Schnauzer grooming...hand stripping?

[SaraGeorge]

We have 5 months old black wiry coat standard schnauzer. We like to give her the first schnauzer cut but we were told to go for the hand stripping grooming to keep the wiry coat. I love the scruffy look on my dog right now but one day we need to give her the schnauzer cut.

I am not if my dog will come as a bald dog after hand stripping...or can I keep her as scruffy as she is right now? I do love the perfect schnauzer cut but she looks pretty cute with shaggy look right now.

Anyone with hand stripping experience?


SaraGeorge

[gomez]

Hi SaraGeorge

Gomez gets nand stripped as a rule, never clipped - he just got done, actually - see this thread: http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=41923

With the wiry coats, if you clip them instead of stripping, they get ruined - they lose they waterproof-ness and they become soft and wavy, it wont protect them and leaves them vulnerable to cold and wet. Plus, it looks really funny...

The shaggy puppy look is cute, but eventually, his full coat will come in and "blow" which means it will separate and become very shaggy and uncomfortable for him, as well as dirty and smelly and he won't be shaggy like you see him now.

You can see in this picture how bad it can get:

Can you see how the hair separates? this picture was taken just after a brushing too!

I wouldn't go and do a full strip right now anyway, but take him to a groomer that does hand stripping (only) and have them do a bit of light stripping to get him used to the process - Gomez had his first full strip at 1.5 years.

If in doubt, ask your breeder who may do the stripping as well.

Usually strippping is done twice a year to get rid of the old coat and bring out the new and yes, for a few weeks they look liek puppies again, but it soon grows in nicely.

[SaraGeorge]

Thank you sooo much for the great information with photos Gomez!
and what a cute puppy you have

Now I feel good to take Sara in for stripping.


SaraGeorge