Fur On Back--how Long?

[waisis]

I have promoted myself to groomer after having bad experiences with 3 "professional" groomers:
1) First groomer, shaved all his lovely puppy fur off and gave him columns for legs.  He looked like a lab pup with pants on
2) Second groomer, when I brought in a photo to show her of how I wanted him to look, she said "Oh this picture is of an ENGLISH cocker spaniel and their fur is silky and lies flat, unlike your dog."...this is AFTER I told her Bailey was an English Cocker  ::
3) Third groomer, she ran her clippers up the front of both legs, shaved all his feet and exposed his claws like a poodle.  Comments from my husband included: "What's with the rat dog?", "He's got pantaloons!"  
I should have probably taken pictures, but was too ashamed I let him get butchered like that.

Long story short, I'm a bit confused as to how LONG the fur on his back should be--(can't tell from all the pictures)?  To look like those lovely show dogs, you're only supposed to handstrip his back right?  So, am I right to assume that handstripping only removes the dead hair and not any length and therefore the fur on his back just keeps on growing and growing?  Since Bailey's been clipped a few months ago, the hair on his back is only about 2 inches long and sticking up all over the place.  Any info would be appreciated.

[suki1964]

Those beautiful show dogs have indeed been hand stripped - they look stunning dont they?

Anyway you are right, hand stripping dies just strip the dead hair out leaving the length which is then tidied up with scissors.The legs are also stripped out and thinned using thinning scissors and thinning scissors are used on the chest and rear.

Finding someone who hand strips can be a problem But you can get a very good look using thinning scissors and a coat king Following the coat growth you just comb through with the coat king and it tugs out the dead hair. If you do a search on here you will find loads of tips on using one. Also a elastic band threaded through the teeth of a metal comb will have the same effect.

If you look at the stickys at the top of this forum you will find some great pictures showing the desired look and details of how to achieve it

The more times he gets clipped, the less chance you will have of getting a smooth coat. also if hes been neutered you may have problems as the coat tends to grow really thick and quite curly

Hth

[Penel]

Coat Kings do more than tug out the dead hair don't they - I thought they actually cut the hair ?  

[Cob-Web]

Coat Kings do more than tug out the dead hair don't they - I thought they actually cut the hair ? 

[snapback]144971[/snapback]

A bit, they do have sharp blades, but they tend to pull before they cut - so if they are used sparingly, the cutting is minimal in my experience  

[jools]

coat kings are the fellows...I love mine! My groomer gave me a fab tip. New coat kings can be too sharp and damage the coat. She puts her new ones in a bag with grit to blunten them before she uses them.

[Cob-Web]

coat kings are the fellows...I love mine! My groomer gave me a fab tip. New coat kings can be too sharp and damage the coat. She puts her new ones in a bag with grit to blunten them before she uses them.

[snapback]145129[/snapback]

Thats interesting Jools, cos I have thought for a while that I'm getting a better result now than when I first started using it; I thought it was practice, but maybe the coat king is a bit blunter now than it was then  

[KellyS]

Once the coat has been clipped it usually grows back thick, coarse and sometimes curly which will be very difficult to impossible to handstrip.  I think you have got two choices really either continue to clip or use a coat king and thinners depending on how thick the coat is.

[miche]

I know nothing about grooming.  Mikey has a working cocker coat so a good brush sorts him out as it is less dense but Herbie my new pup will be getting more of a dense coat if his mothers coat is anything to go by.

At what age do you recommend starting to use the coat king?  Herbie's mum was clipped and I don't really want to start clipping due to the reasons mentioned above.