Full strip on older puppy & face shaping questions

[cairnpaw]

Hi Everyone!

I am new here and need a little bit of grooming guidance! I do not own a Cairn myself, but recently helped my father-in-law adopt a rescue Cairn. His Cairn is approaching 9 months now and has never been groomed. I promised to help strip him and groom him for him over his lifetime. Although I do not own Cairns, I have a lot of hand stripping experience/know how from owning and stripping my Border Terrier. I always do her by hand and occassionally use a stone/stripping knife, but never a Mars coat king or rake or any other type of stripping tool. When I do strip her, it is complete as her coat is very difficult to roll. Anyway...can I strip this Cairn puppy completely down to his undercoat over his entire body? His coat is definitely ready as it feels dead and is parting down his back. Also, how do I shape his face? I know what to do with the ears, but beyond that am lost. Any help or photos of a good Cairn head study shot would be amazing. I would really appreciate it!!

[bradl]

Good for you!

If the pup has never been stripped at all, it's probably a good idea to strip the entire body down to undercoat, so you can roll it later, once a new coat starts to come in. Well, I don't know if it's a good idea per se, but it's what I do anyway

Here's a nice head study of a young dog:

If you browse around the Gallery, check out some of the National Specialty/Sweepstakes albums and you'll get a good feel for heads.

For a step-by-step approach, here's a nice article on grooming heads, courtesy of Lisa Tuttle: The Heads Have It.

[kintra]

I typically do a full strip down on dogs with very dead coats. Depending on the dog, I may do a few full strip downs before I can actually start rolling the coat. I take them down to the undercoat all over the body, the take the tail, head/face, and legs very short.

On pet Cairns I groom, I typically follow a 25 - 75 ratio. I strip about 25% of the hair then use a thinning shears (the rest of the 75%) to finish shaping the head.

[2littleterrors]

Kintra, what do you do for the ears on a pet? I'm pretty sure neither of my girls would EVER let me strip their ears.

[kintra]

I take a small scissors and trim the upper 1/3 edge of each ear. Depending on the dog and their coat, I'll either finger pull the hair on the front/back of the ear or I'll shave it.

[2littleterrors]

Ok, I shave mine, don't think they would tolerate me pulling. Thanks!!!

[cairnpaw]

Thank you everyone!! I am going to do a full strip on him on Sunday. Will try to post before and afters here as well! You all are wonderful

[kjwarnold]

I finger pull Packy's ears, but I just can't seem to pull Kirby's; they just don't want to come out! So, he gets a shave with one of those mini-shavers.

[cairnpaw]

Well, we're all done and it went well. His head could be shaped better as it's still a bit of a football, but hey, for a neutered pet I think it will work! Here are the before and afters. Thanks for the help and advice.

[bradl]

Well done ... he's all set to grow out a nice new coat. I love his little white "locket" on his chest. (Our boy has one too.)

[2littleterrors]

looks great! Wanna come do Kenzie for me??

[josie&holly]

He looks cute both before and after and I think you have done a great job!

[ScruffynMag]

Well done, he looks great!

[Islander]

Wow, it's amazing how much his brindling shows up after stripping. Great job! I wonder how long it took you.

[cairnpaw]

Thanks everyone! The entire process took me about 5 hours with a LOT of breaks inbetween since he was not used to this process at all. I was able to strip his entire body by hand and then used a knife on a few areas on the legs and feet. You guys are great and thanks again for the input!