Grooming your Sealyham Terrier

Sealyham Terriers have a long, coarse coat that is usually white or yellowish in color and requires a full grooming every 6-8 weeks along with general maintenance once a week. If you don’t have personal experience grooming these dogs it’s probably best that you take them to a groomer for hand stripping.

You can use a slicker brush, pin brushes and metal combs to comb out the layers of hair when needed but these dogs shed minimally if at all so it’s more to keep their coat shiny and healthy than to prevent shedding, however their beard should be combed and cleaned every day to promote proper hygiene. A hand stripping should be done twice a year in addition to the daily and weekly grooming.

Check the Eyes and Ears

Check their eyes daily as debris can end up in the corners and needs to be cleaned to prevent buildup of bacteria. Check the ears at least once a week, consult your veterinarian if they are not pink inside, do not try to do anything to them yourself and never use cotton swabs on their inner ears. If the ears are normal in color and don’t require attention then you can use a cotton ball or soft cloth with some ear solution.

Ear solutions are sold at stores but you can also use things you probably already have in your house for your family such as witch hazel, mineral oil, tea tree oil, alcohol and hydrogen peroxide.

Putting a few drops of ear cleaning solution in the ear and then gently massaging the ear can help to loosen any wax buildup which can then be removed with the cotton ball or soft cloth.

Getting your dog accustomed to having it’s teeth brushed is no easy task, they need to be used to having someone handle their mouth before they’ll let you get in there with a brush, you can ease into this by using dog toothpaste on your finger before introducing the toothbrush. When brushing try to be as thorough as you would with your own teeth, making sure you get below the gum line to help prevent any decay or disease.

Trimming your Sealyham´s Nails

Trimming your dogs nails every two weeks is a good practice to prevent them from getting too long and causing problems that may make it uncomfortable for them to walk. If your dog doesn’t like to sit still a pair of nail clippers might be fastest as long as you don’t cut them too far back. If your dog is more well behaved then you might want to consider using a Dremel tool with the smoothing attachment, this can help prevent cutting too close to the quick and hurting your pooch.