Puppycoat (Ziggy 9 weeks)

Adult coat (Ziggy 16 months)

The care of the coat of the Bichon Frisé needs a lot of attention. Taking care of his coat and to look good at all time , is here the important issue about the coat care. The Bichon Frisé puppy has got a single coat. The adult has got a double coat. They have a under- and uppercoat. These two makes the coat standing of the skin. So called "powderlook".
 

That's why it is so important to learn your puppy at a very young age to get used to brushing and combing. Just exercise about 5 á 10 minutes a day. Do this exercise when your puppy start getting tired. During the exercise we talk nicely to your puppy to make it comfort for him. Never let allow your puppy to bite in the brush and continue until it's done. You decide when the exercise is finished. The exercise is as follows: Put the puppy on a grooming table or stable table with a rubber cloth. Place the puppy on his side en start to brush with the brush with the straight pins from the skin. Repeat also the other side. After we done that, we put the puppy in a standing position and brush the back, forechest and his behind, ears, beard and head and tail. Then we do the exercise again with the comb. When your puppy become at the age of 6 or 7 months the new coat will develope with curls growing  through the puppycoat. We should pay attention. I use to clip my puppies at the age of 9 weeks in model. When the puppy is getting older the care of coat needs more attention and you will have to use the slickerbrush getting through the thick coat. Always brush from the skin in layers. When your puppy has been brushed we take the comb and comb from the skin till the end of the hair and making sure there are no knots in the coat. When the comb is stuck in his coat you haven't done the brushing well. Never brush or comb against forward. It can be unpleasant for your dog. Eventually knots we can use some babypowder on it and remove with your fingers or slickerbrush the knots. We can also use a tanglerspray as well. The knots we can't remove easily we can use a pair of scissors and cut vertically through the knot always with the points of the scissor from the skin. This is to avoid holes in the coat. Most knots will develope on the fore- and hindlegs, between the hindlegs, behind the ears, beard and mustache. Before the coat is free of knots we can bath the dog. This is very important. If you leave the knots in the coat it will get worse and will get matted badly. The coat care of an adult Bichon Frisé  round the age of two years you have to brush and comb him at least twice a week. But be sure you brush and comb the coat from the skin.
 

Bathing.
Requirements.
Conditioning shampoo
Eventually a shampoo coloured purple or blue especially for white breeds.
conditioner
Dryer and towels
 

We put the dog in the bath with under placed a rubber cloth and wet the coat with warm water. Then wash the coat with a conditioning shampoo. As most of the shampoos are high concentrated we should dilute it with warm water. We can use an empty bottle.Massage this through the coat as you would wash a fine piece of cloth. Repeat it again. You can also mix the conditioner with the conditioning shampoo. Between the baths you can use also from time to time a purple or blue shampoo especially for white breeds  for whitening the coat. After bathing we squeeze the water out of the coat. Then we put a towel round the dog and leave his head free and we start to dry the coat. Make the towel tight with a clip. You will start drying with the total head including beard, ears and than we dry the legs and the rest of the body. If you use a handdryer let someone hold this for you. The dryer should not be to hot and don't point it too close on the skin. During the drying we brush the coat dry. After drying we comb the coat up to create the powderlook.
 

The Bichon Frisé belongs to the clipping dogs. The coat will grow and should be groomed every 8 or 10 weeks. When your puppy is about 4 months old you can make a appointment at your groomingparlour for his first puppyclip. They will clipp your dog at one lengt so called puppylook. To develope the puppycoat into adult coat we recommend to clip the ends regarly for the proces. See groomingschedule  here.
 

The teeth
Requirements.
Special toothpaste and toothbrush for dogs you can buy at your vet. Start at very young age with brushing the teeth. You can also give your dog something to chew. Pay attention when the chew started too small remove it once. Your puppy can stuck in it. Your puppy will change his teeth round the age of four months. That's the period that they need to chew on everything. So never give them an old shoe as a chew, because next time they will chew on your new shoes. NEVER give your dog bones from chicken or other birds. It can be very dangerous. Did you know that chocolate can be very dangerous and could kill your dog. So is meat from a pig could be dangerous as well. At the age round 2 years plaque or tarter will appear on his theeth. Let this remove it by your vet. Otherwise your dog will have problems in the future with his health.

the ears
Requirements:
Earcleaner of earpowder.
The hair of the Bichon Frisé should be removed from time to time in the ears. With a little help of babypowder on your top of your fingers of removing easily with small fast the hair out of the ears. Then we use the earcleaner in both ears and massage it and clean the ears with a cotton ball. When your dog shakes with his head and smell  there might be an earinfection. Visit your vet and let have a look at it. Check on regular base the ears.

The eyes
Requirements.
Eyelotion
The eyes of the Bichon Frisé are very sensiteve. Each little hair in the eye can irritate which can cause the tearstaining. By using a eyelotion we can clean the eyes with a small wetted cottonball will avoid the tearstaining. Some eyelotions you can drop into the eyes. Please read on the product. There could be some other problems. Like the food, environnement, inheritate or even drinkingwater. With a small comb or with your nail you can remove little peaces under the eyes.

The nails
Requirements
Nailclipper.
When your dog walks on hars underground the nails will be kept short in a natural way. But most of the time they need to be clipped. We clip the ends of the nails with a nailclipper. The pink colour is the living part. Some of the nails can be black and it's difficult to see which is the living part. Just clip the ends cautious. Don't forget to clip the thumbnails on the inside of the forelegs. They just grow round the foot.