Washing a Westie Dog

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

Washing your West Highland dog too often can cause great irritation to the skin as they are prone to allergies and dry skin conditions. It is recommended that you should only wash your Westie once a month or at longer intervals. You should always use an approved dog wash or shampoo and read the instructions at all times.

If you are thinking about getting a Westie as a puppy I would advise getting a small soft dog brush and brushing your puppy once a day. This will help the dog get used to the grooming routine and also it will help the dog bond with you. Frequent brushing is needed on your little Westie to keep the coat nice and clean and also the oils in the coat and distributed evenly throughout making it look and feel healthy.

As you can see on these photographs of our West Highland Terrier the time came when she needed to have a good bath, especially as she had just rolled in some sheep poo on the field nearby. Not only did Mitzi smell disgusting all her fur was green too!

You can decide to either let your dogs fur dry naturally by itself after having a bath / wash or you could use a hairdryer. If you decide to use a hairdryer, always ensure that it is on the lowest setting ‘Cool’ or ‘Warm’, NEVER use any other setting. Some dog’s dislike the sound of the hair dryer so if this is your dog just let the dogs coat dry naturally, you do not want to scare your pet because it will then associate having a nice bath / wash with that horrible noisy hairdryer and it will remember.

Once Mitzi is nice and clean she actually sits waiting for the hairdryer to come on! She is one little Westie that loves being dried with it. We’ve got lots more pictures of Mitzi the Westie in our photo gallery getting her bath and then being dried so if you have a moment why don’t you take a look – she does look rather cute.

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Sleeping Habits

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

We all love a good nights sleep but Mitzi does take the biscuit sometimes!

At my parents house Mitzi has her own comfy, warm bed. However when she stays at my house she won’t entertain her bed at all, why I don’t know

When Mitzi stays at my house every evening around 9pm she waits by the lounge door. At first I thought she just wanted to go for a wonder around the house so I opened it and let her go upstairs – how silly of me! After 5 minutes of hearing nothing upstairs I crept up slowly to see what she was up to. There she was, under the duvet, half of her head on my pillow getting off to sleep! Trying to move her is unbelievable. First you hear the growl, then her gums start showing as if she’s possessed then finally after a snap or two at your hand she will get up.

As seen as though Mitzi stays at my house quite regular we seem to of come to an agreement. If she won’t sleep in her bed downstairs she can either sleep at the end of my bed or under the bed. At the end of the day Mitzi has won this battle, but this arrangement keeps up both happy and stress free.

During the Summer months Mitzi likes nothing better than sleeping behind the TV during the day on the cool wooden flooring, this is a spot in the house she knows she won’t be disturbed. If it gets to warm for her there she will just flop anywhere that takes her fancy on the floor (see picture below).

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