Thick Undercoat

[Wally]

Long Haired Cairn

Hi All,

I have a 6 year old male cairn that I hand strip. I have never been able to get the undercoat completely out and this year it is thicker than ever, I let his coat grow all winter hoping it would blow out but it never did and because it is getting warm, I had to strip him. I have tried every brush and comb that are generally recommended, The furmonator works the best but only gets some out. Every inch of his body is cover in undercoat...lol

Any idea's?

Thanks

Wally

[kintra]

It's natural for the undercoat to cover the whole dog. The outer coat is what you want to handstrip and you can thin out the undercoat with a tool like the Furminator but you don't want to completely remove it.

[Wally]

I just measured it...the undercoat is over an inch. Poor guy...couldn't even walk for half an hour with out over heating. It's only maybe 60 degrees. To clarify, I only strip the out coat.

[hheldorfer]

Have you tried using a Mars Coat King on him? It can take out a lot of undercoat in no time at all. I use it on Buffy when she starts looking like a yak at this time of year and she tolerates the heat pretty well.

[bradl]

I'm too lazy to carefully work undercoat even with a furminator (the blades on my coat king are so wide apart it doesn't do much with undercoat for me). A good going over with a slicker and then a little time with a fine-toothed metal comb will pull out an amazing amount of undercoat with low effort.

[Wally]

HI,

I don't like the Mars because it cuts the outer coat and then when you try and strip the outer, its doesn't want to come out.

I can take a fine tooth comb and go backwards and nothing comes out. Maybe i will video it later, it's an amazing coat, just not very comfortable in the summer. One thing that does give him some relief is shaving his belly right to the wood.

Cheers

[Tracy A.]

Here is a trick I was taught. Use your mars in very short strokes in one area, then use the slicker... and you'll get a lot of undercoat out. By using very short strokes your not cutting any topcoat... we're talking 2".

My groomer teacher taught me that one.

HI,

I don't like the Mars because it cuts the outer coat and then when you try and strip the outer, its doesn't want to come out.

I can take a fine tooth comb and go backwards and nothing comes out. Maybe i will video it later, it's an amazing coat, just not very comfortable in the summer. One thing that does give him some relief is shaving his belly right to the wood.

Cheers

[Jeff N Oscar]

Wally I would love to see a video of his fur.

Oscar is a big fuzzy ball of fur.... the previous owners said she had him groomed each year, right before Thankgving (late Nov) by getting him shaved down. I wonder if he seems so fuzzy because he's never had his coat striped or thinned out. We use the Mars tool on Jeff and his coat seems very nice and I am thinking that once Oscar's coat grows in we will use the tool on him and he "might" lose some of this fuzziness. But I wonder if he is too warm with all the thickness of his coat now. I will try the slicker brush to see if any hairs come out. I am assuming this thick fuzzy hair in not supposed to be so much.

Added:

I was searching the web for some information, more so pictures of other shaved Cairns to see if they looked as fuzzy as Oscar and I found a some pics of a Cairn before and after grooming and I think the after pic is sad and the before pic is beautiful. Just wanted to share and say that I would LOVE to have a dog coat like this one ( I would trim it up a little bit)

[kjwarnold]

You know, Packy has a very thick undercoat and he never seems to get hot at all. He sits out on our dock in the full sun (on purpose) during the summer and doesn't even pant. I'm thinking that the thick undercoat insulates him very well and keeps him from getting too hot. Now I do use the Furminator on him periodically, but he still has a very thick layer down there.

[pindrop]

I just wanted to say a few words on this subject. Layla is currently 8 + months and her coat is definately in need of a strip "but" I need help in knowing what the difference is with all these tools everyone talks about. Either I'm very slow at learning or just plain confused. What I would appreciate is someone telling what each tool is for - first off we have a slicker (brush or comb?) - then we have the furminator - then we have the Mars Coat King (which we just bought 10 blade) If someone could explain what tool they use for each purpose and what area these same tools are used on I think it might help some of us who are new to Cairns and for future reference new owners can be referred to this subject. Thanks so much for all this insight.

[Nena]

I am sure that someone will give you detailed instructions, also do a search on this forum and you will find lots of info on all of these. but quickly the mars king coat is for the outer coat. I use this at first to get started then I hand strip for a while. the furminator is for the undercoat. some dogs have more than others, but it does a good job. slicker brush does a great job getting all hair out but mine will not tolerate it so I can't tell you much more about that.

But I will say don't be intimidated by stripping. I just started hand stripping and that is all you really need. I trim around face and eyes also. I added in some of these tools just to make the job go quicker.

[bradl]

I was searching the web for some information, more so pictures of other shaved Cairns to see if they looked as fuzzy as Oscar and I found a some pics of a Cairn before and after grooming and I think the after pic is sad and the before pic is beautiful.

I agree the after pic is sad - looks like a testimonial against clipping. My dogs often look like "before" except even lazy me would take that ear fringe off, if nothing else (with my fingers - no tools needed).

My "five-minute-emergency-groom" for yaks sometimes consists of removing the fringe from the ears, a quick thinning shear down the aft and two side planes of the tail to remove fringe from there, and a quick snip around each foot with thinning shears - or even regular shears - to remove "slippers." And by "five minutes" I literally mean five minutes. Maybe as little as two minutes if I get don't get distracted.

Add another two minutes for toenail Dremeling.

That's not what I consider "grooming" but what I would consider a quick touchup to get a dog to at least look like an ungroomed Cairn instead of a Briard (ears), Retriever (tail), or Spaniel (feet).

[Tracy A.]

OMG that after pic is bad.... poor Cairn.... they gave him a skirt!

I like brad do 'comando grooming' on the fly.

[kintra]

In no way am I trying to endorse the websites posted - I just did a google search and copied the websites that had good pictures.

Mars Coat King - http://www.groomersmall.com/coat_kings.htm

Actually, the Mars Coat King is NOT for outer coat. It is also for the removal of the undercoat. It will only cut the outer coat (and in that case, it's easier just to clip them instead). Can remove a lot of undercoat.

Slicker Brush - http://www.morrco.com/slickerbrush.html

This is also used to remove undercoat. Can also help straighten hair on longhaired breeds

Furminator - http://www.furminator.com/products/dog/short_hair/tool

Again, this is used to remove the undercoat. You must be careful because you can take out all of the undercoat if you aren't paying attention.

Personally, the only undercoat remover tool out of all of these I use is the Furminator. I don't trust Mars Coat Kings with Terriers because it does cut the outer coat.

Stripping Knife - http://www.cherrybrook.com/index.cfm/a/catalog.catshow/catid/208/cname/Stripping_Knives (there are also a few other tools on this page that are not stripping knives)

This is a popular tool to use to strip the outer coat. There are a lot of varieties and sizes of stripping knives. I personally use a McClennan Medium (red handle) for a majority of the work. If you take the stripping knife and comb in through the coat, is will remove undercoat.

[Idaho Cairns]

If our girls' undercoats become to thick--late winter for example, I have used a wire brush and a metal comb to remove the padding. Recently I bought and used a Mars and it does remove the undercoat but will also pull out/cut the outer coat as well--as I found out, you have to be careful the Mars is really efficient in what it does. Generally I will trim and shape with thinning scissors and a small amount of stripping to finish up areas I missed.

If you want the undercoat reduced, get a good wire brush (knobby ends), brush the hair backwards working close to the body and then brush the coat down as it lays naturally--generally that will get all the dead undercoat and thin some of the healthy coat as well.

[eastofeden]

Great List Kintra...

The tools I use the most (When I groom...I am the worlds laziest groomer and am missing my eldest who is away in college, as she was very good about keeping the dogs looking good ) are:

My fingers

Latex gloves or finger cots (to go on my fingers)

Stripping Knife

Greyhond comb

Grill stone (yes...for the barbequeue)

Furminator