Hand pulling or striping little guy

[Guest]

I have heard that Cairns should be hand pulled. How old should you start doing this? Can I do it myself? What exactly do I do? Also, my little guy, Brodie, is brindle. The breeder told me he could be wheaton as an adult. Does the wheaton color come out after he is striped of his puppy hair?

[Guest]

The color can change up to 2-3 years. Very hard to predict what final color will be. Jake was brindle until we stripped th puppy coat and is now a red wheaten with black ears and muzzle. He does have many black hairs throuhgout his coat which leads me to believe he will be darker later on. He is almost 10 months now.

[Stefaninie]

I'm going to bump this because I have the same questions! When do you start stripping them and how do you do it? No groomers around here will do it (one of the ones I talked to today said to SHAVE THE HAIR. Yikes).

[Guest]

Stephanie,

Hand stripping is actually pulling the long coat out by hand and leaving the soft fluffy undercoat. When to do the first full stripping depends on the dog. On the Cairn I have now, I stripped her when she was about 6 months old, and I've stripped her on average of twice a year thereafter. She's not a show dog, but I do this for the health of her skin. If you have a very young puppy with a fine puppy coat, it may only be necessary to do the top third of his ears now and pull some of those stray fine puppy hairs.

Use a stripping knife, where you hold the blade (it's not sharp) and grab the coat and pull with it in the direction it grows. If the coat is ready to be stripped, it will come right out easily and with no pain or discomfort to the dog. If you see that the hair looks grayer the closer you get to the root, that's a dead coat that's very ready to be stripped.

I know that some people really don't like the idea of using a pumice stone for stripping because it may break the hair off some, but I have found that it makes it easier (and as I said, I don't have a show dog, so this is just works well on my pet). Get a rough pumice stone and use it like a brush, and it will grab and pull off that dead coat. You can also hold it and use it like a stripping knife. I find it's a good way to start to get most of the coat out and then use a stripping knife to finish up. CTCA has an excellent little pamphlet on grooming that you can order that gives good detailed instructions on how to do the ears and tail and so on. I ordered one years ago called Cairn Terrier Grooming Start to Finish.

Even though this is not a painful process, it does involve some time, and your puppy may not like sitting still for it. Try doing it in stages and stop when he gets too antsy, and be sure to reward him and play with him afterwards so he remembers it as being a good thing. After you've stripped your dog, be sure to brush him often to sort of thin out the undercoat some and encourage the growth of the new rough coat.

Take care! Susan