Caring For Westies

How To Take Care Of A Westie

The aggression and energy that West Highland Terries exhibit makes people consider them hard-to-train dogs. Yet with a little effort and consistent coaching, caring for westies need not present any special challenges. On the contrary, westies need little in the way of special care and easily adapt to the home conditions they are trained for.

In addition to being great companions for kids and other family members, westies learn to cope with other pets. This is especially the case if your westie has playing companions for the dogs are naturally playful. This love for play is good for the westies as exercising them becomes extremely easy.

Westies are easy to discipline too. While the amount of discipline required will vary from one dog to another, consistent training will achieve the desired results. Just as they are aggressive, westies are also quick learners and once they are made to know what is acceptable and what is unacceptable they are very quick to comply. For the most part, verbal discipline will achieve positive results but where this fails a little swatting will bring the wayward westie back to line.

A prime consideration in caring for westies is how frequently you need to bathe them. While bathing the dogs is mandatory, this should not be done too frequently. Bathing the dog once a month is actually enough although more regular baths could be administered if the dog has messed himself up. Too much bathing is not recommended as it makes the skin dry out.

There are a number of things you need to observe when bathing your westie to make sure that the dog is safe. Before you start bathing the dog, you should place cotton balls in his ears as a safeguard against water that might enter the ear canal. Should water enter this canal, the dog could develop an infection. To clean the dog, you can use baby shampoo.

In addition to bathing the dog, you need to brush his teeth to prevent decay and also to keep them white. This should also present no major problem especially if started at an early age. To brush the teeth, you could also an ordinary toothbrush. For toothpaste, there are toothpastes for dogs which are available in many pet stores.

Being low maintenance dogs, westies do not require any special sleeping arrangements. You only need an enclosure that keeps the dog warm and secure. With proper training, westies adapt to the conditions you train them for. In fact, they learn to respect the authority of their owner and the obedience is easily discernible in the dogs’ willingness to obey instructions. Of course this also calls for proper care and fair treatment for these very admirable dogs.