Grooming Tips And Advice for the English Toy Spaniel Dog Breed

By: John Williams

The English Toy Spaniel has a long history of royal favor. Selective breeding reduced the English Toy Spaniel down to its present size of about 9 to 12 pounds.

The coat of an English Toy Spaniel should be long, silky, soft and wavy, but not curly. There should be a profuse mane, extending well down in the front of the chest. The legs, ears and tail are feathered profusely. In fact, the feet should be feathered so thickly as to give the appearance of being webbed, and also carried well up the backs of the legs. The feather on the tail should be silky, and from 3 to 4 inches in length.

The English Toy Spaniel comes in many colors and color combinations. The following is a list of some of those colors:

Black and tan (rich, glossy black, with bright mahogany tan markings on muzzle, legs, chest, linings of ears, under the tail and spots over the eyes.

Tricolor (ground color pearly white, with well-distributed black patches, and brilliant tan markings on the cheeks, linings of the ears, under the tail, spots over the eyes. White blaze between the eyes and up the forehead.

Blenheim (ground color pearly white) with chestnut-red patches.

Ruby, which is a solid, rich chestnut-red.

You will need a pin brush and a medium-toothed comb. Routine grooming of the English Toy Spaniel is fairly easy to maintain with regular brushing. It is a good idea to brush and comb your English Toy Spaniel every day. Start when he is a very young puppy. Do not trim the coat of your English Toy Spaniel. Loose hair will be brushed out easily if you brush on a regular basis.

Grooming procedure:

You need to first brush through the coat with a pin brush.

After a thorough brushing, comb through with a medium-toothed comb. The combing procedure will ensure removal of all tangles.

Bath your English Toy Spaniel. A protein-enriched shampoo works well for most coats. You will need to experiment, however, with shampoos to find the perfect one for your particular English Toy Spaniel.

Apply a complimentary conditioner.

Blow-dry the hair. Brush in the direction of the hair growth. Never brush against the hair growth.

Check inside your English Toy Spaniel's ears to ensure they are free of hair growing inside the ears and wax. If you find hair growing inside the ears, sprinkle in some ear powder and grip the hair with your fingertips, pull gently. The powder gives you the extra grip you need to pull these hairs out gently. You can also use a pair of women's eyebrow tweezers. Hair growing inside the ears can trap bacteria and mites which cause infection and wax build-up. If there is wax, you can be certain there are mites or some other kind of an ear infection. The powder is sometimes called "canker powder."

Check the eyes of your English Toy Spaniel. If necessary, wipe with cotton batting soaked in an eye-cleansing solution.

Check his nails and cut if necessary. Check under the feet and trim out any excess hair between the pads.