Cold weather no excuse not to groom your pets, experts say

Who wouldn't want a big, overgrown coat of hair to keep you warm during winter?

Your dog, it turns out.

Rotorua's Wendy Drummond, a certified master dog groomer who runs Sparkles Dog Grooming, says many people think they need to grow their dog's hair in winter to keep them warm.

However, she says it is just as important to maintain your dog's coat in winter, as a long coat is more likely to get wet, hold moisture and chill your dog.

She says a damp coat is also more likely to mat which can result in itching hotspots and raw or damaged skin.

Wendy says the problem of owners not getting their dogs groomed regularly enough sees an increase in the winter months.

Vetora Bay of Plenty vet Rebecca Newth says there are health benefits to regularly grooming dogs who need it.

She says one big thing they see is barley grass seeds getting caught in fur, especially around feet or eyes often with long hair.

Rebecca says the grass seeds migrate through tissue, and the spikes on them make it so they slowly move through tissue in one direction.

She says this can cause infections and pain.

There are also skin conditions that benefit from grooming, as trimming fur can help increase airflow, she says.

"Ear infections can be caused by ears becoming too moist and not getting enough airflow, but if kept groomed it helps a lot."

She says groomers often clip nails as well, and at Vetora they encounter a lot of problems with dogs whose nails do not get clipped.

"All these dog breeds that exist now, a lot of the popular ones need to be groomed."

Wendy says as a salon they have about 50 dogs come through a week.

And Wendy certainly knows what she's talking about, recently returning from a grooming competition in Melbourne with a haul of awards.

She took part in the first Mastergroom Australia competition, competing in Melbourne over a three-day weekend.

Wendy was part of the New Zealand Groom Team, which came fouth in the team class, and she entered a number of individual classes too, she says.

She received first place for the individual poodle open, salon freestyle and pure breed open classes.

These first place wins meant she also won the Best All Round Groomer award.

She says it felt amazing to recieve these awards and she was a bit shocked with a couple of them as they were big classes wih top groomers.

"I was so stoked. I've been working really hard to bring home some big prizes."

Wendy says the competition was well organised and there were a lot of people putting in effort so she compete, as you have to hire dogs and their owners were driving them back and forth to the competition.