Handstripping or not?

[steffi_far_away]

I have a 3 1/2 year old Cairn Terrier Lady named Missy. She has always been getting trimmed by a groomer. I have been reading about hand stripping a Cairn Terrier and how it is important for their skin, much less their natural appearance. I don't worry about her appearance so much, but she does get itchy spots on her back in the summer and she also has food allergies. But now I wonder if her summer itchiness comes from not stripping the dead hair. Her hair is really soft from the trimming. Some people say it's ok to trim the hair, others say it's important to hand strip. What do you guys think? And if I choose to start hand stripping her, how do I get at it? Right now her hair is fairly short and soft. At what point do I start plucking and how much would I pluck? Any help would be appreciated. : )

[lindasue]

Pegi is 1 year and isn't hand stripped. I do, however, comb her weekly with a stripping knife (it's a comb, kind of like a rake, with about 8 teeth that I bought on Amazon). It takes tons of hair off. When she's groomed I have her face trimmed in (especially the eyebrows; the Andy Rooney look isn't good) and the fur on the back of the legs and around the butt.

She doesn't particularly care for the combing; it takes lots of goodies. One day she got the stripping knife and it now is has many marks on the handle! Guess I know what she thinks of it....

[steffi_far_away]

So does a stripping knife replace the hand stripping? And do you still do any other trimming or cutting besides the spots you mentioned in your previous post? I'm so confused. I thought about finding a groomer who could teach me how to hand strip, but none of the groomers in our tiny little towns know how to. :-S I think I will buy the stripping knife on amazon then. do i have to wait until her hair is long and wiry again or can i start that now that her hair is still soft and not very long? thanks for the help!

[Nena]

I have been hand stripping mine since she was 6 months old. She is now 3. It works good, just secure with one hand the hair and pull with the other. The long dead hair will come out very easy. It is really good to get the dead out and trimming just will not do that. If you have no allergy problems or skin issues then don't worry about it, but if you do your dog will benefit from stripping.

I still hand strip but I also use the mars king coat stripper and it works great. I got it on ebay for a good buy. It really takes alot off with no problems and I follow up with hand stripping. Ofcourse you still have to hand strip the head and ears and tail. And her belly I use a furminator and just trim.

Just do alittle at a time and it is really no big deal.

[kintra]

Combing a stripping knife through the dog's coat is NOT the same as hand stripping. When you comb through the coat with the knife, all it does is take out undercoat, not the top coat that needs to be stripped.

There are quite a few good articles located on the board that explain handstripping in detail, with pictures. However, given the fact that Missy is 3 and has never been handstripped, I'd be a bit wary of it - the hair follicles tend to close up as they get older.

[bradl]

I think a knife is harder to use correctly than just pulling with fingers. I strongly urge learning with your fingers first and then borrowing/trying as many of the different styles if knives as you can before buying one - if you ever do. Unless you like collecting gadgets and tools like some guys I know I'd definitely spend a couple dollars and buy some finger cots at the drugstore to improve your grip when starting out.

Mars is a controversial tool but I do use one from time to time, mostly for a quick rake-out; I think it's easy to use one too much.

I wouldn't spend much time looking for commercial groomers to hand-strip; my suggestion would be to spend some time trying to track down a breeder-exhibitor of any double-coated terrier breed and see if they will either teach you, or groom your dog outright for a reasonable fee. Being increasingly lazy I willingly pay around $40/hr on occasion to rescue one or more of our dogs from my benign grooming neglect. That's just me and in my area - you might be quoted much more, or much less.

A dog who is not stripped isn't going to keel over and die from lack of a healthy coat, but on the other hand if a dog is having skin issues it's my belief that we can't say "we've done all we can" if we have not given it a year or two of hand stripping to see if that improves the condition. Stripping has completely turned around some dogs, sometimes in a matter of a few short months. Meanwhile, other dogs soldier on through their lives with scraggly dead coats (or soft dead clipped coats) and no apparent discomfort.

Food and other allergies also seem to be common contributors to various dogs' skin issues.

On preview: as kintra hints, there is a Frequently Asked Questions topic in this Behavior and Health subforum that will turn up a lot of previous discussion, as will browsing back through the topic listings.

[steffi_far_away]

Great, I just looked online to see if there are any Cairn Terrier breeders in South Dakota. But, of course not. It says the nearest one is in Minnesota. :-S Thanks for all the tips and comments, I think I will try hand stripping her when her hair gets long enough.

[Oliver's Mom]

Great, I just looked online to see if there are any Cairn Terrier breeders in South Dakota. But, of course not. It says the nearest one is in Minnesota. :-S Thanks for all the tips and comments, I think I will try hand stripping her when her hair gets long enough.

You could also try searching for Westie, Norfolk and Norwich breeders in your area. We go to a woman who breeds and shows Westies in our area to get hand stripped. Any wire coat breeder should be able to help you. Good luck!

[Dempsy's Mom]

Well I'll be! Another South Dakota Cairn owner.

I know just how you feel. I wanted specific instructions right down to the nitty gritty on hand stripping. But I think we South Dakotans are making it more difficult than it is. I would do what I did and just get some rubber gloves or finger cots and start. I sat out in the yard, Dempsy knawed on his bone and I started pulling. You will soon be able to feel the dead hair as it pulls out and then you will be able to see it. Dempsy liked it. I did it over a couple days and I wasn't brave enough to do the face or ears, so I cheated and trimmed them with a scissors. Good luck!

Oh, by the way, Missy is very cute.

[sanford]

I was so clueless when I first read about hand stripping, I just couldn't seem to get the hang of it until someone pointed out that I was grasping too many hairs at once, (I'm not the most patient person). Only until I was able to identify the longer hairs and limit myself to gently tugging maybe 6 or less at a time, did the process work. The hairs came out with no effort at all and my comfort level as well as my speed increased immediately.

Judging from her photo, Missy's coat looks very soft. The Mars Coat King and/or the Furminator seem to work best on harsh coats that have some resistance. They tend to just glide or slip through soft hair so they might not be helpful at this time.

Missy has the sweetest expression! How could you not love that face?

[kintra]

Where are you in South Dakota? I live in Northwest Iowa and know of various people in the Midewst area who might not be listed online.

[steffi_far_away]

We live in Mitchell, South Dakota, which is in the southeast, about an hour from Sioux Falls. She does have very soft hair, so I think it'll be a while until I can start plucking her hair because it doesn't seem dead yet, but I might be very wrong. Missy is a really sweet girl. She has a great personality, she loves to fetch sticks and balls, loves hoarding her toys, but otherwise is a pretty lazy dog. :-D

[Hawkeye]

I never hand stripped our first cairn, but did start with Bailey. I went to a local breeder for a private lesson on hand stripping and have been doing it myself. I agree with Brad on using my fingers to pull. I bought several tools and now that I've been doing it for a couple of years I am using my fingers most of the time. I do also use the shears to neaten up around the head and tummy. Bailey gets a little sensitive to being pulled on his tummy.

[hheldorfer]

Judging from her photo, Missy's coat looks very soft. The Mars Coat King and/or the Furminator seem to work best on harsh coats that have some resistance. They tend to just glide or slip through soft hair so they might not be helpful at this time.

Missy has the sweetest expression! How could you not love that face?

I compared Missy's photo to a Buffy photo taken right after we adopted her and their faces are SO similar. Buffy, too, had very soft hair when she arrived because she had been clipped and not stripped. Long story short, we let her coat grow out, started stripping, and she has a nice, rough Cairn coat now.

Ditto on Sanford's comments - the Mars Coat King will be great once Missy gets her Cairn coat, but it's not going to help much until then. And ditto on the comment that Missy has a VERY sweet face!

[MegsMom]

Since her coat is all one length now, and there is proportionally, more undercoat than there is outercoat, you could brush her with a slicker brush to remove the dead undercoat. I got a freebie mini-slicker years ago and ended up sold on the mini size, so I'd recommend checking the cat supplies for a 3inch mini-slicker. That will take out lots of dead undercoat and stimulate her skin, and may do lots of good for any itchies just removing the dead coat. This is the article that's all over the web on cairn grooming, it has a reference to an illustration in it, that's never there--except this one does have that hair follicle illus to help understand the growth cycle. Be sure to check the page linked at the bottom as "make sure to read this information also", that's your grooming illustrations, and you can print that if you'd like http://jerrier.tripod.com/grooming1.html

[Sheilas Cyn]

I tried the stripping on Sheila but it seems to hurt her (or she appears to feel it as something not good). Considering I pull off weed seeds, brush her and tickle her, she gets the hair cut from the groomers instead so we are not both cringing. On the other hand, she has a "tough dog" look that matches her rough and tumble attitude. I'm not sure why she weighs 20lbs but that's all muscle under all that scruffy fur.

[Kobies Mom]

I know nothing of how to do hand stripping, but look here at youtube and maybe you can find a video that shows you how to do it.. Good luck

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hand+stripping&aq=1

[steffi_far_away]

I tried the stripping on Sheila but it seems to hurt her (or she appears to feel it as something not good). Considering I pull off weed seeds, brush her and tickle her, she gets the hair cut from the groomers instead so we are not both cringing. On the other hand, she has a "tough dog" look that matches her rough and tumble attitude. I'm not sure why she weighs 20lbs but that's all muscle under all that scruffy fur.

Missy is on the heavy side with 20 lbs too. :-) She doesn't look fat or anything though so i'm not too worried about it. Missy HATES the slicker brush. I've been using the pin brush that's usually in combination with lots of brushes from walmart. She tolerates that. I hope i can carefully switch her over to the slicker brush.

[kintra]

Mitchell is about 2 1/2 hours away from me. I'll try to think of wire-haired people in that area though

[steffi_far_away]

Mitchell is about 2 1/2 hours away from me. I'll try to think of wire-haired people in that area though

Oh, 2 1/2 hours from Mitchell? Where are you located at? :-)

[kintra]

I live in a small town about 20 minutes from Sioux City, IA. I have a few grooming clients who come from Vermillion, SD