Thought id ask since i know alot of yall here have GSD's.

Alright so i have this mutt here, female, bout 5 months old.. and have been trying to groom her myself.

Trying to clean her ears, trim her nails, or even bathe her is impossible. Ive tried to bathed her a few times, was successful ONCE (had to get near naked and pretty much wrestle her).
The ear cleaning, when i pour the solvent into her ears she will move away and fears doing it again.. Is this normal? Maybe im just not holding her down strong enough. It become a pretty hard struggle/wrestle to even get her head to hold still.

The nail grooming.. yah this is near impossible! Before i even get her nail into the clipper and look to see what im clipping off she is already kicking and scratching my face off. I have a concrete patio in the back, shes always on it.. Shes also always scratching the glass door (not a good sound), so most of the nails dont even look like they need clipping.


Do any of you do dog grooming? Do you attempt it by yourself or have someone help you? Im probably just going to take her to petco since i live alone and it seems i cant manage this alone.


I havent done any "puppy classes" either. I really dont want her to be "100% human friendly around everyone not just her owner".. Just not gonna happen.

Im sure the classes will calm her down a bit.. but ive heard that these dogs naturally stop around 1-2 yrs old.. they just fall into place and go "poof this is my role"..

She does pretty good most the time except trying to groom. Usual hyper active the first 5 minutes she sees me, but once im there then she stops being a psycho and returns to normal state.

Tips, tricks, suggestions? I wouldnt be offended if you said hand the dog over, im almost thinkin i cant handle it.. especially with how destructive she is

im sure theres something i can do ??

 

I have my dog groomed. Best $30 spent. I'm not impressed with Petco and they are more expensive. Check the yellow pages or the local vet for groomers. Also some will make house calls.

MikeyB

 

I take care of my own dog except for the nails. The clicking noise the clippers make wierds her out, she hates anything that clicks (playing with guns, clipping my fingernails) and the noise the Dremel makes makes her nuts, too. Some dogs are cool with the Dremel, my sister-in-law's Sheltie hates clippes but doesn't mind the Dremel a bit.

I trim my dog myself - I'll be the first to say that I'm no good at it, but she's not a show dog. I just try to keep her from getting too shaggy on the ears, feet, and rump. Ear cleaning can be tough, what I do is sit on a chair and hold her neck between my knees with her nose pointing towards me. My free hand holds her head down and the ear flap back. The good thing about how much a Golden sheds is that if you brush them regularly, they never need a bath unless they roll in something nasty. Not sure what kind of coat your dog has, she may not need regular baths either.

 

shes in an area outside where its dusty.. but i usually just run a brush through her every week and she looks good again.. dusty but hey even if i bathed her shed get dusty in 1 minute anyway.

Dremel... did you try using a dremel on the nails? no wonder she wont let you do it.!