The best dog moms know that small dog wellness and beauty routines for our fur kids aren’t merely about what’s on the outside. Of course daily grooming and care make our pups always-ready for a picture-perfect Instagram shot, but that’s not what’s important. Caring for our small dogs’ coat, skin, and body is a matter of their health and happiness. These are some of our favorite products for helping us do just that.
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Gorgeous Hair
Nature’s Specialties Plum Silky Professional Groomer’s Pet Shampoo
Our wonderfully experienced breeder recommended this professional-grade shampoo to us, and we’ve used it for two years now. We love that it’s a biodegradable blend of mild shampoo with aloe vera, silk proteins, vitamins A, D and E, essential oils, and fragrance. We love that it’s designed to be diluted, so a small bottle seems to last forever, reducing cost and packaging. And, it smells so good. It’s nuzzle-worthy!
This versatile conditioner works like a regular conditioner when diluted, AND it can be warmed for a deep treatment. We love to pop the bottle into a bowl of warm water while we’re washing the pups. When we’re finished shampooing, we slather on the warm cream and then use our favorite steel-toothed comb to distribute it throughout. It’s one of the best ways we’ve found to remove snarls and prevent major mats. Because the extra product stays on while we’re working, it acts double-duty as a deep conditioner, and it takes small dog wellness to the next level. Scouty tends to have sensitive skin and this helps relieve her itchiness!
Veterinary Formula Anti-Parasitic and Anti-seborrheic Medicated Shampoo
We recently discovered this shampoo over the winter when a blog post we researched for winter dog safety literally freaked us out. We had no idea so many additional dangers lurk on the ground in the winter months. And, we are on the beach almost daily, where salt water can be hard on the pups’ paws. This shampoo is amazing. A quick squirt in the sink with an inch of warm water, we pop them in, swish their paws, pick them up and run warm water to rinse them off. They’re sanitized and snuggly in a matter of minutes!
Healthy Skin
This all-purpose, all-season protection for little paw pads is simply additional insurance against injury and irritations. We love it for winter walking, and we’re ready to conduct careful testing to see if it works on hot pavement and sand.
Multiple holistic websites, and our favorite holistic pet book, recommend calendula extract mixed with distilled water as a calming spray for skin irritations. We like this low-alcohol version very much.
Some Havanese, and many other small dogs, tend to develop tear stains. It looks terrible, but more importantly, it’s got to be uncomfortable to have a damp face. We’ve used Eye Envy for well over a year now, with great results. Its blend of colloidal silver, witch hazel, and gentle eye area solution are incredibly effective, especially when combined with the powder, linked below.
This powder, which isn’t a cover-up, is truly a game-changer with tear stains. Used consistently for seven days, and then as a weekly preventative, it treats the source of staining. We love the herbal ingredients (including Goldenseal, Echinacea, and Eyebright) and the gentle cleanser. To us, small dog wellness means we try to use products that maximize ingredients made by nature.
Sometimes, I consider buying one of these brushes for my own under eye area. It’s gorgeous and soft, and it works perfectly to apply the powder just where it belongs. 
(Note: This page contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience and to help support our work. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.Our full disclosure, disclaimer, and copyright notices are found here. )
