In this article, we will answer the following question: How often should you bathe a Yorkie? We will give you advice on how to take care of a Yorkie’s coat, and how often you should bathe your dog.
How often should you bathe a Yorkie?
You should bathe a Yorkie as often as seven to ten days. Bathing the dog is a hygiene routine to which the dog must be accustomed to puppyhood. Before giving his first bath, the Yorkie puppy must have the complete vaccination schedule set by the veterinarian. Meanwhile, it can be kept clean using when needed baby wipes without creams or perfumes.
First, bathe the dog’s body with warm water and leave the head for last, which is what bothers them the most. Cover the dog’s ears so that water does not enter, especially if he has otitis. The water should always be lukewarm and the bathing environment warm and pleasant.
The shampoo you will use for bathing your Yorkie must be of special quality for dogs since its pH is different from humans. Different dog shampoos can be used, there are also specific products for skin problems such as dermatitis or allergy with parasite repellent. Rinse the soap well with warm water.
An important step is to remove moisture and detangle the Yorkie’s hair. After lathering and rinsing with water, wipe the moisture out of your Yorkie’s hair with a towel. Apply a detangling product to facilitate subsequent styling.
As the Yorkshire hair is dry to facilitate the application, you can mix in a dispenser a tablespoon of fabric softener for Yorkshire with warm water and 2-3 drops of tea tree that is antiparasitic, antiseptic, and healing.
Blow-dry your Yorkie’s hair thoroughly, combing downward. Start with the back and sides and end with the head and legs. You can gather the hair from the bangs with a hair tie to clear the eye area.
The importance of bathing a Yorkie
The quality of life of human beings has been highly rewarded since hygiene is part of our lifestyle. Hygiene does not refer only to bathrooms, but also to customs such as washing teeth and hands, correct handling of food, cleaning at home, etc. Within these customs, pets play an important role in our health.
According to the IFH (International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene), the main sources of infection are other human beings, food, water, and lastly… pets.
They themselves recommend keeping the animals in good health and hygiene conditions so that they represent a lower risk, a vaccinated, dewormed, and CLEAN pet does not represent any health problem unless we let the dogs come from the street with their paws full of germs and allow them to climb onto the surfaces where we are currently preparing food.
And let’s not panic thinking that animals are going to infect us and transmit diseases, we must be more afraid of other people than we greet and to know if they have washed their hands after picking up or cleaning who knows what.
In addition, all current studies suggest that living with pets helps in many aspects of physical and mental health, in addition to the fact that children who grow up with animals (who do not like animals), tend to be more empathetic and less prone to allergies. But of course, you have to keep two fingers up and maintain proper hygiene of our pets and our home.
On the other hand, a clean dog will not only have a better quality of life but will be generally healthier. This is because, like in us, baths help them prevent infections, diseases, and better control external parasites.
Tip: Brushing a Yorkie’s hair before bathing
Before you make the decision to bathe your dog, you can choose to give the coat a brush to untangle it with extreme caution not to pull too much so that it is not a traumatic process for them.
If you feel that you are not doing a good job, you can take it to a professional dog stylist with whom you can establish a specialized cut so that it looks good without the need for so much furor, on the contrary, leave its mane long.
Apart from all this, brushing before bathing it is a necessary option so that the hair does not break and lose its beauty and shine, with which you must immediately cut it so that it can be seen well and thus establish that it looks good.
Using the conditioner
It is important at bath time to have a special conditioner for dogs with which to untangle their fur more easily and thus not make it suffer while you comb, which you can do while the conditioner is still in the hair.
Likewise, this product can provide a coat with a soft and shiny texture in addition to being fully hydrated, that is, using only a little of it in your hand and then passing it through the entire body of your dog so that it is impregnated with it.
In dog groomers, they sell very good quality ones that you can buy and use at home so that your dog is always well hydrated and of course without the annoying knots, which are what make your dog look ugly and are not the most ideal.
To detangle the hair of the Yorkshire Terrier dog, it is important that you take into account the possibility of using a special comb that removes knots without tugging or that your dog suffers a lot when combing it before bathing.
The most advisable thing is to use an open metal comb, which can gently enter the hair so that it does not deform, being easier to comb your dog, thus you will avoid splitting the ends of the hair and it will not look careless and dry, therefore the reason you must take this into account before combing it.
Reasons to bathe a dog frequently
As I said at the beginning, it is, first, for your own health and well-bing. It does not matter if the dog lives inside or outside, think that although its hair is a barrier that protects the skin, if we leave it without bathing for a long time all that filth that swarms in the environment will end up reaching it.
It is not about cleaning the dust or bad smells, it is about cleaning the pollution from cars, factories, tobacco smoke, residues from the scrubbing floors we use, bacteria that it picks up on the street …
Do you really think that clears itself or disappears by magic? Do we let all those pollutants accumulate in our hair for months? Or is it that your hair is magical and disintegrates all that residue or directly acts as a repellent and does not fixate on it?
Another reason is that dogs that live indoors must have proper hygiene for our own good. Frequent brushing is essential but insufficient to keep an animal with whom we share the sofa and bed clean enough. Animals are never dirty, the dirty ones are the owners who do not keep them clean.
So, how often can I bathe my dog?
It will depend on the lifestyle, size, breed, or type of coat of the animal. It would never occur to me to recommend a Newfoundland owner to bathe their dog every week in the mini bathtub at home and with a small hand dryer.
Normally small dogs like Chihuahua, Maltese, Yorkshire, Shih Tzu, can be bathed every one to two weeks. If they have long hair, the more baths, the better their hair will have, since good products will help nourish and hydrate the skin.
Chinese Crests can bathe once, twice or three times a week, while medium or large Golden Retrievers, Collies, and Labradors can bathe once or twice a month. And if you have bathed them yesterday and today they have covered themselves in giant horse poop, then to the bathtub again.
Contrary to popular belief, dogs that live outside in the country can space their bathrooms much more than those that live in a flat. The reason? In the field, they can take mud baths and thus this acts as a detergent that helps them to get rid of pollution, but of course, for the human criteria of cleanliness they will be dirty and stinky, so they should bathe at most every two months.
On the other hand, flat-dwelling dogs are typically city dogs that are more exposed to pollution, tobacco, and sidewalks full of germs and nastier stuff, so bathing should be much more frequent. And more if we take into account that it is precisely those who live permanently in a closed space with us.
If you cannot comfortably bathe your dog at home or you do not have a way to dry it properly, you can go to a dog groomer to arrange frequent visits for maintenance. Many offer this service and it can be very economical, especially if we take into account the cost of water, electricity and extra work that takes us to bathe him at home.
And beware of wanting to remove the brown from the bathroom using dry shampoos. These products are for specific occasions, such as vomiting and pissing during travel and very young or convalescent animals. In addition, its cleaning capacity is negligible compared to normal shampoo.
If it were so bad to wash dogs frequently, all those dogs we see in magazines and dog shows would already be dead. Many of these dogs bathe religiously every one or two weeks and tend to have the best and healthiest skin and coat.
The bottom line
It is up to the dog owner to keep his dog in optimal health and beauty conditions, so learn to take care of your Yorkshire Terrier dog yourself, as it is not that difficult to do so and so on. you will learn to take care of any breed you have.
The important thing is the intention to always keep it clean, for this reason, you will always be aware of giving the best to these beautiful creatures that have come to our homes to steal from us with their tender looks and affection for the hearts of the whole family.
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FAQ on How often should you bathe a Yorkie?
What are the colors of an adult Yorkie?
Most adult Yorkies are lighter in color than young Yorkies. An adult Yorkie has more tan and gold fur than black. Most adult Yorkies have golden heads and mostly blue bodies. This blue color often looks silver or grey. Once the dog is about 3 years old, its coat colors remain unchanged.
Will my Yorkie’s hair get thicker?
If your Yorkie is a puppy, its hair will get thicker with growth. Most of the time, the thickness of a Yorkie’s hair depends on genetics, but you also have to give special attention to how you take care of it.
Should I brush a Yorkie’s hair before bathing?
Brushing before bathing your Yorkie is a necessary decision so that the hair does not break and lose its beauty and shine, with which you must immediately cut it so that it can be seen well and thus establish that it looks good.
Are Yorkies expensive to take care of?
Yorkies are not more expensive to take care of than most dogs. Food for a Yorkie may cost you around $300/year. But you should add to the bill veterinarian care, toys, tickets (if you want to travel with your dog).
References
Yorkieadvice.com
Petsworld.in
Animalwised.com
