The most common blow dryer in the grooming world by far is the velocity dryer. This is because some groomers don’t keep kennel dryers at all due to the inherent risks of them, and stand dryers are usually reserved for curly coated dogs.
All other types of dogs are usually dried with the velocity dryer. Unfortunately for the dogs, the velocity dryer is also usually even more terrifying than getting their nails done.
By now, you probably have a good idea what we’re going to do. We’re going to start off with the part of the dryer the dog usually sees while grooming—the hose—while it’s not attached to the dryer. By allowing your pet to focus on just one part of the dryer at a time, you can avoid trigger stacking while helping your pet learn to cope with the dryer.
Introducing the Hose
Before introducing the hose—does your dog love to bite at water? Do they bite at the vacuum when you are running it? If so, chances are they may also bite the hose. If you’re not sure, call up your dog’s groomer and ask if they like to bite the hose before working on this.
If you think this is a possibility, remember that a dog that bites the hose may also accidentally bite your fingers trying to get the hose. They can also mangle the hose. If you think your pup may bite the hose, use an unimportant one, or use a baby gate to give your dog a little distance from the hose while working with it.
Chihuahuas have small mouths and smaller teeth than a German Shepherd, but never under estimate the power of a determined dog in the face of their most Fearsome Enemy.
Now that you are suitably prepared, you can introduce your dog to the hose. How you do this will depend on what sort of dog you have. If you are sure your dog will not immediately bite the hose, you can leave it on the ground and let your dog investigate it directly. If you are sure they will bite it, separate your pet from it with a baby gate, but leave the hose within 1” of the baby gate so your dog can investigate it from the other side.
As with every other desensitization task, reward your pet every time they look at, sniff, or engage without biting/destroying the hose.
If your dog is acting like you’ve just unleashed a living snake in your home and is barking, leaping back wildly, or other drama, do not reward or punish the behavior. Remove the hose, and try again if you can in a larger space where there’s more room to acclimate to it.
Only reward for calm behavior, including ignoring the hose.
Step Two: Hand on Hose
Once your dog has investigated the hose and has been rewarded for looking at it, put your hand on the hose, and reward your dog for looking at it/not acting like you just put your hand on a living snake in the same manner. If your dog retreats, this is fine. Barking, lunging at it, and frenetic energy is not fine.
If your pup is completely neutral about whether you have your hand on it or not, go ahead and move to step three.
Step Three: Pick up the hose
It’s likely that your pup is fine with the hose by itself on the ground, and fine with your hand on it, but when you pick it up, they may have a very different reaction. After all, you don’t walk around with a hose in your hand for no reason. Usually, the moment the hose is in your hand the monster is turned on, and that’s when the noise and air starts!
This is why it’s important not to be over confident that the dog who was so chill when you introduced the hose will still be chill when you pick it up. (Please note, most dogs don’t actually bite the dryer at the groom shop, but the ones who do are usually sudden and surprising, which is why the caution.
Pick up the hose, and allow your dog to investigate it again. Reward your pup for any calm response to the hose. This could be sniffing, looking at, or simply not fleeing/barking/nipping the hose. Offer 7-10 treats, one at a time, and then end the session.
Repeat this same lesson several times before moving on to the next step.
Step Four: Move hose slowly back and forth
The final step for desensitizing the hose itself is to be able to move the hose slowly back and forth or up and down, a distance of about 6” back and forth. Blow dryer motions are never wild (or they shouldn’t be, but we can talk about empathy in grooming in a separate post.) so all your dog needs to accept as far as motion is a gentle, slow one.
Move the hose gently and slowly back and forth once, and then give your pup a treat. Do this 7-10 times, over 2-3 sessions, and then put the hose away for a while to work on the next step of desensitization.
What About The Other Types?
We focused on the velocity dryer here, but indirectly all other types of drying have been worked on. When a dog is in a kennel dryer, they are essentially in a box with no escape, and a steady beam of wind is aimed at them.
The only additional step you will need for a dog to be able to cope with this is to kennel train them, which we will be working on soon. Working with the wind part of the hair dryer helped them with the kennel dryer. All that’s left is to decide if this is something you want your dog to use to begin with.
The stand dryer is essentially the same as the velocity dryer, except it is on a rack. Your pup has successfully gotten used to a hose, the sound, and the wind. We’re ready to move on to the next topic.
Similar Posts:
- Let’s Talk Dryers
- Introducing the Wobble Board
- Pre-Training Checklist: All Tools Needed
- Introduction to Tail Desensitization
- Desensitization to Water, Part 1
