Grooming

A Shih Tzu in topp coat condition is nothing but stunning. It is a result of work throughout the year, and does not come over night. With the right tools and products half of the job is done.

On this page I will give some tips about how we in Bella Figure´s Kennel groom our dogs on a daily base, and we will give some hints about how to get that "show stopper" finish on the day of that big dogshow.  

We must point out that this is just how we do it, and as we all know, there are many roads that leads to Rome, and this is just one of them.

PRODUCTS

In the jungle of products that is available, it is hard to find the perfect product for your dogs. 

Bella Figura is proud to be Botaniqa ambassadors in Norway, sponsored by www.hundensbutikk.no. We have used these amazing products for the last 4 years. Botainqa has shampoo and conditioner and other products for  every type of coat and breed.

We use different "lines" of products:

"Dayshampoo + conditioner"  -     Active Line + Colour Enhancing Shampoo + Active Line Conditioner

"Showshampoo + conditioner" -    Smooth Detangling Shampoo + Intense Treatment Coat Mask

                                                         Love Me Long Shampoo + Love Me Long Conditioner

The first bath of the month we always clean the coats using 

                                                        Basic  Deep Clean Shampoo

Brushes

Brushes comes in all kinds of design and is made of different materials. We groom our dogs mostly with  brushes made with bristle/nylon or metal pins. Here at the kennel we have been sponored by https://www.dogtail.no and they provide us with state of the art brushes from Ibãñez. Their line of bristle/nylon brushes are the perfect match for our dogs, and they come in different sizes. The butter brush is the smoothest and softest metal pin brush that provides grooming with the best result. We also use brushes from Chris Christensen and Mason Pearson with great results.

Bristle/nylon brush -    Ibãñez  medium w/wooden handle

                                       Mason Pearson Junior size & Pocket size

Metal pin brush -           Ibãñez butter brush 

                                        Chris Christensen "Golden brush" 20 mm + 27 mm

                                        Chris Chrstiensen Fusion brush 27 mm

                                        Chris Christensen pin brush original 27 mm

Slicker -                           Chris Christensen large slicker

Scissors

A good pair of scissors is essential for the best results. Ibãñez has some top scissors that we use when we groom. They provide the best result, is easy and comfortable to maneuver. In order to keep the coats in top show condition, we use both straight and curved scissors. Our scissors are provided to us by www.dogtail.no

Straight scissors -          Ibãñez Sena 20cm

Curved scissors -           Ibãñez Paradise 19,5 cm

                                         Ibáñez Sena curved 20 cm

Bathing

The dogs are bathed at least once a week. 

On a week with no dogshow we use Botaniqa Active Line with a mix of Boosting Regenerate Serum and Deep Conditioning Oil from Botaniqa to maintain moisture to get  a strong and healthy coat.

Before dogshows we use either  Botaniqas Smooth Detangeling Shampoo, Color Enhancing Shampoo and Intense Treatment Coat Mask or Love Me Long shampoo and conditioner. 

First bath of each month, we clean the coats with Botaniqa Deep Clean Shampoo.

Brushing the coats with Ibãñes´ brushes while blowdrying them using Aeolus Ionic Dryer on low heat, the coats maintain the moisture and we get that great sparkling heavy coat that we look for in a Shih Tzu.