Stripping The Coat

[Dan]

After four years we finally found a groomer who knows how to strip our cairns coat.

He does not trim the ears at all. Aren't the ears suppose to be trimmed short? Also, he has charged us $160 over two appointments, and the last time $100, this time he said probably $60 as we are getting caught up. He stated we should do this four times a year. Does this all sound right?

[Melanie]

Hi Dan,

What did you do for the four years you couldn't find a groomer that did hand stripping? Just wondering because I am in the same shoes right now and Max is looking like a bushy little teddy bear. From what I have read in all the Cairn books it should only be done every 6 months. Were you able to watch them do the grooming and how long did it take?

Any replies will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Melanie

[LORI]

I just recently sent the ideas I had in coat care. Just this past Thanksgiving I spent two hours on our little girl and now she looks wonderful she has to wear her little coat and is adjusting quite well. Stripping should be done twice a year. Or when it gets to the point where the hair is parting down the back on its own. Go on line and find a grooming tool by Mars ,a german company, tha sells a strippin comb. It will work wonders on your pup. Set yourself up at a table,with an overhead leash attached and go to it. I know it is alittle intimidating but you can do it. We take our Cairn to dog show and was shown by many good and patient people on how to do this.

[punkinsmom]

Lori,

I found the website offering the Mars stripping tools, and I wanted to know which one you recommend for your cairn?

Thanks,

Punkinsmom

[Dan]

Thanks for the responses, the new groomer is insisting on every 3 months to strip, maybe this is just to get caught up??? His hair is now parting on the back, but his face, belly and back end still looks not right. What about ears, are they suppose to be trimmed short on edges and back of ear? Also, he said the guard hairs on the legs may not grow back after they have been trimmed like they were in the past, any comments?

[bradl]

First: I am the world's worst groomer and can single-handedly destroy any dog's coat using my bare hands So take anything I say about grooming with several large tablets of salt.

Hair parting is usually a sign it's past time for some grooming. Every 3 months is not unreasonable and if the groomer is good your Cairn will look sharp (in their shaggy way) and would likely have a very healthy coat and skin. However many many folks get by with less grooming, say twice a year with a full strip. That does require the dog to grow an entire new coat each time. One reason for more frequent grooming is because the coat grows at different rates on different parts of the body, so fast growing areas get a touch-up and slow growing areas are not overgroomed so that eventually the dog has a balanced coat of correct length in all parts. This is why if you groom yourself you could keep a very typical 'showy' coat with just a little touch-up every couple of weeks. I'm told the concept is a lot like cleaning house: rolling the coat is like doing a little cleaning each day instead of waiting for a whole-house major Spring Cleaning.

Leg furnishings are indeed hard to grow and take a long time. So if just cut, they will sit there essentially dead with no way for the slow-growing new coat to grow out. The whole point of stripping is to pull out dead coat so that new, live coat can grow in. Leg furnishings can take a long time to be thick, hard, and live all at the same time.

The ears should be pulled clean down the the soft, close undercoat completely around the top third (approximately) of the ear. The effect is of a point of ear leather poking out of a generally ball-shaped dome of the head.

(Picture borrowed from the Win Picture Gallery. Win pictures are good to look at to see well-groomed Cairns.)

For a really good look at grooming (for a small investment of $5), order the grooming booklet from the CTCA. It shows you how you could groom your guy yourself (hey, it's only hair and hair grows back, so you can't really go wrong if you take the long view) -- it will also show you what your groomer is trying to accomplish (or should be).

[springlady]

I got a Mars #8 for stripping and it is really great for pulling out all the dead stuff. The thing I can't figure out is how to groom the facial hair as it is softer and of course my puppy tries to grab anything that gets near his face! Also, his ear hair is starting to grow so long the top flops over making him look more devilish than even he is (if possible). Any ideas re facial grooming? I would love to see his eyes again.

[tequila34f2001]

Our cairn sassie is 18 months old. We started stripping her coat at about 6months,we have always stripped by hand it is time consuming,but we do it over a week period of time. we had no ideal how when we started just followed what the book said. we find that if you use a latex glove it makes it a 100 times easier. it is a big job to do it by hand but the end result is great. we do sassie about every 6 months and she looks great. Course I am prejudice. as far as doing the face the only way we have find to do it is I hold sassie and my wife does the work.Keep in mind you have to get a good hold because she is not crazy about that part.