This is Lucy. She’s just four months old and one of my kind costumers has lent me hire and her mother and first of all when you get your puppy home, settle him in, give him his inoculations; 8 weeks and 12 weeks and advice from your vet. And then obviously if he’s a coated breed or just a smooth coated breed, they still need care and attention.

Get them used to being handled, washed and groomed on the table. If you try and do anything on the floor, you will have problems. The floor is the dog’s territory and they would just play. Now get a non slip surface. This matting here, you can purchase by the meter from a good carpet shop. It was only about 4 pounds a meter; so just a little bit. You can put this on top of your washing machine, go to a carpenter and get a cheap table and then just stick this stuff on the top.

Be comfortable, now little Lucy here. She’s never been on a table here before. So she has been very good. You’ll notice that I’m gently stroking here which has a very calming effect on her. I’m not taking to her excitedly or playing with her or literally anything; she’s nice and calm and quite relaxed now.

We want to go to getting her used to standing for you. So what we do is we very gently pick her up and just place her feet. Just keep your hand and just tickle with one finger just underneath her tummy. Now this will keep her standing up for you and just gently say stand. Good girl.

So when she goes to sit down again all you need to do is one little finger under there and tickle her tummy and say stand. Another little pointer is you can get a hook on the wall, put a leach and collar on, this is a special laid for this or straining arm here that’s fixed on the table just so that she doesn’t get out of your control while you are brushing. You got the brush in your hand. Just a safety method at that, you may need to muzzle your dog. It might have had an accident, got something stuck in its foot and you are a little bit weary of it biting you or a stranger might have to take something out of his foot while you actually hold the dog.

The only really muzzle I like is this type which is the cage so that the dog can pant and it’s very quick and easy to put on as you can see what’s there I do not mind it. An emergency muzzle, you can use anything—a piece of bandage, a man’s tie, a pair of tights and how you actually use this is one knot so that we have a loop. The knot is placed underneath the jaw, tighten the muzzle and then tie behind the ears so the dog cannot scratch it off. This little puppy is being so good isn’t she? There an emergency type of muzzle.

Little Lucy here, this little puppy Yorkshire terrier; I would brush her everyday to getting used to being handle and one of the things we want to watch for and check for is actually parasites—fleas. How we actually check for fleas, you may see black little grainy bits in the coat and not actually see a flea. Now this is an indication that has got these parasites and using a flea comb, one with a handle or one without, we comb it through the coat and a 45-degree angle and you will actually get the little black grains in the bottom of the flea comb their. Now, how you’d tell that they are flea dirt is getting a wet piece of cotton wool, put them on a wet piece of cotton wool and they will actually turn back to blood because flea dirt are dried blood. A flea comb does actually ensure that your dog is properly grooms out as well.

If unfortunately do you find some fleas, they are not a nice thing to have, they can give dogs tape worms and can actually make the dog ill, give them dermatitis or sorts of things. So prevention is better than cure, we can use all sorts of products. This here is a flea collar. Not terribly good if you got children, you should always wash your hands after you touch this. And if the kid is actually touched the collar, they should wash their hands so watch that with children. We’ve got pump action flea spray. If the dog doesn’t like the hiss, flea powder; this tends to fall out of the coat so it’s not quite as good as a spray. Your flea shampoo, with any of these; read instructions very carefully and avoid eyes and always wash your hands after you’ve used them.

I really like this flea spray here. It last for up to 3 months. A little tip on when you put it on, you saturate all the dog’s coat, underneath the tummy and I actually use cotton wool, spray it on some cotton wool and rub it around the face area because you do not want to spray the face with the risk of getting into the eyes. And do not forget when you are using this flea spray, to do in between the dog’s toes and the pads. This will help to prevent harvest mite.