Samoyed Care

Overview - Basics

While each breed is unique in their own right, the BASICS of care is the same for all breeds -- keep clean, water, feed sufficiently and nutritionally, provide veterinary care, exercise & offer lots of love and patience.

In order to keep your Samoyed clean & parasite free you will need a minimum of one hour, per week, of your time to allot for grooming your Samoyed.  If your Samoyed is a puppy, is spayed or neutered, is geriatric, or is blowing coat (shedding) you may want to allow for more time, per week.  Why?  The Samoyed puppy is just that A Puppy, who will get dirty more often than the older dog.  Many times once a Samoyed has been spayed or neutered they will carry a more dense and/or longer coat.  The geriatric Samoyed will have more tender skin than the younger dog.  And, during the times when your Samoyed is blowing coat (shedding) you will want to invest a little more of your time in grooming in order to get the old coat out as soon as possible.  Your minimum of one hour, per week, does not have to be accomplished all in one session...you can groom for 5-10 minutes, per day.  The latter especially applies to the Samoyed puppy and the geriatric Samoyed.  For a more detailed look at "Grooming Your Samoyed", click here.

The quantity and type of food your Samoyed will need depends largely on age, weight and/or size, amount of exercise, medical issues (if any) and preference.  If fed a good nutritional food, the Samoyed does not eat the quantity of food as one might think of a dog their size.  You will want to consult your breeder, Veterinarian, rescue contact and/or other Samoyed breeders/owners for suggestions and advice.  Also, your Samoyed needs access to fresh drinking water.

It is important, as with all breeds/dogs, that Veterinary medical care is maintained, timely and emergency care provided when needed.  Vaccinations should be current, heartworm testing performed (as instructed by your Veterinarian) and heartworm preventative routinely given, if negative.  If you live in an area where parasites (fleas or ticks) are more prevalent you will, also, want to discuss with your Veterinarian prevention for ticks AND fleas.  Some drugs that Samoyeds have been known to have severe to fatal adverse reactions to include:  Drugs containing sulpha, Ace, Rimadyl & Deramaxx (NSAID drugs).  You may want to consider, as other Samoyed owners have,  noting your Samoyed's veterinary chart in big bold writing at the top of their chart.  Regarding vaccinations, see Dr. Jean Dodds recommended vaccination schedule.   For more information on Samoyed & general canine medical and health issues go to Mirage Samoyeds Health Section.

As with feeding, exercise will depend a great deal on the age and (medical) condition of your Samoyed.  Also, will you be looking for a moderate exercise plan for your Samoyed or do you plan on being more heavily involved in the Samoyed working activities such as sledding, herding, pack hiking, racing, etc.?  Please consult with your breeder, Veterinarian, rescue contact and/or other Samoyed breeders/owners for suggestions or advice.  In addition, if you plan on sledding your Samoyed get in touch with other Samoyed owners who are involved in sledding, and so on.  Your breeder, rescue contact or other Samoyed owners and breeders can assist you in finding that right person to speak with or you can use the Samoyed Club of America's Breeder Referral Page to locate Samoyed owners and/or breeders in your area if you do not currently have any contacts available to you.

Samoyeds are a family-oriented breed!  They want and need to be with their human family.  This breed is not one which can be happy living separated from their humans.  They need human love, interaction, guidance & patience.

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