handstripping my puppy

[empalminteri]

When I am handstripping my puppy, how do I know that the hairs I am pulling out are dead or not? He never complains, but I try to do a little everyday (his big boy coat is slowly coming in). I just want to be sure that I am doing this right!

Thanks!

[bradl]

Dead coat comes out quite easily. If you look at an individual hair, it's also usually thin and lacks color at the follicle end. Sometimes sounds a bit like paper ripping as you pull a few out at once. Try pulling a single hair that looks live - then do the same with one that looks dead. You will easily feel the difference I think.

[Eliz222]

I need help with Finch. She is soooooooooooo hairy, but when I try to strip her NOTHING comes out! She gives a looks like, "what the hey?" and then I stop.

[Kate]

How old is your puppy that your are doing this to? Just wondering . .. . I'm on the countdown for mine - Dec. 10th is coming and I am getting very nervous about my new addition and just can wait!

[Eliz222]

Kate, my puppy, Finch, is now 8 months old. Look at all her hair!!

This was taken Nov 7th.

I would love to get rid of the hair around her ears. I love the hairy look...but she has too much!!! Her coat is very thick too.

[bradl]

Just pull those ears a few hairs at a time, on about the top third of the ear. Hold and stabilize the ear leather with one hand, grab 5-10 hairs with the other, and yank. Tidy ears go miles toward giving a proper Cairn expression.

[newcairn]

Honestly, for Digby's ears I have never stripped. I just cut around them with scissors. I cut them really short right to the edge for the top 1/3 of each ear. This makes em look small, and awfully cute. I strip everywhere else with two stripping tools I bought though. But the ears can be tricky so I resort to scissors and it works like a charm! By the way, your dog is too cute for words! Cut those ears and it will be like you have a whole new Cairn on your house. And be sure to tell her she's pretty when your done. I am sure she will be thankful and appreciative. Hee hee!

[derecskey]

Wow, Finch is gorgeous! I just scissor cut Bella's ear hairs for the first time last night (5 1/2 months). She's been getting her coat stripped slowly this week. Almost done. She looks so much better, but she's so much more wheaten now! She's about 15% Cream, 15% Red, and 65% Wheaten, with just a little black left now.

[wheezie23]

Shoe, Finch is absolutely gorgeous!! Have you tried the Mars Coat King yet? It makes tidying their coat so much easier!

Thela

[Eliz222]

Thela, I have the Mars Coat King but haven't tried it yet. I really want to clean up her ears first. I stripped some of her ears last night. She didn't seem to mind at first, but I was only able to do it for a few min. I will try a little each day and see how it goes. I wonder if a stripping knife would work better? I feel terrible pulling on her ears!

[derecskey]

So far, I have only tried hand-stripping. I'm afraid to use any knives or coat kings for fear of actually cutting the hair.

Also, on the one hand, I can only hand strip so long before Bella's mouth turns into a set of those comical chattering teeth seen in old toy stores (nipping at my hands or anything else in reach).

On the other hand, with a coat king, I just see Bella being infatuated with it and not sitting still to let me use it on her. It's hard enough brushing her.