New Year, New Coat: Setting Smart Grooming Goals

What Grooming Goals Should You Set?

Muddy yards, surprise ice, and a pile of sweaters can do a number on your dog’s skin and coat. We’re kicking off the year by resetting what matters: realistic grooming goals that protect your dog’s comfort, prevent matting, and fit your actual life. We dig into why winter routines slip, how temperature swings dry the skin, and the simple changes that stop hidden hot spots before they start.

We break down breed-specific grooming intervals so you’re not guessing. Curly-coated dogs like doodles and poodles thrive on a four to six week cadence to prevent compacted coats, while many double-coated slick breeds, like Labradors and Chesapeake Bays, can stretch closer to 12 weeks with the right at-home care. We also talk about sweaters: cozy, yes, but they can trap moisture and friction, turning small tangles into painful mats. The fix isn’t complicated—it’s consistent, gentle maintenance that preserves the coat’s function and keeps the skin breathing.

The heart of our approach is one weekly ritual: a calm, intentional brush-out using the right tool for your dog’s coat. Slickers with appropriate tooth length reach through curls without tearing, while shedding blades gently lift undercoat on short, dense coats. We share how to teach your dog to settle on the floor, which areas to prioritize (ears, armpits, collar line, feet), and how to spot trouble before it becomes a vet bill. You’ll learn what not to do—no yanking through mats—and when to call a groomer for safe, humane help. Bonus: put that brushed-out fur to work as bird nesting material or a simple garden deterrent.

If you’re unsure which brush to buy, send us a photo and we’ll point you to the right tools. Our goal is simple: restore the coat, protect the skin, and build a routine you’ll actually keep. If this helped, follow the show, share it with a fellow pet parent, and leave a quick review so more dog lovers can find us. Ready to book or ask a question? Visit HoundTherapy.com or call 469-367-0009.

To learn more about Hound Therapy visit:
https://www.HoundTherapy.com
Hound Therapy
3509 E Park Blvd.
Plano, TX
469-367-0009

Chapters

• 0:00 New Year, New Coat
• 0:39 Winter Skin And Matting Problems
• 2:30 Restoring Coats After The Holidays
• 4:53 Breed-Specific Grooming Intervals
• 6:51 The One Weekly Habit That Works
• 9:15 Tools, De-Shedding, And Pro Tips
• 10:04 Closing And How To Get Help

Transcript

New Year, New Coat

SPEAKER_04 0:03

Welcome to Tale Talk Grooming Chronicles with Health Therapy, the podcast where we talk all things pet grooming, daycare, academy, and more. Hosted by Shannon and Tanya of Health Therapy, serving pet owners across North Texas. We're here to share expert tips, hilarious pet stories, and the inside scoop on keeping your furry friends happy and healthy. Our motto, humanity over vanity. And don't worry, we don't fight. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

A fresh year means a fresh coat. Today we're helping pet parents set grooming goals that actually stick. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Sophia Yuvet, co-host and producer, back in the studio today with Shannon and Tanya, professional groomers at Hound Therapy. Hi, ladies. How is it going today? It's good.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

We are, you know, ice storm and over, and we're back. We're ready. We're good to go.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

Well, happy to have you both back on here safely today. Now, let's go ahead and dive in. So, new year, new coat, how can pet parents set realistic grooming goals for the year ahead?

Restoring Coats After The Holidays

SPEAKER_02 1:24

That's a great question, Sofia. So, you know, we're we're through with the holidays. Uh and you know, getting back to that regular routine is already tough. So January, I usually just kind of call it a wash. Um, it's cold, it's icy, we don't know if it's gonna be 80 degrees or if it's gonna be 10. And uh if you live in Texas for a long time, you've you've known that you you don't know either. So uh we've got nobody knows we've made it through the ice Megedon. Uh and what we've noticed here uh from all of our, all I would say the majority of our dog parents, and as you can see even from our little intro that's in there, dogs are wet, they're muddy, they're dirty, they're it's you know, we don't, it's not beautiful, bountiful snow. It's just hard ice, and then underneath it is mud. So it's it's it's really everybody wants to put a sweater on their dogs. You want to brush your dog, but they're wet and gross, so you don't really want them on your lap or laying on your, you know, pretty cleaned rugs and uh have it on your carpet. So, you know, you're just doing the best you can to kind of make it through and get back to work because you've had your holiday time over and uh there's just a lot going on. So now that we're, you know, brand new, fresh starting into the new season, we've got January over. We're gonna set some new goals for some of our clients that come in here. And and one of them is the sweaters, if you have a long-haired dog, it's it's not great. It's gonna help to mat. I know we've talked about this before, but um we we see a lot of dry skin. And I mean, it looks like dry shampoo when we're washing these dogs. Um, it's you know, your skin dries out uh the same. You've got your heat on inside, and it's just it's it's they've got wet and moisture, and then they're cold, and they have to go outside to, you know, to do their business. And then to come back in where it's really warm, it's just it's a lot of temperature change for the for the coat and the dogs and their skin all over. Uh compacted coats, hidden matting, um, you know, build up with the moisture that's underneath all of those matting, all of those are big things. Uh, so it's about restoring the coat, not just making them look cute. Um, we appreciate that, you know, we gave everybody the opportunity to hide those mats and send you home with a longer dog so that you can have a holiday photo forever holiday pictures. And it's gonna be amazing. Yeah. But now it's time to get back to reality. It's time to set some realistic goals. We've got to get back on our brushing, back on our grooming routines. Uh, you've got to get back with the health and wellness of your coat, of the dog, and you know, where are you gonna be going from here? Uh, are you traveling again? Are you doing, you know, holiday vacations? You know, w what does your yard look like currently? Are you doing construction? Are we gonna go longer? Are we gonna go shorter? What's a manageable uh time for you to come in between groomings? Um, I would say is is number one to ask yourself.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Yeah. And I mean, and it goes back to the like dry skin, compacted coat, all these double sh coated dogs or blowing coat. Um, I had a dog yesterday. Oh yeah. They there was hidden hot spot situation underneath that the owner didn't know about, but she couldn't know about it because it was two inches thick of just hair.

Breed-Specific Grooming Intervals

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Yeah, and and she was trying to do her best. She was, you know, trying to brush and do what she needed to do, and she just doesn't have the right equipment. You can seriously hurt your animals with the wrong types of brush and then doing it incorrectly. It can cause um some some very big problems, uh, hot spots, red spots, um, it it's it it brush burn. Um, I mean, it can cause a lot of things. So we appreciate the fact that you're helping, but it's uh we had to go shorter on on that dog and and it charge a little extra just because it took a lot of time to get through that coat safely and to work around um, you know, an entire shoulder blade area that was already damaged. Um pulling out that coat, make we understand you guys want to make the dogs cute, right? But pulling that out just breaks, it just breaks the hair and the skin. It's not it's not healthy.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Um and your dog doesn't like it.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

No. Your dog does not like it. Uh so let's uh, you know, most dogs that have any kind of doodle, poodle, curly-coated breeds, um, those are every four to six weeks. Labradors, the uh these dogs that are kind of um more of a double-coated breed with a slicker coat, uh, you can get away with a lot more weeks. You could do 12 in between because they're designed for this. I mean, their top layer just they're designed for it. Yeah, they are. They're they're fluffy and warm on the inside and they're slick and duckly like on the outside. So I I wouldn't that that doesn't really pertain to you, but it does pertain to the softer coated breeds. Um, or if you've got some chow chows and things like that. Because they Aussies, they start to compact and you want to give that uh a passage through so it does so we don't have to shave your dog. Um yeah, brushing home, I would say coat and skin, some brushing at home skills. We can teach you that in here if you if you need some help, but a lot of that is just kind of it it's just above and beyond. I I couldn't do what I do to my animals at home, but I do here just because we're set up for it. Um, so there's a difference there.

SPEAKER_03 6:41

In terms of goals, what is one small achievable grooming goal that makes the biggest difference long term?

The One Weekly Habit That Works

Tools, De-Shedding, And Pro Tips

SPEAKER_02 6:50

For for me, it would be sitting down with your dog at least once a week. And this again, this is more for well, it's really for all dogs, but it's really more for those double-coated breeds at this season and your your poodles. Once a week, let's buy the right type of brush for your dog, whether it's a shedding blade, if it's a Labrador or Slicker Coat, or um a pin brush does nothing for any dog. It it just doesn't. So buy a nice, a good brush that that is good for your dog with the right teeth length and sit down and really kind of interact with your dog. Um, get them used to laying on the floor and being brushed and brushing in the hard areas, learning, you know, how to how to brush your dog's feet, looking in between those toe pads to make sure that it's not soaked and covered with mud because that clumps up, that mud gets dry and it gets in between those little pops. Oh, yeah. And I don't if you've ever walked with a pebble in your shoe and you try four of them. I mean, it's it's hard for it. We have to soak it a lot of times to even shave it out. So, you know, pay attention to you know your surroundings and and and where your dog has been and where it's coming from, and and try to get it used to doing these weekly brushings in the areas that are hard. Um, I say that's a pretty attainable goal. It's you have the dog. I don't care if it's before or after dinner, before after you go to bed, you know, pick a time. Or in the mornings. Yeah, in the mornings if you're work at night or you have some extra time. If you got lunch and you're working from home, you know, uh, those are all some some very attainable goals that I think that you can do. And it's it's not hard. Um, you can Google, you can call us, you know, we're happy to tell you, even if you're not clients here, you know, what types of brushes and where to where to get. Most things we get is on Amazon. There's no special dog store to go buy some some amazing dog products. So uh, you know, we can just kind of tell you what to look for based on your dog and coat and type. And uh oftentimes even with a with a photo, you know, we're happy to help. So um, but those are that's an attainable goal. Uh I other than other than brushing, de-shedding is really great. Those shedding blades, it's the same thing that uses the the the horse that you can get them at uh I use one for my dog. Yeah, it's it's that same, it's like a little metal blade with some teeth, and it kind of just pulls out a little bit of the undercoat. It's great for labs, uh Chesapeake Bayes, um, some of those little works great on a Vishla. Yeah. The little shorter stacked coats.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Uh you want to be careful not to do it too much in one spot, just like with any brush, but uh they look more tortury than they are. And most dogs really are like, oh yeah, I like it. It feels like scratches. And you'll have like a whole little bird's nest. So it's it's it's fun. Side note, we're doing a whole, Tanya's got uh some little, it's like a little hanging planner thing, and we're gonna be putting all of our dog hair in it. So if you're brushing your dogs outside, it's great for the birds. And it also keeps the the other animals, if you put it in your flower bed, keeps the animals out of your flower beds.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

So they use it for their dogs.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Dog hair is amazing. Yeah, multi-purpose. So all that extra fur you're brushing out is usable in your house.

SPEAKER_03 10:04

Well, Shannon and Tanya, thank you so much for helping us to kick off the year with practical grooming skills. We'll see everyone next time.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

Absolutely. We'll see you later.

SPEAKER_04 10:19

That's a wrap for this episode of Tale Talk with Hound Therapy. Ready to book your pet's next groom daycare stay or grooming academy tour? Call us at 469-367-0009. That's 469-367-0009. To schedule an appointment or visit us online at www.houndtherapy.com, serving North Texas with expert pet care. Until next time, keep those tails whacked.