Stripping a puppy

[avlsarah]

Hi all. Brand spankin' new here, so glad to have found this forum!

I will have had my Maxwell now for one week tomorrow. He is an outrageously fun, curious, spunky little ball of energy, amazingly smart, dashingly handsome, and all around perfect. I'm very happy.

I recently received the grooming book from the Cairn Terrier Club of America, but it is very brief on stripping a puppy. From what I can gather, it says I should strip tips of ears and legs of the puppy coat.

My question is, should I do more? Some things I read say do the whole body to let a new adult over coat grow out?

Max is 17 weeks old. I can tell that some hairs are loose and should be stripped, and have taken Max's legs down to the undercoat to grow out. However, the hair on his back and sides is already very wirey and does not look like it needs to be pulled. The area around his chest is a little softer and I have stripped back the longer portions of this as well. I plan to do a little every week or two to keep the coat consistent looking, is there need to do a full strip or will the coat work itself out over the course of a few weeks?

When does the hair begin to truly grow out? The hair around Max's body and face is still very short. The hair around his chest is somewhat longer. I'm hesitant to pull too much as I'm not sure whether this is still puppy coat or new coat?

Also, I've yet to purchase any grooming tools. I have a brush and pair of trimming scissors. Can somebody point me to a good website that outlines the different tools I may need and what they're for, or tell me what you use?

Attached is a picture of my little boy

[kintra]

With puppies, I typically like to pull them all the way down around 10-12 weeks. So, I pull everything down to the undercoat. The parts on his body that are wiry now will turn soft within a few months and already be dead.

Head hair usually takes the longest to grow in...it will come soon enough. I believe the CTCA has a publication that shows how quickly hair grows on each part of a Cairn and what places need to be stripped more than others.

If you'd like to keep a harsh coat on him, after a lot of new growth comes back in (typically 2-3 months), you'll start to roll the coat (only stripping part of the coat every few weeks).

For grooming tools, Cairns are pretty straightforward. For general maitenence grooming, I use a greyhound comb (I find it easier to brush through the coat), a Chris Christianson brush (size 32), a medium Classic stripping knife, a pair of straight shears (for the ears/feet/pads), and a pair of thinning shears (to trim the very tips of the tails). These items can probably be bought at local animal places, dog shows, or websites like Cherrybrook, PetEdge, Revival Animal Health, etc.

[avlsarah]

I suppose I should say, my primary concern is that I may pull too much and end up doing more damage than good.

Is it safe to assume that if a hair willingly comes out, it needs to be stripped? A lot of what I read says I should pull darker hairs, but it is the lighter hairs that appear to be coming out more readily (they are of a thinner, finer consistency; many of the dark hairs are quite thick and wiry).

Also, I don't know that I have the time / energy / patience to strip the whole coat. If I pull out the obviously blown hairs but leave most of the coat, would this cause any problems? The purpose of stripping the full coat is just to help the adult outer coat come in better, but I presume I'll still have a good-looking dog if I just strip blown hairs every week or two?

[bradl]

You are on the right track! Pulling a bit of dead coat every week or two is great. Don't overthink it :-) Pull the hairs that come out easily. A coat is a living thing and it grows and grows over a dog's lifetime.

Don't even worry about pulling too much. It's no different than a haircut for ourselves. A bad haircut isn't going to ruin us for life. Grooming a pet is not a competition, it's not a test. It's not life-or-death and there is no penalty for a goofy groom job that a few months won't sort out. Give it a whirl!

[avlsarah]

I think I've finally got it, as far as the technique goes. I'm perfecting my method - the best seems to be either using a comb or a hand to stand a small row of hairs up and pluck the ones that stand up above the rest. Then move down his body. I'm really blessed to have a little boy who just loves to be groomed. He crawls in my lap and falls asleep (lets hope teeth brushing goes as swimmingly!)

We've sat down a few times in the past and pulled a few stray hairs here and there (okay, a lot), mainly around the belly, sides, neck, legs area. I've even trimmed up his toes. But today I hit the mother load. I've been leaving the hair along the ridge of his back because it was really quite coarse and I wasn't sure what to do with it. After about an hour today, I got out all the blown hair and Maxwell is a soft-furred, new man.

I think that he has very little undercoat along the ridge of his back which makes it different than the rest of his body. His sides and legs are really quite thick. I'm not sure what to do with this in the future. How will it grow in, will an undercoat possibly develop over time?

Also, I understand it takes several months for the adult / outer coat to grow in? Max looks (and always has) like a very short haired dog; even in the month I've had him his hair has not grown out much. He's soon to be 5mo; when does the hair begin to grow out more? What should I be looking for when I'm stripping to be sure not to mess with this? Now that he's been stripped down to his undercoat, should I just leave him to grow out for the next 3-4 months and then tidy up once the hair grows? Once the hair has grown out, how often should I clean him up; say every two weeks? And how often should he be fully stripped?

I'm just so anxious to see what he's going to look like!

[sheila and Misty]

welcome to you and Max- does sound like your doing it correctly. I havent mastered that yet dont think I ever will-someone sent step by step pictures on one of the grooming threads Its under behavior and health called hand stripping!