An Irish Water Spaniel's coat is oily to the touch and is made of dense curls and ringlets that cover virtually their entire body. As such they are quite high maintenance on the grooming front. Ideally, these dogs need to be brushed at least twice a week to prevent any matts or tangles from forming. Because their coats are so dense, it is also important to check dogs over for ticks and fleas on a regular basis too.
Their coats need to be trimmed to keep things tidy and this includes trimming the hair between a dog's paw pads and the hair around their ears. It's also important to check a dog's ears on a regular basis and to clean them when necessary. If too much wax is allowed to build up in a dog's ears, it can lead to a painful infection which can be hard to clear up. In short, prevention is often easier than cure when it comes to ear infections.
An Irish Water Spaniel is a high energy dog and therefore they need to be given a heap of physical exercise and mental stimulation on a daily basis for them to be truly happy, well-rounded dogs. This means giving a dog a minimum of 2 hour's exercise a day. A shorter walk in the morning would be fine, but a longer more interesting one in the afternoon is a must.
These dogs also like to be able to roam around a back garden as often as possible so they can really let off steam. However, the fencing has to be extremely secure to keep an IWS in because if they find a weakness in the fence, they will soon escape out and get themselves into all sorts of trouble.
With this said, Irish Water Spaniel puppies should not be given too much exercise because their joints and bones are still growing and too much pressure on them could result in causing a dog a few problems later on in their lives. They should not be allowed to jump up or off furniture nor should they be allowed to run up and down the stairs because this puts too much pressure on their still growing joints and limbs.
If you get an Irish Water Spaniel puppy from a breeder, they would give you a feeding schedule and it's important to stick to the same routine, feeding the same puppy food to avoid any tummy upsets. You can change a puppy's diet, but this needs to be done very gradually always making sure they don't develop any digestive upsets and if they do, it's best to put them back on their original diet and to discuss things with the vet before attempting to change it again.
Older dogs are not known to be fussy or finicky eaters, but this does not mean you can feed them a lower quality diet. It's best to feed a mature dog twice a day, once in the morning and then again in the evening, making sure it's good quality food that meets all their nutritional requirements. It's also important that dogs be given the right amount of exercise so they burn off any excess calories or they might gain too much weight which can lead to all sorts of health issues. Obesity can shorten a dog's life by several years so it's important to keep an eye on their waistline from the word go.
