now. There's like a little bit of protesting, but it's really not that bad. He's probably just gonna have moments like this. And he'll also have moments of calm like this. And you can see when I hold his face like this, he's calm, much calmer than if I try to go like this, then he backs away. So I have to understand like, okay, he doesn't mind this so much. So let me just focus on this position as much as I can. We gotta clean your eyebrows. So I just wanna make sure that I'm saturating the coat all the way to the skin. And I'm just working it in completely on every inch of the dog. And I wanna spend my time like just working it in. I wanna take my time. You don't wanna rinse too quickly. You wanna just make sure that the shampoo sits for at least five minutes. So just spend that time working it in with each foot. Like this, I just kind of like judge. This is called judging. You're nice, you're nice. He has a facial sitting on his face while I'm working on his body. He's trembling a little bit. So I'm just gonna try to make this go as quickly as possible. And I'm using warm water and just making this as cozy as possible. You always wanna use on every dog breed, every dog needs warm, cozy water. Never use cold water on a dog. I mean, some people hose their lab down in the backyard in the summertime. I don't feel like that's that bad, but if you're bathing a dog and you can, use warm water, use warm water. Okay, rinsey, rinsey. You're a good boy. He's at the point where he's just like, get me out of here. So I wanna make this cozy for him so that he can at least just sort of surrender to the process a little bit. One of the things I recommend if you're bathing a puppy at home or just bathing your dog at home is to set up your towel in advance. Like I have a towel ready to dry him. You just don't wanna leave the dog sitting there waiting for you. So just try to get everything set up before the bath. So you always wanna make sure that you condition a dog. I'm trying to do this quickly. You don't have to have, the conditioner doesn't have to sit as long as the shampoo does. For me, I usually do five minutes for the shampoo and about three minutes for the conditioner. Just make sure when you're conditioning your dog that you get the feet and the belly. These are the sebaceous zones on a dog and they just need a little extra hydration. Oh my God, look at him in my shirt. Hello, hello. Is cozy in there? You're so nice. You're welcome. You're welcome to just dive right in. I'm just gonna let this conditioner sit for just a few moments and then we're gonna rinse the baby. Actually, I feel like if he's trembling and not loving it. So honestly, just getting the conditioner on, working it in. I think I'm not gonna wait a full three minutes. I'm just gonna work it in and then just start rinsing and get him out of here because he's a cold little bear. You're a cold little bear going in my shirt. It's okay. I get it. Like, do I just let him hang out in there? Chaos. By the way, I'm wearing JRG merch under here. If you wanna get yourself some JRG merch, head on over to justronardgrooming.com. It's cozy. Okay, time to rinse the bear. I like to always start with the ears when I'm rinsing a puppy's face or honestly, I just kind of start with the ears with every dog. It just helps them to get desensitized to the water a little bit. See how he had a moment of avoidance and then he kind of was like, okay. So I just wanna make sure that we give him a moment where he can just sort of get used to the process and doing that before you put the water on the face is a little bit of a more like gentle ease into the process. We're almost done. Okay, so this baby is all bathed and clean and gorgeous and now I'm gonna give him, are you eating the towel? Now I'm gonna go fluff him out. I hope you enjoyed my tips and happy bathing. I'll see you in the next one. Okay, wow, we're licking the towel now. You're chaos, you're chaos. Oh, oh. Oh.