Grooming Dogs: Hand-stripping Terrier Coats, Not Everyone Knows How
The process of hand-stripping a terrier coat is not difficult to describe; it is difficut to do well.
The process: the groomer plucks the terrier's hair by grasping the end of a few hairs and pulling. Plucking is accomplished with fingers or with use of a pumice stone and/or a variety of striping knives. The entire coat is plucked.
The difficulty comes in knowing which hairs to pluck, how much to pluck and the timing of each grooming session.
Hand-striping a terrier coat is almost a lost art. Yes, there are some pet grooming shops that SAY they can hand-strip a terrier coat. But most pet groomers have only read instructions from a general manual; they do not know how to do it. Period.
Let me illustrate it this way: I have read in the Singer Sewing Machine manual how to make a buttonhole. It does not sound hard. But YOU try to do it and then charge people for the service.
I strongly believe that a groomer must apprentice for at least a year under a person who has prepared terrier coats for the show ring. Only that level of intense commitment and that level of intense competition will produce a groomer who can hand-strip coats for the pet population.
Establishing a stripped coat on a pet is not as assiduous a grooming task as getting a show dog prepared for competition. But the groomer must have a deep and thorough understanding of terrier coats that comes only with practice and competition to modify the grooming procedure and give good value to the owners of beautiful pet terriers.
1. The groomer must know which hairs to pluck. This is a edgy and humorous way of saying that the groomer must know the professional grooming standard of each terrier breed. Most grooming instructors will teach general patterns and terriers groomed to general patterns will look like a general all-purpose dog. Maybe a Scottie will look like a Schnauzer or a Westie will look like a Bichon.
2. The groomer must know how much to pluck. Stripping out a coat requires knowledge of how the stripped coat will grow back. The undercoat looks different and reacts differently than the hard guard hairs of the outercoat. How a coat looks when it is coming off tells the experienced groomer what must be removed now and what must stay on to be removed during next grooming session. This knowledge takes time and practice and expert training to develope.
3. The groomer must know when to pluck the coat. Timing is everything. When a hair is plucked, the regrowth is from the follicle. Guard hairs often grow first and undercoat fills in second. The coat must be plucked on time to achieve the balance of a hard wire outer jacket and a not-too-thin undercoat. This is achieved through timing. Timing is everything.
And here's a quick answer to pet owners of terriers: No, plucking ir hand-stripping does not hurt the dog. Terriers have different hair follicles than we do. Plucking (striping the coat) removes the dead hair and undercoat and leaves the skin ready to grow a new and healthy coat.
I work in Denver and if you need a terrier handstripped, call me at 303.638.6555
There are only four groomers in Denver who know how to lay down a hand-stripped terrier coat on a beautiful pet terrier.
The process: the groomer plucks the terrier's hair by grasping the end of a few hairs and pulling. Plucking is accomplished with fingers or with use of a pumice stone and/or a variety of striping knives. The entire coat is plucked.
The difficulty comes in knowing which hairs to pluck, how much to pluck and the timing of each grooming session.
Hand-striping a terrier coat is almost a lost art. Yes, there are some pet grooming shops that SAY they can hand-strip a terrier coat. But most pet groomers have only read instructions from a general manual; they do not know how to do it. Period.
Let me illustrate it this way: I have read in the Singer Sewing Machine manual how to make a buttonhole. It does not sound hard. But YOU try to do it and then charge people for the service.
I strongly believe that a groomer must apprentice for at least a year under a person who has prepared terrier coats for the show ring. Only that level of intense commitment and that level of intense competition will produce a groomer who can hand-strip coats for the pet population.
Establishing a stripped coat on a pet is not as assiduous a grooming task as getting a show dog prepared for competition. But the groomer must have a deep and thorough understanding of terrier coats that comes only with practice and competition to modify the grooming procedure and give good value to the owners of beautiful pet terriers.
1. The groomer must know which hairs to pluck. This is a edgy and humorous way of saying that the groomer must know the professional grooming standard of each terrier breed. Most grooming instructors will teach general patterns and terriers groomed to general patterns will look like a general all-purpose dog. Maybe a Scottie will look like a Schnauzer or a Westie will look like a Bichon.
2. The groomer must know how much to pluck. Stripping out a coat requires knowledge of how the stripped coat will grow back. The undercoat looks different and reacts differently than the hard guard hairs of the outercoat. How a coat looks when it is coming off tells the experienced groomer what must be removed now and what must stay on to be removed during next grooming session. This knowledge takes time and practice and expert training to develope.
3. The groomer must know when to pluck the coat. Timing is everything. When a hair is plucked, the regrowth is from the follicle. Guard hairs often grow first and undercoat fills in second. The coat must be plucked on time to achieve the balance of a hard wire outer jacket and a not-too-thin undercoat. This is achieved through timing. Timing is everything.
And here's a quick answer to pet owners of terriers: No, plucking ir hand-stripping does not hurt the dog. Terriers have different hair follicles than we do. Plucking (striping the coat) removes the dead hair and undercoat and leaves the skin ready to grow a new and healthy coat.
I work in Denver and if you need a terrier handstripped, call me at 303.638.6555
There are only four groomers in Denver who know how to lay down a hand-stripped terrier coat on a beautiful pet terrier.
posted by PajamaGirl at
9:30 AM
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