- [Host] Meet Wesley.
He likes carrots.
He spends most of his time sunbathing.
And life is best when he can actually see.
For Wesley's owner and
WSJ executive producer Adam Banicki
now is passed the time when he'd
normally take Wesley to the groomer.
- So it's probably been like,
two and a half three months.
Wesley is definitely overdue for a haircut.
- This is Browser.
[Joanna] Hey.
- [Host] With many groomers closed
owners are looking at scruffy pups.
- [Joanna] He basically just looks like
a ball of hair walking in the street.
- [Host] And now, it's up to their owners.
Sort of.
(barks)
that's where Gary Angel comes in.
- Yes, yes I do have dogs.
- [Host] He runs My Two Dogs,
a training and grooming business in New York.
- I've been grooming now
for probably eighteen years.
Honestly, a lot can go wrong with dog grooming if
you don't know what you're doing.
- [Host] He's here to guide us through
how to keep these dogs
and your pup groomed at home.
- I, you know, emphasize extreme caution
when you're doing anything that
I'm talking about here.
- [Adam] You ready?
(sneezes)
- [Joanna] Browser, how do you feel
about your hair right now?
- [Gary] Step one, run your hands through
your dogs coat.
What you're looking for is
any clumps of hair any matting.
- [Adam] Look at all these little mats.
- [Gary] You know, to get a basic idea
of what kind of shape the coat is in.
- [Joanna] Yeah, it's a little bit of a knot.
- [Gary] They can cause discomfort and
in cases where they're not taken care of
you can get you know,
skin issues underneath the mats.
- [Joanna] Let me see just like,
how long the paw.
Not you buddy,
you very cute.
- Step two trim your dog.
Now you're gonna need your comb
because you want to comb the area out.
You know, and away from the skin.
And then what I use,
our little ball tip baby scissors
and don't use kitchen scissors.
What you wanna do with the visor
is you wanna start about here.
- [Adam] Look at your little visor!
- [Gary] And comb it forward like bangs.
- [Adam] Good boy.
- [Gary] The visor will overhang the eyes.
And then once you have the visor down
you just take your scissors and
you would just very carefully just trim around.
Once you trim it,
and you can see the dog's eyes stop.
- [Adam] Can you see?
Can you see the camera?
- With the paws,
what you wanna do is
you wanna have the paw flat
on the ground and
you just wanna kinda follow the shape of the foot
you know, when you do it like this
the nails will help to
keep it away from the foot itself.
- Much better.
- [Gary] Step three,
cleaning the ears.
You know, you can use a cotton ball,
you can even use a q-tip on smaller eared dogs.
If you have a local pet store near you,
see if they have ear cleaner.
In a pinch,
I've used it many many times hydrogen peroxide.
Get the q-tip on the long end,
get it wet with you know,
your ear cleaner,
your hydrogen peroxide and
go around the outside of the ear
and a little bit inside the ear.
- [Adam] Oh it's been awhile.
- And then go back in and
wipe around again.
- [Adam] Can you hear better?
- Once you're done cleaning the ear,
you wanna take some cotton and
you wanna stuff it in the dogs ears to
try to keep the water out while
you're washing your dog.
Step four is combing.
You know, you take your steel comb
and what you wanna do you wanna follow
the grain of the dogs hair.
And if you hit snags what
I will do is I will put my fingers
in between the skin and the snag and
try to slightly tease it out.
And you're not just yanking on the dogs hair.
- Look at that fluffy coat.
- Step five,
put your dog in the tub.
So what you wanna do,
is you wanna use warm water.
You don't want hot water on your dog.
You wanna thoroughly wet your dog.
Make sure your dog is wet to the skin.
You put the shampoo on.
Massage it in and
work it in really well.
Please, do not use human shampoo.
Use an all-natural dog shampoo.
- I think I have full sud coverage.
- [Gary] Then what you wanna do is
you wanna rinse your dog.
When the water starts running clear
then everything is out.
- [Adam] You are totally clean.
- Step six, dry.
- This is Wesley's favorite part of bath time.
- Now, I'll be honest with you when
you're drying your dog at home
you're probably not gonna get 100% dry.
You wanna try to dry them
as much as you can with a hairdryer.
You wanna use it on cool or low heat.
And while you're drying
just a nice slow back and forth.
And if you can make a starburst pattern
in your dogs coat because
then the hair won't tangle up
as you're drying it.
Step seven,
throw a puppy party.
- [Adam] Want another one for you?
- Tell your dog it was wonderful,
it was magnificent and
just make a fuss over them.
Say, oh good baby!
What a good baby!
Let them know that you know,
grooming isn't a horrible experience.
- Good boy.
That wasn't so bad was it?
- Put up with it and this is what you get.
You get a puppy party.
- [Joanna] You think you're going to the groomer?