Tuesday
Jun092009
Hand Stripping the Wire or Broken Coated Dog
June 9, 2009 | by Border Joy! Here's a great explaination ==> Hand Stripping
Here's a little of what you'll see on their page:
Q - I am the owner of a Border Terrier, a wire coated breed. The grooming shop asked me if I wanted her hand stripped or just cut. I said "just cut" because I was too embarrassed to ask my question, WHAT IS IT WHEN A DOG IS HAND STRIPPED?
- The dead hair is pulled out, instead of cutting the hair with clippers, so a new wire can coat grow in.
Q - Ouch. Doesn't pulling the hair hurt?
- No. It does not hurt, they may not like it, but it is not painful when done properly. Wire hair is not attached like our own hair or breeds with other types of coats. Many of my terriers like it.
Unlike some purists I do clip my dogs tender spots, like bellies, instead of stripping, even on my show dogs.
Q - Which, between clipping and handstripping, will keep the coat wiry?
- Stripping maintains a properwire coat, while clipping makes it soft and ruins the texture. It grows thicker and soft and often the color will change.Black coat will turn silvery for instance.
Reader Comments (5)
I found hand stripping to be surprisingly easy. Zoe is not fazed by it a bit, the hair comes right out easily and it does not appear to hurt her in any way. She sometimes gets annoyed that she has sit around while I do it but I give her a chewy and she is happy. I'm still learning and I can't wait for us to get some videos on YouTube to demonstrate it and take all the mystery out of it.
One more quick thing ... I've read about something called "rolling" the coat. The article said this is basically not waiting until they grow a full coat and then "hand stripping" the coat, but pulling or plucking out the long hair all through the year. This is what I've been doing and it's going well. Every week or two I'm pulling out the long/dead hair and basically not letting her get fully shaggy!
I'm a Border Terrier person! I've been looking into the whole hand-stripping thing and wondered how many find (or believe) it's not actually necessary.
Good luck with the blog -- looks excellent!
We have a BT in England. It gets quite cold in the winter and occasionally snows, so we don't roll (as tempting as it is) and let her get her full coat for warmth then strip once the scruff blows (forms a part, like our hair). This allows her to keep cool in winter.
Don't trim unless absolutely necessary as it ruins their fur.
Sorry, meant "keep cool in summer"!! LOL