Grooming/Stripping Question...

[Guest sandy's mom]

We just adopted a rescued cairn. I have read about "Stripping" and need to know exactly what it is, and if it is considered necessary...if so, why? I know only that it has to do with hair removal....thanks for helping out a newbie!

[savannahsmom35]

Stripping is how many Cairn terrier owners choose to groom their dogs. Instead of cutting the hair, you pull the hair out. From what I read, it doesn't pull the hair out at the root, it just breaks off the dead part of the hair (this is why it doesn't hurt them). I chose to strip my pup and it made a world of difference (see the before and after pics below) My pup is 4 months old so I stripped out her dark puppy overcoat. Before long her new coat began coming in. Looks like she will be a light color with a dark mask (hoping she will stay that way!) Stripping made her new coat come in more wirey (not so soft), is more resistant to mats, and is much more waterproof. I had to give Savannah a bath recently because she decided to roll over right where she went potty . Afterwards she shook off the water (all over my new wallpaper) and she was almost all the way dry! Big difference from before!! Supposedly it also makes them shed less (if kept brushed). This is more WAY time consuming than cutting so if you have her stripped at a groomer, they will probably charge you 2 to 3 times more than for a regular hair cut. There are several books and sites on the web that can probably offer you more info. Oh, and if anything I said is incorrect, please correct me. I am a beginner too!!

Before

After

[bradl]

It's all true about the benefits. The part about breaking the coat though: stripping does indeed pull the hair out by the root. But since the hair dies at the follicle end first, a dead hair comes out very easily.

[jansop]

I'm a little confused. Do you pull out the top hair or the bottom?................jan

[bradl]

Life cycle of a hair.

From left-to-right...

1. No hair - empty follicle - coat just pulled

2. healthy hair

3. hair dead at follicle but still lookin' good at tip

4. dead from follicle to tip (usually colorless or white)

5. Hair falls out

The image is hosted on another site (along with the rest of the article), but it's from Curt Whall's Grooming your Cairn.

The goal with stripping is to keep pulling the 3's so that you never get 4 & 5, and the 2's are at various lengths as they each got 'started' at different times. A coat that has a mixture of several different lengths at once is ideal. The process of frequently pulling a small percentage of the coat to create layers of different lengths is called rolling.

If you pull a 3 out, it will be shiny and thick at the tip and much of its length, but thin and kind of crinkly at the skin/follicle end. It will come out very easily.

If you just let it go the full process from 1 - 4, and then pull all the dead hair at once - some might call that a total strip. It's not a terrible way to go and you get to have three very different looking dogs over the course of a few months - an 'underwear' dog - a nice Cairn-looking coat - and a yak. And then the cycle begins anew.

[kayharley]

Now I'm confused...

Brad, is it possible to have an 8 month old who has never been stripped/groomed but has a decent coat from puppyhood?

Elliott has a darker root strip down his back but the fur looks so healthy, layered with no stragglies (is that a word?)

He could use some work on his tail and maybe his face but I just don't want to mess with something that doesn't need messing with.

[Eliz222]

I heard you should wait until they are a year old...but what do I know? Finch is such a mess right now and really needs to be stripped! I have started stripping Scout (because she is easier to work with) and it doesn't seem too hard. I worked for about 20 minutes and got alot of hair off, but when she jumped off the couch, you couldn't tell that I had done anything to her! I used Brad's description (a few weeks ago) of which hair to pull, and it comes out very easily. Maybe I'm not doing it right? I just look at Finch and shake my head...she is so darn hairy!!!

[Eliz222]

Kay, Elliot looks great! Did you already strip him? He has a beautiful coat!

[Guest posting as: cheryl]

one year? I have never heard this....since most puppies in the show ring get their Championships before they are one year old and theya re hand stripped I somehow think this information strange! LOL

As for your pups coat..his texture looks good and his coat isnt' dead but there is one reason for stripping that has littel to do with when the coat is really dead...it is called a good 'pack' This means their back coat should have about three different lengths of hair. THe hair you stripped first, second and the part ready to go...so by doing the first few strips before they need it you NEVER have to strip them nekkid. So you would start by pulling about 1/3 of his back coat and some of his skirt and face (For texture and body) and then in about three weeks do it agin and then you start 'rolling'.. This means that you will always have that FLAT surface on his backa nd he shoudl nearly be waterproof with that coat.

Good Luck

Chez CAH, DTS MPS

[kayharley]

No, I've done nothing other than some major combing and a little tiding up around the tops of his ears. He had a wonderful puppy coat from 8 weeks on although I see some work needs to be done on his face and tail.

Is that normal or did I just get lucky? Considering all he gets into and all the stress he causes, maybe I'm entitled to this?

[Guest Guest]

oh...and...when hair begins to part it (as on Eliots back) it starts to retrain the follicle tog row that direction..(just like your hair)...so you want to prevent that as well. Always pull straight out of the follicle in the direction you want growth. So towards the tail on the very topline and with coat growth direction down sides of back and Out and up on head and down on legs and skirt.

:-D

[Milopup]

Well my pup looks okay to me, but I did a combo grooming with him. I used the MCK all over his torso just to strip out as much of the dead coat as I could. I then had the groomer shape/cut his hair down for the summer months - she didnt strip his coat, but I tried to do what I could beforehand with the MCK, which cuts and strips.

[Kramersmom]

I never stripped my Missy in 17 years. Our mobil groomer about 2 years ago started to cut her shorter due to age to take the stress off her. She had the cairn cut until she got older we went with just a shorter cut but not totally shaved.

Kramer got a little touch up and a bath but no stripping. His coat is very thick and healthy. Here is a photo hope it works.

[Cairnmania]

one year?

[Cairnmania]

Hi Kay,

A good rule of thumb is that when the hair parts down the back it's time to strip. Usually the hair will be 2 inchs+ long at this point.

Looking at your photo of Elliot, his hair is parting, so it's time to start strip. Even the best coat will eventually start to look past its best if it is not stripped.

Stacey

[AllAboutPetey]

I get the rule of thumb for stripping when the coat opens up (parts down the back), but at that point what is the ideal thing to do? Strip him to the undercoat or only take the longest hairs? I began the process on my 7 1/2-month-old last week. I just picked a spot and started (maybe I shouldn't have started right in the middle of his back). Well, I pulled for an hour and Petey now has an approximately 3 x 3 inch "hole" (down to his soft fuzzy undercoat) on his back. I'm thinking I shouldn't have pulled all the hair, only the longest ones - but they were ALL coming out quite easily so I kept pulling. At any rate, the process is going to take a long, long time to finish and my hands got tired! Also, Petey has a lot of hair around his neck that needs to go - I'm thinking this is the key to getting the Cairn look about the head. I'm sure this is all covered in the CTCA grooming guide that only costs $7, so I'm going to the mailbox today to put the check in the mail....

Sorry for the rambling post...I thought I could do this myself, but it is harder than I thought.

[Milopup]

I thought the fuzzy white undercoat that looks like cotton candy is part of what we are trying to remove? When I used the MCK, a lot of cotton candy, much lighter colored hair came out quite easily.

[Eliz222]

I started stripping my dogs the other day. I think it's going to be a long, long time before I'm finished! I stripped part of Scout's shoulder, which took about 20 minutes, and when I finished it didn't look like I did anything!

Finch's hair on her head was starting to part so I stripped the top of her head, and around the neck area last night too. I worked for about 20 min (she didn't seem to mind), but it didn't look like I did too much either. She has soooo much hair on her, especially her legs. Can I strip the hair on her legs? Does it come out easily?

Milopup, I have been pulling out the long hair on my dogs. I have been taking small, thin, clumps of hair and standing them up. I then pull out the very tall ones and any others that come out easily. I hope I'm doing it right!

[Anna_525]

I tried doing it myself last night too (believe me if not for these posts, I wouldn't even know what stripping is about). Alfie didn't want to be bothered, he put my hand in his mouth to stop me. I was able to sneak in a few pulls, and it was fairly easy, almost like running your hand through the hair will yield those dead ones. It will take me forever, though.....

[savannahsmom35]

It is quite time consuming. I am not sure if you read my other posts but try doing it while they are napping. If I tried to strip Savannah while she was awake, she would do the same thing (she thought I was playing with her). I quickly learned that I got much more accomplished while she was alsleep than awake. It took a few sittings to complete the stripping (probably took a total of about 5 hours) but I am a beginner so it may go faster for other people. Word of Caution, they look a little funny in between this time! Part of Savnnah was stripped and part waasn't so she had a "hole" in her fur where her dark hair was missing. She received a few funny looks during that 2 weeks!

[bradl]

I strongly recommend that if you can't get a hands-on demo from your breeder, or a local Cairn exhibitor, that you get a couple of books with pictures and the like. The parent club in the US (your host here) offers a very good booklet. Almost all of the Cairn-specific books have a section on grooming too, some with terrific pictures. Try your local bookstore if it has a good doggy section; some pet stores carry a good selection of breed-specific books. The ones that are fairly thick (and expensive) tend to be written by people involved in the breed and are more likely to have better information. You may find some breed books that are knocked out by rote formula that contain suspect information. You can usually spot them - each breed book is eerily similar to each other. Try to find one where the author has some credentials in the breed they are writing about. There are a number of quite good Cairn books.

[Brigette]

Is it okay to do the total strip over a period of a few days? Yoda is looking a little

"Yak" like right now, but I could tell he was losing his patience with me yesterday, so I thought I would spread it out.

[Milopup]

So the long fuzzy cotton candy white fur is the right one to "attack" with the fingers and MCK?

[Angus'mum]

I appreciate all the "newbie" questions (I am a newbie also) and all of the more experienced members' advice! My dog Angus is just about 14 weeks old. He was pretty dark when we got him, but we are seeing more and more brindle/reddish coloring coming through. I've been reading my grooming book and everyone's posts, so tonight I thought I'd give it a shot. He was pretty patient with me and I did get a little hair (I'm wearing most of it). It wasn't as much as I thought. I'm not sure if it is still too early, or if I am just doing it wrong. I just started on the back of his neck, worked my way down his back, sides, legs and so on...just kind of tugging the hairs out. Does it sound like I am doing this correctly? I'm going to look around for someone locally that might be able to teach me. The breeder that we got him from is quite a distance away. Thanks again for your advice (and patience)!

[kayharley]

I am not a newbie but just so confused by all this stripping talk that I'm ready to start stripping my own head

Isn't it easier to just go over the entire dog maybe a couple times a year at a leisurely pace and gently pull out the loose hair than take small sections at a time and look for the long ones? In the long run, what would the difference be in their coats?

Sorry for the question...humor me again!!