Annoying cotton wool type fur!

[Becky and Wilson]

Isla's coat is really annoying me at the moment!  I love having her look like a proper cocker with feathers etc but after EVERY walk she comes back with half a tree stuck in her fur.  I hardly ever find anything stuck in Paisleys fur this time of year!  The groomer said Isla had cotton wool type fur because she is a light blue roan and all cockers of this colour have fur like it!

The thing is, the bits get so entwined in her coat that unless I spend hours working on her (with her quivering as she doesn't like it at all!) I end up having to snip the bits out!  Her tummy has hardly any feathers on now! Although you can only tell when she's on her back!

So I have decided to take them out for all their walks now (as all their walks are through the woods/fields) with their waterproof overalls on!  Not to keeps them clean/dry but to keep the twigs etc off of Isla!

However....this is not perfect, her overalls rub around her ankles and now she has mats around each foot where her coat has been rubbing!

I can't win!  Does anyone else have this problem?!  I don't know what to do for the best!

Becky & matted Isla! 

[johndoran]

The only thing I can think of is a coat that just covers the body or one adapted to suit. I have the same problem with Bonnie,she brings back half a tree in her tail and leg feathers and much as though she likes me grooming her it takes ages to clean her and she's mouthing me all the time.

[Hurtwood Dogs]

Yep! Dave is a dark blue but still a total wool ball and where we walk is full of gorse, brambles, twigs, bracken you name he picks it up To be honest, his coat coupled with the fact he's a bit of a low level cocker (polite speak for vertically challenged) means I've now given up and he has his feathers cut off. Last Autumn, he actually ground to a halt with brambles wound around his legs and belly and there was another incident with a thorn in his armpit that I missed causing him a nasty infection (he sort of shuts down when he's ill so it was quite scary) and I just decided enough was enough... he has a 'practical' coat now and he has a great time on walks and I don't spend half my time trying to untangle him!

Alternatively you could just pop her on a saddle on Wilson and that should keep her safe from the twigs!  

[Jeanette]

Indie is now cotton wool on all her tan areas, you can't even get a comb through it becauses its just fluff - its actually getting worse and worse on her neck and legs and its virtually white now instead of the tan its supposed to be - I guess thats the result of her being spayed and she is now clipped fairly short.   

The black hair on her is fine though and a completely different texture  

[Nicola]

Tilly's liver coat isn't as long as your average show type Cocker's but it still has the texture of cotton wool crossed with velcro and absolutely everything sticks to it. I think we're lucky in a way in that her feathering is more normal textured than her body coat but it still seems to attract everything from burrs to twigs, thorns, leaves, brambles etc. I get her clipped but I get her done 'Cocker style' so she still has her long ears and feathering on her chest, belly and legs. What has made a bit of a difference though is asking them to thin out the tops of her ears and her leg feathering and then to completely clip out her armpits and the middle of her belly but leave it longer on the sides so it still looks like she has feathering, it's a bit of a trick as you can only really tell her belly's been clipped when she rolls over. I do still have to attack her with the scissors pretty often to cut out small matts and tangled bits but having her armpits and belly clipped off makes a big difference.

[MaggieR]

Maggie is exactly the same and I finally gave up last November and had her coat trimmed right back and feathers off completely. I was spending an hour a night untangling stuff from her legs and tummy... and even then once they were out they would matt up.  She was great bless her and would just roll over and go to sleep while I pulled her about   but it just wasnt fair. Even with her coat on she would end up with matts in the time we were out underwhere the joins between top and bottom were... Now its much more manageable and post-walking cleanup is a much quicker, enjoyable exercise....  (and since they shaved off her front legs/chest, shoulders and front of tummy for her elbow op I'm so pleased I did it - she would've looked even odder than she does now!)

[sharonmansfield]

Bella is a solid black and her coat is the cotton wool type you describe, everything gets entwined in it and forms a knot and like you I have to snip it out. She is full of twigs from yesterdays walk as she was wandering in the undergrowth.
Jasmine my dark blue roan has silky fur and twigs seem to just slide out of it she is very low maintenance in comparison.

[phoenix]

another black furball here. After all the snowballs gued to him, I have now had a groomer turn him into a shiny little labrador with her clippers. He ha still got some leg feathers at the edges, but had most of his belly and thighs shaved to get the matts off. He still looks terrific and has hairy ears and is dry in 30 minutes.

[Becky and Wilson]

Someone was meant to come up with a magic cure for "no more twigs and mats"!  Looks like the only cure is to shave her off! 

I'll try to put up with it for as long as I can.  Both of them have been spayed last year and with Isla's coat the way it is already I think it won't be long before the effects of the spay affect her coat and make it even worse!

Hopefully I'll be ok with Paisley, she's like Sharon's Jasmine, silky fur that everything seems to just slide off of!  It's great!

But obviously me thinking the solids all must have coats like that was wrong from what some of you have said!

[supergirl]

We have a similar problem here with Roly's coat.  The white bits of his coat are very silky and soft and the liver bits very wooly.  I was hoping that as he was an unneutered dog that he would have a lovely flowing coat.  But the white bits seem to attract every bramble and there are some seed heads around at the moment that stick like mad to him.  After one walk I thought I was going to have to clip his ears as they were so matted with these seed heads and his tail ended up stuck to his side

So in the end he was clipped just before Christmas leaving just his feathers, ears and tail. He's never grown any real skirts so that hasn't been a problem.  Can't say I'm a fan of his new look, but its definitely easier to care for.

Lexi on the other hand is a joy, just a quick brush over and she's done and nothing seems to stick to her.

[heatherAnn]

Yes, Holly is the same with her cotton wool fur.   
Don't think there is much you can do. It happened
after we got her spayed.  We were so disappointed as she had a lovely coat.
We have now given in, and she is cut really short and has
I think its called 'tunnelling' on her tummy so she is easy to
dry and it doesn't go knotty. 

It is worse in the summer when the 'sticky willies' are about, we can pick
loads off her every day.

The main thing is that they can enjoy themselves when out and it isn't
causing us/them too much misery trying to get out all the knots.

[sportsmonki]

You could try taking the feathering short, rather than having it all clipped off?  That's what I do for Storm over the winter.  She still gets twigs caught, but not as many or as often and also her hair doesnt carry quite as much water.  You could also try thinning her hair a bit if she has a very heavy coat?

Hope you find a good compromise!

[heatherAnn]

I know this may sound stupid. How do I thin her coat, especially her legs, the fur is really thick and I know thinning scissors
wouldn't do it. ?