Bathing & Grooming Ritual

Axel gets his bath and grooming every week.... well, almost every week. ;-) He doesn't like them and everytime he sees me bringing out his bathing "kit", he would run far far away from me. I would have to resort to playing hide and seek to get him into the bathroom. This trick works almost everytime! For those times it didn't, I would chase him down. A pretty good workout for me.

I always start off the bathing ritual with cleaning the fold under his nose with a small towel. Then I would wet him with the shower and apply the shampoo onto his body. He usually would be still throughout the process except sometimes to drink from the shower itself. After shampooing, I would leave him for a while and at this time, he would shake the water and bubbles off his body rigorously onto my whole bathroom and of course, me! Then it's rinsing off time and semi-drying with the big towel.

When I opened the bathroom's door, he would dash out to where I placed my hair dryer and would sit there waiting for me. The drying ritual is usually not easy as he would get impatient and started to struggle. I have to shout at him a few times to get him to settle down.

Then comes the hardest part of the whole process.... nail cutting! Again, he would be running away upon seeing his grooming kit in place.

Nail cutting is really difficult cos I would hold him like a baby, his paw in one hand and the clipper in another. He would be struggling for a while and when he gets tired, he would give in.... and so I thought. His hind legs would still be kicking my hand when I start to clip. Last time, I always drew blood when clipping his nails...but after a while, I am getting more skillful in that. Well...worse come to worse, I have the antiseptic powder ready to stop the bleeding, hehehe.

After the nails, I would clean his ears. Most of the time, he enjoys getting his ears clean. Like us, digging into the ears can be rather pleasurable at times, eh?? The last of the ritual is to trim his whiskers with a small scissors.... and of course, a treat!

So after all are done, I have this sparkling dog which will last for....mm...3 days before he starts to smell again...