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Cairn Coat - Soft or wiry?


Duncan's Mom

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I have a question - I met a lady with a 5 year old female cairn and I honestly wasn't sure if she was a cairn when I first saw her. She is quite a bit larger than Duncan - who is approximately 14 lbs. Her hair is long and completely soft - no wiry hairs anywhere.........my question is why would her coat be completely smooth? It is a very light color - the same color as Duncan's undercoat. Would she have been born this way or is there a reason that she has lost her wiry coat? I am asking because I like Duncan's harsh coat and I don't want to inadvertently cause him to lose it. Now, the female cairn was sweet and very cute - just didn't look like what I thought a typical cairn looks like. Hope this is isn't a dumb question. Mary :confused:

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I've always heard that clipping the fur rather than stripping or "plucking" it can make it soft. I met a Cairn in a neighborhood close to mine that had very long, straight hair. It looked like it had been cut and it was by no means wirey, like a Cairn's fur should be.

I have just recently been teaching myself how to strip Barney. I saw a program about Cairns on Animal Planet and this lady showed how to tell what are dead hairs. On Barney, they are the ones that sort of "stick out" from the rest of his fur. When I pull these out, his fur is very even and flat.

If you like Duncan's fur to be coarse and wirey, don't let your groomer take a clipper to him. I also like the wirey look! It just fits that wild Cairn personality! :thumbsup:

Now if I could just get up the courage to do his face! :confused:

All creatures great and small, the Lord God, He made them all!

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Cairns generally have a hard wire coat when groomed properly - by hand stripping. Once a coat is clippered it will loose the wire texture, some right away some will loose the wiry texture more and more as you clipper regularly. Some dogs with genetically bad coats will have a soft coat, but in my experience the texture is more often altered through clippering the coat.

If you want to maintain the hard coat stripping by hand is the best way. I think anyways.

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Guilty of having 2 soft coated dogs. :whistle:

I have both girls clipped and they have a softer coat than a handstripped Cairn.

I have an excellent groomer who own Cairns and Westies so she knows how to strip, but I've always just had them clipped.

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I have Gem clipped too, I just prefer it.

my last little Cairn Lucy came from a puppy farm and her hair was very soft and tended to wave as it got long. This was more to do with willy nilly breeding. I kept her clipped as she looked better and tidier

Gem has just been clipped in my signature pics.

LUCY

DSCF0982.jpg

DSCF0083.jpgDSCF0076.jpgDSCF0080-1.jpg

It has often been said if you have a Cairn Terrier in your home for a year you will have one for the rest of your life

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I have one that has a softer coat than the other.... one is also thicker than the other.....

Hollie Edelbrock & Brystal Sonoma
Chris, Stacy and Little Noah
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Elliott has never been clipped (other than his "sensitive areas" and belly) but his coat is much softer than Maddy's or even Winnies. I have used the MCK on Elliott along with some hand stripping....same as with Madison.

Winnie was my first Cairn and I didn't know much about her grooming needs 10 years ago so she was always clipped but her coat is extremely full and quite wiry.

I've often wondered about genetics too...

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Brody's coat is much softer than Mia's. Here is a picture of his "blown" coat.

BrodyblownCoat.jpg

And here is a picture of him after I stripped a lot of his coat out. I still have a long way to go. The hair that is still there is really soft.

BrodyStripped.jpg

I also stripped a lot of Mia's dead coat out this weekend (no photo). This was very easy as the hair came right out and it was really easy to see what needed to come out. I won't win any grooming competitions, but I feel good about how she looks.

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Ooh thank you for the pics - they are lovely! You have helped to answer my question. Duncan's mom looks like Duncan and his father - well - he looks like the larger female soft haired cairn. I don't think he had been clippered either. I guess what I am wondering is - could there be two different lines that don't look exactly alike? I read that cairns from the UK are larger. I am also figuring out how to handle Duncan's coat the best way for me - I don't have time right now to hand strip him so I am thinking about getting the MKC. I have been reading about it on some web sites and this forum.......thanks for your help!

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We have just about every grooming tool known to man including the MKC. It does a good job, but not as nice as hand stripping.

As for size, it does seem that Cairns do come in a variety of sizes, I think there are some on this board who weigh over 20 pounds and others who weigh 12. Brody and Mia are right around 15 pounds. Brody is taller than Mia, probably a little taller than a lot of show Cairns. He is really thin whereas Mia is a little chubby.

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Jarret926, the program I spoke of was Breed All About It, when they featured Cairns. We don't have cable, so my Mom taped it for me. I don't know if they re-air programs. You could possibly email Animal Planet and ask them if they will show the program again.

All creatures great and small, the Lord God, He made them all!

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I hand strip and use the MCK on Tucker and Scruffy. Chloe came to me with a soft coat and since she has a strong aversion to baths, I take her to the groomer to get clipped.

There is a little female dog who lives in our neighborhood named Trixie. She looks like a cairn/chihuahua mix, and she loves to accompany us on our walks. She has a wiry coat on the top of her back and shoulders, and I can't stop myself from plucking her really long hairs. They come out quite easily, too. I wonder if her owners ever notice? :whistle:

Thela

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I have Gem clipped too, I just prefer it.

my last little Cairn Lucy came from a puppy farm and her hair was very soft and tended to wave as it got long. This was more to do with willy nilly breeding. I kept her clipped as she looked better and tidier

Gem has just been clipped in my signature pics.

LUCY

DSCF0982.jpg

My Gus looks like your puppy shown here . What color should I register him as ?

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Lucy was a red brindle on her papers. As a small pup she had lots of dark hair too. When she was adult she lost all the dark hair and was light red. This picture was taken just before her 12th birthday, about 2 months before she died. she had got lighter and lighter over the years and was turning quite silvery in parts. If your dog is red at the roots I would say he is a red brindle.

DSCF0083.jpgDSCF0076.jpgDSCF0080-1.jpg

It has often been said if you have a Cairn Terrier in your home for a year you will have one for the rest of your life

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