This is Lucy a 7 year old chocolate Labrador Retriever.
She's typical of a breed with short hair - and she's about to have a grooming makeover in
the hands of a real expert.
Jitka Krizova is one of Europe's top dog groomers.
Sasha is enjoying herself.
Originally from Slovakia, she now lives and works in Britain.
She's been showing and grooming dogs for 20 years and has won an impressive array of awards.
British Groomer of the Year Award 2006, Eurogroom winner three times in a row and in 2011 she
clipped and snipped her way to the World Championships as a member of Groom Team England.
Jitka's sharing her champion tips and techniques to help you keep your dog in pristine condition.
Grooming a Labrador is fairly easy because of the texture of the hair.
Other breeds with coats like Lucy's include Beagles, Rottweilers , Basset Hounds, Bullmastiffs
and Pugs.
So the grooming techniques are similar.
Short coated breeds have very dense short, harsh coat close to the body.
These dogs, when they're dirty, we can feel film on their coat.
Washing a big dog isn't easy so if you can't cope take your dog to a professional groomer
or use a waterless spray like this one.
This is a shampoo that sprays directly onto the coat and works by removing any excess
dirt or dead fur.
The best thing is you don't need to wash it off - as the name suggests it's waterless
and leaves your dog's coat smelling nice and fresh.
Rub it into her coat.
Many owners expect short haired dogs to shed less hair than some of the 'hairier dogs'
but that's not the case.
She smells very nice.
Short-haired dogs still shed -the hairs are just smaller!
Sometimes people, when they get short-haired dogs, they think they don't have to do much.
But this type of coat needs some attention as well.
Dogs should be brushed.
They have to remove their dead hair.
We still have to clean their ears, cut their nails.
Now I'm going to dry her off.
We can see already that the coat is visibly cleaner than it was a few minutes ago.
Using good high quality products is very important.
Regular grooming is a great way to bond with your pet.
If you start at an early age your dog will get used to the experience and even enjoy
it.
Now I'm going to use a Furminator.
It's a special tool designed for short-coated breeds to reduce shedding.
A normal brush removes a certain amount of hair but only from the outer coat.
The Furminator reduces shedding by 90 per cent by reaching right down into the undercoat
and gently pulling away any loose hair.
After ten minutes of brushing Lucy's coat is free of loose hair and nice and shiny.
If you don't brush her, all this hair will have ended up in your carpet.
After this grooming Lucy feels much better.
She smells nice, and she looks great.
Labradors can moult all year round.
You should brush the coat once a week up to every two or three weeks depending on how
the dog is shedding.
Lucy's shiny coat is a good sign she's a healthy dog.