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Grooming the Afghan Hound

To me, there are several aspects of grooming my hounds. I am often asked if I spend hours upon hours grooming my hounds. The answer in my home is no. I do not spend hours every day grooming my dogs.

For one I keep my dogs clean. My grooming schedule is every week to two weeks. If it is raining, I groom less, because I do hate a clean dog playing in the mud. I just wait for the rain to pass.

Brushing: This is a trial and error on what works for your dog! I brush mine before a bath if they are filthy with twigs and stuff. Otherwise I plunk them in the tub and let the water sort it out. The results of doing this have been good for me, but it may not work for your hound. You may find that you have to brush first, or last, or while soaking wet. There is no right and wrong, just the method that creates the results you want.

Washing: You must condition and shampoo a coat. If you just shampoo you are going to dry out the hair and allow it to break. It will be stripped of oils. Everyone has their own choice in conditioner. There is no right choice. It depends on your environment and lifestyle. I use Pantene and Mane n' Tail at the moment. This may change with the future. They are currently the best for what I need. Be liberal with your conditioner. The dog will benefit. I leave in about 10% of whatever I use. I find it keeps a cleaner, silkier coat that is more dirt resistant. This is my experience.

Grooming tools: Slicker brush, pin brush (without ball tips, they pull! I learned by trial and error and flinching dog!), comb with fine and medium teeth. If you use scissors you are going to hack out chunks of hair. If you need to deal with a real mat, you need Thinning Sheers. You cut into the mat, and use the slicker until you work it out, saving as much coat as possible.

Drying: Everyone has their own opinion. I use a heavy duty human hair dryer or a forced air dryer on lower heat settings. In warm weather I just let them drip dry and brush them out once dry.

Trimming: Coat and nails. I trim the hair between the paw pads. My dogs enjoy having traction. I also clip and then use a dremel tool on my dog's nails. With an afghan, you have to make sure the dremel doesn't catch in the hair, so if your dog struggles, a dremel may not be the choice for you. But it creates a smoother, shorter nail that doesn't gouge you when freshly clipped.

Clipping: If you have a pet dog, or a dog that just has hair that tangles easily, clip it down. If you just want a shorter coat, use a sissor and shorten the lenght of the coat, it will give a neater look. You can use clippers, but this will make a choppy look when the dog starts to grow out.

Altered Dogs: The patterning will go away once a dog is altered. You can clip the face and back to keep that neat, streamlined look. Or if you like the super fuzzy puppy look with the face fuzz and furry back that is great as well. Also know that the coat will retain the fuzzy consistancy it had as a puppy, and may not be as easy to care for as an unaltered adult coat.