Grooming problem

[Scetwee]

hi all,

i am ashamed to admit it but i neglected the grooming for about a month! now my boy is all matted up and i am spending forever trying to comb it all out! plus he needs a bath but i cant bath him matted as it makes them worse, so i am stuck with my smelly knotted beardie :(

a warning to you all to keep up your grooming routines!

alice

[Lorraine]

TRY KELKO DE MATT SPRAY, RECOMMENDED TO ME BY MY LOCAL BREEDER. THIS IS A REALLY GOOD PRODUCT.

[cj]

The Crazy Dog Grooming Spray, used with a rotating teeth comb should sort out the problem - great for teasing matts out without too much anguish.

[kirsty]

i would surgest getten him cut i have mine cut short all the time and he loves it. if he/she does have realy long hair tho they will look mega diffrent but atleast all the matts are gone and you can get bac on top of it.

[Scetwee]

hi everyone, thanks for all your comments. sadly i have decided to cut him short :( its just gone too far to the extent where i cannot get it back. kirsty if you look at my photos you will see George was shaved for many years and has only had long hair for two. so it wont be a shock just sad. he is ten this month anyway so will no doubt appreciate having less hair to carry around!

[Susanne Lindberg]

Okey - your problem is solved with the scissors. But to your question about if you could bath him or not - YES you can bath a knotted, tangled and terrible coat. BUT (really, really important) then you must use alot of conditioner on the worst matted areas, and make sure to set off time to acctually groom/comb him(her) about 12 hours after the bath (preferably when he/she is still a little damp/moist).

But a bath and then 2-3 days of waiting is definately NOT a good idea - then she scissor is probably your only way out.

A tip when it's been way to long time since the last groom, and you feel it is impossible to get through the coat ever again: set small goals for yourself.
Decide to take only ONE leg, just the front chest, only the head, or maybe just one side of the neck each day for a week. Or just set aside half an hour or an hour every single night (perhaps infront of the news on the telly?) and just DO it like Nike says.
So what if it takes you a week - or two. You WILL get there in the end. And even if the coat doesn't look it's best after such an ordeal - after a good bath, and a thorough groom after that - you have a clean, wellgroomed beardie that you can manage.


Susanne

[Scetwee]

hi, so..I cut off his hair on Thursday :( I have brought my clippers over to shave him now so it is all one length. Some of the mats are pretty tight and quite close to the skin so I'm not sure exactly how short it will end up. So far his hair is around two inches long but it will probably be half that. He looks very cute like a puppy.

Question for you though: what do I do with his tail? I havent cut it as it was not matted, but he looks like a squirrel. Don't want to shave it really, so I was thinking cut it to two/three inches?

Thanks, Alice

[Suzanne Morrison]

Hi Alice,

As a groomer I usually hold all the tail hair at the tip of the bone run my hand an inch or two further down (away from the bone!) and then cut. I then hold the tail out and let the hair fall in a fan - cutting so it looks tidy.

Suzanne

[Susanne Lindberg]

I've tried a couple of ideas with the tails - cutting off the coat on the inner half, or just leaving the tip longhaired, but the nicest looking is keeping it the same lenght as the hair on the body. So if I use the clipper on the body, I use the same blade on the tail.
At the head I trim off everything, except that I always leave a schnauzerbeard and eyebrows - so they don't look too "foreign". But a clean cut is of course the easiest (and quickest) way to do it.

Have fun - there is no "standard" how to do this, so why not try out different hairstyles since you are clipping anyway!?

Susanne

[Scetwee]

hey thanks to you both for the ides. Suzanne M. I am afraid I dont quite understand the fan idea... he is off to the groomers next tuesday for a shave. he would not let me shave him at home so i gave up. anyway i will ask her to trim the tail (hair) a bit i think. it must be four of five inches long so i thought i would ask her to half it...

thanks again, Alice