I was wondering what everyone's grooming routines are. I've had Shadow for 3 months now, but we haven't really established a routine yet. He was attacked by a pitbull and had surgery about a month ago. I had torn my ACL in that incident which is hindering my ability to do much of anything with him and my husband has been in the field for the military about half the time we've had him. By Thanksgiving everything will be calming down and we can start getting an established routine with Shadow.

Here are some questions we're encountering right now, but I would love to hear anything else you do. Thanks!!

What do you do on your own vs. what the groomer does?
How often do you bathe your dogs and which products do you use?
Which brushes you use and how often?
What do you do for their teeth/breath?

I don't take Kenzi to a groomer. I do it all myself to save money and ensure I don't get a stupid groomer that thinks shaving a husky is a good thing. She's been pretty low maintenance and brushing and bathing is all she has needed.

She gets a bath twice a year and spot washes if she gets muddy. I picked up some oatmeal shampoo. I got one I ran across at walmart, so nothing fancy here. There are some threads that go deeper into what shampoos help with certain things if you search. ie. dry skin, shedding, odor...

I have a two sided brush. One with finer hairs on one side and metal bristles on the other. I also have an undercoat rake. The two headed brush came from petco. The undercoat rake was walmart special. I brush her a couple times a week to keep her shedding down.

I've only used dentistix for Kenzi. Hasn't done much for her breath but it has really done wonders for tartar. She had brown teeth when we adopted her and now they are actually white.

I brush Karli a couple times a week when she's not blowing her coat. I did take her to a groomer when she was blowing just to get the excess hair out.

I have only ever given Karli one bath and that's because we were at a friend's house and my husband wouldn't let her in the car dirty. So I can't really help there. I just stick her in her kennel and let her dry off. The dirt just falls right off once it dries.

I got a rake I think it is and then this kong type thing that works really well. I brush her a couple times a week.

I brush her teeth twice a week. I use pet toothpaste (don't use people tooth paste) and a tooth brush that came with it. I also have dentasticks but you have to be really careful with them. Karli can only have the ones for small dogs because anymore gives her diarrhea. The puppy can't have any because it gave her BAD diarrhea. There is also an additive you can get for the water that helps as well. Dogs are gonna have doggy breath really not much you can do about that.

O.k., now we can hear from the Lazy guy!  I brush once a week or week and a half depending on how the days have been.  More often when she blows hair or rides in the Semi to cut down on the loose hair.  Spot washing to keep the house clean as needed, full wash at the groomers if she is starting to have an off order.  Nails get ground when the clicking across the kitchen floor starts, usually front first and the next day the backs.  Foot hair trimmed at the same time.  No real oral care but she does have floss chews and stuff and her teeth and gums look to be o.k.

I brought Mishka to the groomer once. He was not a very good boy, but he was so shiny and smelled good. My plan was to bring him every few months but that just hasn't happened.

He hasn't gotten a bath since July but he's needing one bad. He doesn't really smell terrible but he's starting to stink a little. I haven't needed to file his nails because they wear down naturally. I do have to cut his dew claws, but even that isn't terribly often. I am a terrible owner and may brush him every other week. He needs it multiple times a week but since he hates it so much, I don't try to stress him over it so much. If he wasn't such a butthead about it I'd brush him 3-4 times a week.

I do brush his teeth 1-2 a week and give him the dental stuff in his water though.

Yeah I'm the same, I can't remember the last time Siku had a bath, and Nikolai only had a bath recently because he rolled in dog poop at daycare. They really do keep themselves clean, and my boys never really smell. When they do get bathed, I use some natural shampoo for sensitive skin just in case.

I think brushing habits will depend on how much your husky likes being brushed. Siku hates it so he doesn't get it often, and Nikolai loves it so he probably gets brushed twice a week. I have an undercoat rate, and a like a slicker brush? for the hind legs so that part doesn't get matted down.

As far as brushing goes, I do it as often as I can. I just got these toothbrushes by kissable and I really like them so far, they have a different shape that normal dog toothbrushes and it seems to get all around the teeth. Another forum member on here (Valerie) suggested the Proden Plaque off or something like that (if you search that it should come up) and I've been considering using that product for their teeth since you just add it to their food, but I'm not sure yet.

Thanks for your feedback! When my husband comes, we'll have new ideas to figure out what will work for us. I hope Shadow will be helpful when we start establishing a routine, he can be a bit picky at times.

I don't take Jasper to a groomer because I recently had a chat with a woman who brought her husky in and the groomer shaved/trimmed her because "that's what everyone expects from a full groom". If you go that route I'd suggest finding a groomer that has considerable experience with huskies, many don't understand their coat requirements.

We only bath Jasper when he needs it, but lately that seems to be at least once a month and sometimes every two weeks cause he LOVES to dig holes then sleep in them and he has a weird fascination with rolling around in mud holes when we go into the woods.

As for brushing, that happens daily and we try to brush his teeth at least once a week. He gets dentasticks regularly and he digests them easily but I have heard of them giving dogs bad diarrhea.

My grooming routine pre-kids was a lot more labor intensive than it is post kids when time and ease is of the essence.  So I am going to just share my post-kids routine which is super simple since I lack time for most everything these days.

Bathing is done at home on an as needed basis.  I have been using the Rapid Bath bathing system that attaches to a standard outdoor hose for the past year now, so far 3 baths total.  I LOVE the Rapid Bath, it makes bathing my sibe a very quick and easy endeavor totaling only 3 minutes for the actual bath. Add another 5-10 minutes for prep and clean up.

Brushing: I don't brush unless my sibe is blowing coat. When not blowing coat I do a full blow out with my high velocity dryer about once every 2 weeks.  When he's blowing coat I brush and/or vacuum and/or blow out his coat with the HV dryer at least every other day, if not more.  Tools used: Undercoat rake, slicker brush attachment on my Dyson DC41 Animal, and K-9 Mini HV dryer.

I can't remember the last time I brushed my dogs' teeth.  These days I simply add Proden PlaqueOff to their food once a day and their teeth have never looked better.  I used to brush their teeth daily and use Petzlife Oral Care spray daily and it kept their teeth in good condition, but since I started using PlaqueOff I have been getting comments on how good his teeth look (bear in mind he's 8 yes old) and asked what I use for his teeth. Adding a teeny tiny scoop of all natural kelp to their food daily is sooo much easier, faster, safer and more natural than fighting to brush or spray their teeth with unnatural chemicals.