why grooming is important

[PWDmum]

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register

If you have a dog with long hair you have to groom it yourself in between visits to a groomer,

I have to groom Figo at least once a week. Sometimes more depending on how dirty he is along with weekly baths.

A dog with this amount of coat is not for the faint hearted ,

 

[JudyN]

I used to want a shaggy dog - when Jasper was a pup I was really hoping he would end up shaggier than he is. But when I see other dogs looking like they've been dipped in chocolate, or labs whose coats have absorbed enough water that they've doubled in weight, or bearded collies with a whole nature collection caught up to their coat, I am so glad that he's pretty much a Teflon dog!

 

[leashedForLife]

.

my friend Becca in Va Beach had a very sweet Shih-Tzu, & Becca had used 8 or 10 groomers in his 1st year of life - but the one who "did" her dog most-often liked to keep him in a show clip, with sheets of hair waterfalling from his spine to the ground on each side, & long silky ears, with tips that touched his elbows.

The problem with that was, much as Becca loved her little dog, she wouldn't comb him regularly.
So that silky exterior hid a dirty secret - mats, lots & lots of them.

I took 3 x 4 inch wads off his little ears, which had to date back to his 6-mo / 7-mo puppy-coat, to be that dam*ed big at 12-MO. Yet looking at him as he walked by, U'd never know they were there.
That same groomer once gave Becca's dog a nasty clipper-burn on his tender belly, & then denied it when we phoned about it, the next day. No way she didn't see it, or didn't DO it - I saw it when he came home, & rolled over for a tummy rub... It was fully the size of a playing card in poker, on a tiny 7# dog.
It took almost 2-weeks for all the scabs to drop off, & his hair to regrow on his tummy.

The moral of the story?
Don't ASSUME the dog is nicely groomed - CHECK. Feel for mats.
Always pre-comb yer own dog, tangle-free, to the skin, before a grooming-appt, plus do that at least once & preferably twice every week... all over. Petticoats, ears, neck, bib, belly, everywhere.

For a brief period, i persuaded Becca to keep Teddy in a lamb-clip, b/c that she could keep up with, & he stayed mat-free & comfortable. But the groomer had photos of him in full show-coat, blown-up & mounted on her salon wall, & she used him as advertising for her "skills" [not her ethics].
Soon, she again persuaded Becca to let him grow-out, & he was once again silky to the eye, & lumpy under his coat. Barsteward.

I gave up.
- terry

.

 

[Nanny71]

Being a Bichon cross Dudley has a very curly coat if I let it grow long. It is groomable but I keep it quite short in the summer and a little longer in the winter. Not because I am lazy because I still brush him daily, but because my groomer advised it, being non moulting it just gets thicker.

 

[Jack-Russell-Lover]

Very sensible, we've had a few people with cockerpoo etc having short cuts lately because of the weather!

There's a Maremma Sheepdog in the village that is so desparate for a groom! Thick fur that is all matted. Just walked past him on a walk, gave him some fuss behind his ears and there are loads of matts there! Bet there's so much dead coat needing to come out, I've walked past this person before on a walk and seen her at the side of the road just pulling chunks for fur out with her hands. Get some grooming tools lady! I've even put a leaflet through her door for the grooming salon a while back when we were trying to up our client base, and I bet it just got thrown away!
My dog is only a short haired jack Russell and she still gets a weekly brush! We even get quite a few short haired breeds in the salon so why some people with long haired breeds think they don't need to is beyond me!

 

[Josie]

I saw this on Facebook and thought it was very interesting!

 

[JoanneF]

That is interesting but did it say anything about the air temperature?

 

[merlina]

Excellent! I know it seems to go against common sense- but as my scientist husband says sense isn't all that common and often isn't even sense. Since dogs don't sweat through their skins the way we do exposing more skin won't help cool them down, I guess.

 

[leashedForLife]

.

hair = insulation.
U don't peel the insulation out of the house for the summer - it's there, year'round.

Haircoats shouldn't be cut shorter than 1.5-inches length, & ideally 2-inches minimum. // Under 1.5-inches, a dog's skin can sunburn.
Scalping a dog with a surgical clipper, as they do with large areas of trad-clip Poodles, is ridiculous.

If U own a curly coated dog & don't want the hassle of constant combing-to-the-skin tangle-FREE, then cord it.

corded Poodles - Google Search

Irish Water Spaniels, PWDs, Bergomasco, etc, can be neatly corded in narrow tassels, not the huge flat spoon shapes of matted hair. Cording is not difficult, it virtually eliminates maintenance, & it's tidy; stains or burrs are snipped off, & then just re-grow that particular "tassel". U twiddle new growth in at the base, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch uncorded as free hair, to allow skin movement & airflow.
A whole-body fringe of 3 to 4-inch cords is simple, dries quickly, & looks very handsome, IMO.

LAMB-CLIPs, an all-over same length, is also very easy to maintain & comfortable for the dog, plus very attractive. Shih Tzu, Lhasa, etc, can all be kept in lamb-clips & coat care is much easier.


- terry

.

 

[Biker John]

I know when we had Shelties, in summer we were always worried about them. But feeling them, the outside of their coat got hot in the sun, but if you felt under near the dogs skin it felt normal. We concluded that Shelties were totally insulated from the outside weather. Wind, rain or sun nothing got through to the dog.

 

[JoanneF]

I know when we had Shelties, in summer we were always worried about them. But feeling them, the outside of their coat got hot in the sun, but if you felt under near the dogs skin it felt normal. We concluded that Shelties were totally insulated from the outside weather. Wind, rain or sun nothing got through to the dog.

I saw something on another site recently that supports this - it was a thermal image of a long coated dog that had been partly clipped. The clipped area showed a far higher body temperature because there was less insulation.