Cocker Specific Discussion > Grooming
Bad Hair Day
Fran:
Hi all,
What's going on with Suzie's hair!? Her body coat is quite short but the hair on top of her head has gone completely mad. It's a mop of shiney curls! Not knowing anything about grooming is there any specific way I should trim/cut her hair before I have to put it in pony tails :D
Michele:
Hi Fran,
Suzie is growing a top knot and you can deal with it in a number of ways.
You can either hand strip it out. This will give the smoothest finish but does take time. Lift a small tuft and with first finger and thumb gently pluck the hair out. If it is ready to give it will come out fairly easily. Between plucking, brush the head and then you can see if you have done enough or if there is there more left to come out. Its very easy to keep going at one area and end up with a bald spot, so be careful.
Second way is with thinning scissors. Lift the tufts and go in from the back with the blades pointing towards her nose. Only a couple of snips at a time or again you'll get a bald patch. Brush it through and see if it looks smooth enough. If not repeat until it is.
This gives a fairly similar result to hand stripping but it won't last as long or grow back as smoothly.
Third way is to use clippers. It is by far the quickest but it won't give the softer, smooth finish that the other two ways will.
HTH :D
Michele
charlie:
Hi Fran,
I glad its not just me, I was becoming paranoid. In my town we have 6 cockers locally and they all have lovely flat heads. Unlike Tilli, she has a toupe like mop on the top of her head. When it get wet it just like a fuzz ball(quite cute really).
I wonder if Michele could help me??? ???
???At what age they are ready for their first proffessional groom and when are they old enough to hand strip? Tilli is 6 1/2 months and I cannot get any hair out. Her body coat is still quite short she is a blue roan. ;D ;D ;D
Mike:
I had similar problems! I got loads of help and advice from this thread:
http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/forum/viewtopic . php?t=71
I think I had to wait until Daisy (also blue roan) was about 7.5 months before her puppy fur started to give - up until then she was like a little puffball, complete with the ringlets on top :D I have ended up not hand stripping my dog, but using mostly the coat king (this tool is explained in the thread above), spratts 76 comb and thinning scissors - but this may not be suitable if you're intending on showing you dog, whereas mine is only a family pet.
Our resident grooming experts (Michele, Jane and Pammy) will undoubtedly offer much more detailed advice, but I hope this helps ;)
Michele:
--- Quote from: charlie on November 21, 2002, 07:36:21 PM ---I wonder if Michele could help me??? ???
???At what age they are ready for their first proffessional groom and when are they old enough to hand strip? Tilli is 6 1/2 months and I cannot get any hair out. Her body coat is still quite short she is a blue roan. ;D ;D ;D
--- End quote ---
Hi Charlie,
6.5 months is still very young for the coat to start to give, but as Mike said unless you are going to show her then there's no reason why you can't use either thinning scissors or a coat king for that matter.
For all puppies though I would suggest that you go through the grooming process with them now even if they don't have hardly any coat as this will get them used to being routinely handled. I did this with Otis (he's as solid as a rock now ;D) & I'm sure Jane does it with her pups too. A show dog has to stand for a lot longer than a pet one whilst being prepared for a show, and this can be over a number of days too.
hth
Michele & a still very hairy Otis :-
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