How To Go About Grooming A Maltese Dog

Maltese dogs are tiny in size, only coming in at seven to nine inches tall at the shoulder and weighing under seven pounds. Maltese dogs are well known for their floor-length coatings with long, straight, and silky hair. That is what Maltese dogs actually have in common with Yorkshire Terriers.

But, what set the Maltese dogs apart from Yorkshire Terriers is that their coatings are all white. If you are in need of help with grooming a Maltese dog, this post will walk you through the process of doing so.

The Process For Grooming A Maltese Dog

1. Brush Your Maltese Dog’s Hair

Your Maltese dog’s floor-length coating certainly makes for a gorgeous dog. Unfortunately, that comes with the reality that you will need to brush your Maltese dog’s coating on a daily basis.

That is because of the fine human-like hair that your Maltese dog has which can easily become matted quickly. That won’t be good for your Maltese dog as a matted coating can cause skin pain for him/her.

Maltese dogs are known to be low shedders of hair. So, there really isn’t much in the way of dead hair for you to worry about. Your main focus is going to be beating the mats to the finish line by brushing them out of your Maltese dog’s coating.

Even though your Maltese dog only has a single layer of coating, you will still want a brush that is effective at removing the mats from your Maltese dog’s coating without scratching his/her skin in the process.

The Hertzko Self-Cleaning Slicker Brush is a popular option that comes with a self-cleaning mechanism that will make it a lot easier for you to clean the brush so that you don’t have to waste a ton of time just trying to clean the brush of all those mats.

Now, before you start brushing your Maltese dog’s coating, there is something important that I want to note here. Because of the fine human-like hair that your Maltese dog has, pieces of the hair will easily break off his/her coating during the brushing.

So, you will want to make sure that you avoid brushing your Maltese dog’s hair when it is dry. In order to dampen your Maltese dog’s coating, all that you need to do is to grab an empty spray bottle, fill it up with water, and then spray water all over the dog’s coating.

Once your Maltese dog’s coating is damp, you can go ahead and start brushing it. In order to have the best results, you will want to brush in the direction that your Maltese dog’s hair grows.

2. Brush Your Maltese Dog’s Teeth

Brushing the teeth is an important part of the grooming route for any dogs in existence and your Maltese dog is no exception. Brushing your Maltese dog’s teeth will help to keep them free from tartar which can cause tooth decay if it is allowed to develop among the teeth.

Veterinarians have been known to recommend the Virbac toothpaste for a dog’s teeth. So, you will want to go along with it as well. You can brush your Maltese dog’s teeth using a toothbrush.

Make sure that you brush your dog’s teeth regularly. Doing it daily is ideal, but if that isn’t possible for scheduling reasons, you will want to do it three times a week at a minimum.

3. Bathe Your Maltese Dog

Maltese dogs as a breed require more frequent bathing than many other dog breeds. So, with that in mind, you will want to bathe your Maltese dog once every two weeks. Doing that will help to keep your Maltese dog’s fine human-like hair clean and shiny.

Before you begin bathing your Maltese dog, let’s make sure that you get the best shampoo you can for your dog. Whitening shampoos are popular with owners of all white coated dogs like the Maltese dog.

But, whitening shampoos are notorious for including chemicals like bleach and peroxide which can damage your Maltese dog’s hair and dry out his/her skin. So, you want to avoid using any of the whitening shampoos with these chemicals in them.

With that in mind, one of the best whitening shampoos that I can find is the Veterinary Formula Solutions Snow White Shampoo. So, I recommend that you get that for your Maltese dog.

Now that you have the shampoo, you are ready to take your Maltese dog to the bathtub. Use a cup filled with warm water to pour onto your Maltese dog to get him/her all wet in preparation for the shampoo.

Now, thoroughly apply the shampoo onto your Maltese dog’s coating with a lather. Be sure to cover every part of your Maltese dog’s body except for the eyes. Once that is done, rinse your Maltese dog until all of the lingering shampoo have been removed from his/her coating.

With the bathing over, proceed to dry your dog with a bathing towel. But, since you will need to re-brush your Maltese dog’s coating, you want to make sure that his/her coating is still damp after being dried off so that you can re-brush it right after.

4. Trim Your Maltese Dog’s Hair

Even though Maltese dogs are renowned for their floor-length coatings, owners may prefer their Maltese dogs’ hair to be shorter than that. Ultimately, that is up to you. If you are planning to trim your Maltese dog’s hair, you will want to make sure that you are using the best clipper.

With that in mind, I recommend that you get the Andis UltraEdge Super Detachable Blade Clipper AGC2. This is a powerful clipper that can handle just about any coating that a dog may have.

Even with all of that power, this clipper stays remarkable cool for an extended period of time during use. That is important because you don’t want to trim your dog’s hair with a hot clipper.

The clipper also stays quiet when it is being used which will help calm down your dog if he/she is spooked by the noise of a clipper. If you are using a clipper for your dog for the first time, you will find that there are different blades that can be used for dog hair trimming.

A rule of thumb is that the lower the blade number is, the longer that the hair will be left after you have trimmed it. The clipper that I just mentioned comes with blade number 10.

So, if you want to use a blade number other than that, you will need to purchase it separately which you can do here. Regardless of how short you want your Maltese dog’s hair to be, you will want to make sure that the hair length is even across the bottom of his/her coating.

One area of your Maltese dog’s body that needs attention is the ears. That is because there are a great deal of hair in them that can block out the air flow from coming into the ears and that isn’t good for your Maltese dog.

So, make sure that you do trim the hair in the ears. I would use at least a blade number 10 or above for trimming the hair there.

5. Clean Your Maltese Dog’s Ears

You will want to make sure to keep an eye on your Maltese dog’s ears as wax can gather inside of them. That can lead to ear infection for your Maltese dog if it isn’t cleaned out.

So, if your Maltese dog’s ears look dirty to you, that indicates that it is time for you to clean them out. Veterinarians often recommend that dog owners use the Virbac ear cleaner for cleaning their dogs’ ears.

So, you will want to go along with it as well. You can apply the ear cleaner to cotton balls and then use these to clean your Maltese dog’s ears.

6. Clip Your Maltese Dog’s Nails

Your Maltese dog needs to have his/her nail clipped in order to keep them short as you don’t want his/her nails to be too long as that can lead to pain for his/her paws which will cause him/her discomfort when walking around.

So, keep an eye on your Maltese dog’s nails to make sure they don’t grow too long. You can use a nail clipper like Millers Forge Dog Nail Clip to clip your dog’s nails short. Be careful not to clip the quick part of your Maltese dog’s nails as that can easily result in bleeding.

There You Have It For Grooming A Maltese Dog

So, if you are in need of help when it comes to grooming a Maltese dog, just follow along with the process up above. If you are struggling to get your Maltese dog to cooperate while you are grooming him/her, this post will help you to gain his/her cooperation.

What are your thoughts? Have you groomed a Maltese dog before? Feel free to leave a comment down below.