What To Do About Akita Dog Grooming

Akita dogs are gigantic dogs, measuring at up to 28 inches tall at the shoulder and weighing in at up to 130 pounds. They sport burly, heavy-boned bodies with large heads, erect ears, small and triangular eyes, and full, curled-over tails. If you are looking for a dog with Japanese heritage, the Akita dog is definitely for you.

In fact, Akita dogs have their origins in feudal Japan where they were used for guarding royalty and nobility. If you are in need of help with Akita dog grooming, you will want to continue reading on down below.

The Akita Dog Grooming Process

1. Brush Your Akita Dog’s Hair

Your Akita dog has a dense double coating. So, one of the things that you will be dealing with is the mats. Matting can be painful for your dog when it starts pulling at his/her skin. So, you will want to make sure and brush your Akita dog’s coating in order to get rid of the mats.

Akita dogs are also known to be shedders of their hair with particularly heavy shedding happening during the spring and fall seasons.

So, you will want to make sure that you keep your Akita dog’s shedding under control by getting rid of dead hair by brushing his/her coating. If you don’t do that, the shedded hair will end up on your floor or furniture.

For brushing your Akita dog’s coating, you will want to go with the Hertzko Self-Cleaning Slicker Brush as it is a popular brush that is effective at working its way through your Akita dog’s dense double coating to get rid of mats and dead hair without scratching his/her skin in the process.

The brush also comes with a self-cleaning feature designed to make cleaning out the brush much easier to do. When you are brushing your Akita dog’s coating, you will want to do one section at a time and brush in the direction that your Akita dog’s hair grows.

As for how often you should brush your Akita dog’s coating, doing it once per week should be enough when it isn’t shedding season for your Akita dog. But, during the spring and fall periods when your Akita dog does the most shedding, you will want to brush his/her coating daily.

2. Brush Your Akita Dog’s Teeth

Like all dogs, your Akita dog needs to have his/her teeth brushed. That is so that your Akita dog’s teeth doesn’t become breeding grounds for tartar because if tartar is allowed to gather on his/her teeth, that can result in tooth decay.

So, you will want to brush your Akita dog’s teeth regularly – ideally daily – to keep his/her teeth in good condition.

You will want to use the Virbac toothpaste for brushing your Akita dog’s teeth because that is the one that veterinarians often recommend for a dog’s teeth. You can use a toothbrush to brush your Akita dog’s teeth.

3. Bathe Your Akita Dog

Your Akita dog only needs to be bathed once every three months. You want to be careful not to bathe your Akita dog too often as that will strip the dog of his/her natural oils and that can cause his/her skin to dry out and his/her coating to become dull.

With that being said, here is how you can bathe your Akita dog. Start out by taking your Akita dog to the bathtub. Once there, fill a cup with warm water and then pour it onto your Akita dog’s coating in order to get it all wet. Now, apply the shampoo onto your Akita dog’s coating.

Be sure that you apply the shampoo thoroughly as you have got such a big dog with dense double coating. Also, be careful not to get the shampoo into your Akita dog’s eyes as that can be irritating, just as it would if you had shampoo into your own eyes.

As for which shampoo you should use on your Akita dog’s coating, you will want the Buddy Wash Dog Shampoo and Conditioner as that is one of the best shampoos that I can find. Once you have applied the shampoo, rinse your Akita dog’s coating until all of the shampoo have been rinsed out.

With the bathing over, proceed to dry out your Akita dog’s coating with a bathing towel and then re-brush it.

4. Clean Your Akita Dog’s Ears

Cleaning out your Akita dog’s ears is an important part of the grooming routine. That is because your Akita dog’s ears can become breeding grounds for wax and that can cause ear infection if it is allowed to gather inside his/her ears.

So, be sure to keep an eye on your Akita dog’s ears. If they look dirty to you, that indicates that it is time for you to clean them out.

You will want to use the Virbac ear cleaner to clean out your Akita dog’s ears as that is the one that veterinarians often recommend to dog owners for cleaning out their dogs’ ears. You can apply the ear cleaner on cotton balls and then use them to clean out your Akita dog’s ears.

5. Clip Your Akita Dog’s Nails

You will also want to clip your Akita dog’s nails in order to keep them short. That is because if your Akita dog’s nails are too long, that can cause paw pain for him/her.

So, you will want to be proactive by clipping your Akita dog’s nails as soon as you start hearing the clicking sound when he/she is walking around. You can use a nail clipper like Millers Forge Dog Nail Clip to clip your Akita dog’s nails.

Be careful not to cut the quick part of your Akita dog’s nails as that can easily result in bleeding.

Akita Dog Grooming – Conclusion

There you have it for Akita dog grooming. If you are wanting to know if you can give your Akita dog a hair trim, given that your Akita dog sheds heavily, especially during the fall and spring seasons, that isn’t something that I would recommend here.

Akita dogs do the most shedding during the spring and fall seasons so that they can prepare their coatings for the summer and winter seasons respectively.

So, if you do trim your Akita dog’s hair, that will put him/her at risk of losing the ability to keep him/her warm during the winter and cool during the summer. So, your Akita dog’s coating is best left alone as it is.

If you are struggling to get your Akita dog to cooperate with you while you are grooming him/her, this post will help you with that. What are your thoughts? Have you groomed an Akita dog before? Feel free to leave a comment down below.