Grooming an English Pointer

The last dog I had was a Golden Retriever. Beautiful dog, lovely personality, great with the kids, but boy, was she a real pain in the neck to groom. Just keeping her looking halfway decent took hours of brushing every week.

I loved that dog, but when it was time to get another one I decided to look for a breed that was a whole lot easier to groom. It’s not that I’m lazy or don’t enjoy spending time with my dogs – it’s just that I’m a working mom and in between working, running my boys to soccer practice, cooking the meals and keeping the house clean, I just don’t have a whole lot of free time.

So, when I was looking for my new dog, I took a look at some pictures and did a little research. I stumbled across English Pointers. Now THERE was a dog that looked like it would be easy to groom! Very short hair that doesn’t require any clipping or trimming, and no worries about matting – you get the picture.

So I got Beau, my Pointer. Turns out, all he needs to keep his coat shiny and healthy is a rubdown with a towel once or twice a week. Sometimes I’ll use a soft brush instead, but either way it only takes a couple of minutes. Like all Pointers, he has big, floppy ears so I clean them every week or two to prevent ear infections. That’s a piece of cake, though. Other than that, I trim his nails regularly, and I give him a bath once a year – that’s enough for Pointers. Bathing them more often washes out the oils in their skin and can give them a dry coat.

That’s it! Grooming a Pointer is a whole lot easier than grooming my Golden – and Beau is just as good with my kids! Low maintenance is definitely the way to go.