Irish Wolf Hound:  Four Vital Areas for Life


To the Irish Wolf Hound lover, there is nothing more beautiful than a freshly groomed dog that is well cared for and healthy. In general your pet will need four area's addressed in her care. In no certain order. They need them all:

1.) Her Coat
2.) Her Food
3.) Her Teeth
4.) Her Exercise

These four things will make up a world that is enjoyable for both you and your pet. Ignore any or all of them and your puppy will suffer and so will you. Attend to them regularly and the two of you will have many years of happy companionship.

Grooming Starts Early
Starting to groom young companion should start when they are a puppy as this will go a long way in making them comfortable with the whole process. Use a brush that is soft and be sure to examine her from head to toe. You don't want to wait until they are older and deal with your dog's avoidance behavior. Whatever that may be.

Your dog will need regular and consistent grooming to maintain their coats that can vary from bloodline to bloodline. Some of your pets will have shorter more course coats and these will take less work than will those of your pets that have soft longer coats.

Keeping an dog well groomed, although not a full time job, is one that requires consistent focus so you don't end up with a mess that is going to take a lot of work to remedy. If you spend the time frequenty to keep your dog well groomed, it will be a much easier job and your dog will always look good..

It's Time to Eat
The video that follows says more about the dog food your canine consumes than I could in 5 pages. Take a  look the whole thing and listen carefully, it has a ton of information. You may even want to have a note pad ready to record important facts.



Oral Hygiene

Don't forget oral hygiene when you take care of your pet as this is a very important part of a dog's health. Lots of things can go wrong if you don't take care of the teeth of your pet. Things like stained teeth and even major problems like mouth cancers can be avoided with regular oral care.

Exercise
Exercise is different for different ages. From 1-6 months let them just have a good time and do what puppies do. Don't forget puppies need a lot of rest too. No formal exercise, this will include limiting play time that may be extended by the presence of other dogs or children or any stimulation that will cause them to play too long. Without stimulation they will play until they are tired and then they will rest. Allow them lots of resting time.

Starting at about 6 months it is ok to slowly introduce more formalized exercise to the puppy. The important thing here is to do it very very slowly. Short walks for a few minutes a day is good to start and then gradually increasing that to about a mile or a little more by nine months of age. Then it can be increased up to about a couple of miles a day after the puppy is 18 month. This is the time they are generally considered adults by most breeders although this breed looks full grown long before.

Every precaution that one would take with a human child should also be taken with your pet. Plenty of water is a must. The window for exercise should be more than one hour before and two hours after eating. Staying out of the heat at the hottest time of day leads our list of precautions for your puppy while exercising.

There is a really good book on the care, feeding and importance of care with exercise by Vet Ian Billinghurst called


For a plethora of information about these wonderful Irish Wolf Hound, visit my squidoo lens or to read a touching story about what a Irish Wolf Hound taught a little six year old boy, visit my other weebly site.