Grooming

[sloggue]

Our beautiful Wheaten Terrier is a hairdressers nightmare!! He is very good at keeping himself clean and grooms himself to get rid of any bits and bobs he collects when he's been out for a forage in the hedgerows! However, in doing this he gets liitle matted bits of fur which he then chews at making them 10 times worse. We brush / comb him daily which he tolerates quite well but understandably he's not too keen when we try to brush out his dreadlocks! We use a slicker brush mostly. He is a single coated non-shedding breed and we don't really want to have him shorn as wheaten terriers are famous for their lovely thick, long coats. Any suggestions before we book into the pooch parlour for a short back and sides!?

[lankeela]

One question - why get a dog with a coat like this if you cannot be bothered to keep it groomed? The breed standard tells you how the coat should be and asks that it should not be over trimmed or stylised.

Surely you knew what you were taking on? Sorry if this sounds harsh, but whats the point in having a dog with a beautiful coat if you don't appreciate it?

I suggest you go back to his breeder and ask for advice on keeping the coat in correct condition.

This also goes for Old English Sheepdogs and Lhasa Apsos. They turn into right ugly so and so's if they are shorn.

[Vics]

Hey Sloggue - I know how you feel - I have just this minute finished grooming Dodger (a wheaten cross) for a whole HOUR !! His fur seems to get very matted around his head and neck and especially near to the skin where the soft fur is growing out.. Is a slicker brush the one like a mini rake?? I couldn't get on with that - Instead I use a cat like brush - with spikes that have soft ball ends on for his general grooming. This seems to work well BUT to get the actual tugs out I have to use a fine metal comb just holding onto the base of the fur and gradually working away!!

Good Luck. Vics X

[sloggue]

Thank you for your helpful advice Vics. I must just ask you lankeela if you actually bothered to read my question properly before replying? I am well aware of the demands of owning such a breed and, as I stated in my posting, spend a great deal of time grooming him. He is brushed out on a daily basis so your remark about not being bothered is extremely hurtful....I posted this question for advice, not out and out criticism. .He is not a show dog but an adored family pet and I want him to be comfortable as well as looking pretty.....beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all.

[shaneystar2]

I don't have a wheaten terrier ,although he sounds lovely,but a great buffoon of a cross breed GS/lab.He has a very thick double coat and although he goes to the groomers regularly I still have to tidy him up between visits.I use a thing which is like a flat piece of steel ,curved into a loop on a handle which has very fine teeth which gets all the dirt and loose hair and knotty bitsout of his coat.I cannot for the life of me remember what it is called but I bought it at Wyevales in their pets department .I find it goes through his coat better than the slicker brushes.

[Tammera]

i know this is probably really unhelpful but it may be helpful. i have a short hair cats that has only a few teeth therefore dribbles more, now and then due to the excess saliva she tends to get matts on her back where she dont reach verywell so leaves alot of saliva. i tried a number of combs and brushes, the softer ones didnt budge the matts and the tougher ones tended to pull her fir, i spoke to the shop the recommended me the slicker brush and it pulls out the matts without pulling her fir/skin. im wondering whether it would help persisting with the slicker one as if the dog has long hair you may not realise how much others tug at the fir. apparently you can get slicker mitts they look good and maybe if you sit or stand there looking like your just stroking him he will not get as upset. hope this was useful but not sure it was.

[drgnrdr]

I have never owned a dog that needed to go to the groomers for haircuts, but owned allot of GSD's. I love the Zoom Groom, made by Kong, it is great I can use it in the bath and for brushing the double coat of my dog.

I got a de-matting blade, for those times when she gets into tree sap or such that sticks to her fur, and won't brush out well. It is a great tool to have when you try to cut out a mat of fur, you need to be careful because if you pull up on the hair and the skin comes with it, when you cut it out you can get a nick of skin.

If I was you I would go to the groomers and get them all squared away, it's only hair and will grow back.

Since they aren't for show just a pet, if you are embarrassed how they look( after cut) when you take them for a walk, then get a paper bag.....put it over your head for your embarrassment, the dog doesn't care what they look like...LOL

[gucciman]

we've got a beautiful pure white fluffy samoyed who has a nasty habit of diving straight into the mud in our local park. samoyeds are not meant to have their fur cut (i.e all off in the dpg parlour) so we keep her as clean as we can with baths and brushing. she gets small matts of fur behind her neck so we just nip them off with some scissors, her coats so thick you cannot see where they have been cut.

[I_love_Ken]

We had a family pet named toby, and he was a single coated just the same, acted just the same, and we just left it, carried on washing him the same, grooming him the same every morning, it takes ages, you really do put in a lot of hard work, but it always came out at the end of the day when his fur was in knots, we never took our toby to the hairdressers, and we never managed to spot until it was too late that he was getting raw patches on his bum and legs, wherever it was that he licked himself, we took him to the vets, and found out that he had licked himself raw, he had red spots with no fur, it was awful, he had to wear a head cone for a few weeks until it cured with meant he was constantly throwing his head back towards the back end so that he could lick it, and he would catch himself on the raw spots, and yelp
its awful, please get him checked in at the hairdressers, they might be able to tell you if some thing might start up

[sloggue]

Wow! Didn't realize that there were so many other knotty dogs out there! Going to book him in for a professional groom but in the meantime thanks for the handy tips. Cheers guys! X