To clip or not to clip that is the question!

[isla]

Jem was neutered about 8 months ago and as expected her coat has become much more wooly and curly (although she is still beautiful)

She has been handstripped from day one and is due her next doo on Saturday. My groomer Pete is great but the past few times he has mentioned that she is getting harder to strip. She definately has more hair than she used to. I groom handfuls out of her everyday and she is much more prone to matting. He has suggested clipping her but still keeping her coat quite long. I made lots of faces at this but he has assured me she won't be scalped and will look beautiful.

What do you think? To be honest I'm coming round to the idea. I've been getting her stripped every 7 weeks to try and keep on top of it and she is in the groomers for hours as her coat takes ages to dry before it can be stripped. The wee sausage hates being crated and she hates the hairdryer... am I a mean mummy??

[Cob-Web]

If she has been spayed and the groomer advises it, then I think its probably for the best - if he is the kind of groomer who is prepared to handstrip, then it is a fairly good bet that he won't scalp her, and she'll still look like a cocker 

[clairep4]

Both mine are clipped (see this thread http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/discuss/index.php?topic=27587.0 for pics of Zorro who I just did at the weekend). I'd love to have handstripped dogs but Bella's neutered and her coat is thick and woolly since then, lots of matts and is so much easier to deal with if she's clipped. Zorro is being neutered this week so I'm just resigned to having two clipped cockers.

I think if done well it can look nice, and if your groomer knows what a handstripped cocker should look like then I'd imagine he'll probably do a good job, not too short and a bit more natural looking (which is what I've tried to do on Zorro).

It is much easier to look after them grooming-wise if they're clipped, I just give Bella a 5-10 min comb through of her feathering each evening and a soft brush over her back and that's that. Before she was clipped it was taking an age and wearing patience thin on both sides...

I still prefer the look of a lovely handstripped, un-neutered cocker with that lovely silky coat though...