Mars Coat King. How much is too much?

[tritonx]

I've posted a couple of times after taking Fraser in for grooming, more or less wailing because he looked so shorn. This is what he looked like after a groom. http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/discuss/index.php?topic=70376.msg1036971#msg1036971 So, I've decided to try to do him myself and, of course, being a beginner, he's looking a bit raggedy as I've cut away little knots in his coat and tried to even up his feathers as much as possible. I use coat king on his back and sides. What I'm wondering is how much I can take off. Can it be taken down far enough that the roaning shows? From his professionally groomed and clippered back, you can see what his roaning looks like when the hair is short enough. When his hair grows out, the gray disappears and he looks black. I'm afraid to go over the back too much in case I take off coat he needs to stay warm. The black hair has a fine, fluffy texture and long, stiff white hairs stick out from underneath it (not much, but enough to look like errant bristles).

ETA: crickets. No one use Coat King?

[Ali R]

Over the past couple of years I have groomed Uliss myself, she is black with a little white on her chest. I think it takes quite a few times to get the desired effect you are after. I try and follow the diagram which is in the grooming section but it really is up to you and I think you have to accept to begin with that it may not go according to plan!! However it always grows back and every time you have a 'go' you remember a little bit more and build on your experience. Just give it a go and take it slowly, take a little more off each day until you get the right 'look' and don't panic if it goes wrong! 'Trial and error' as my mother would say!!!

[tritonx]

It certainly is trial and error. Mostly it seems to be all about keeping up to the knots he develops daily as he's wet twice a day in the rainy season that's started here. With the coat king, I'm mostly afraid if I try to strip the black fluff down to the roan, I might be balding him as the coat king seems to be thinning the hair more than shortening it. Maybe his roaning will never show unless I clip him. Still, I prefer the look he has now than the short clipped look.