There are various ways of stripping a dog. Some breeds are hand-stripped, some are stripped with a knife; others are rolled, thinned with thinning shears, or scissored, clipped, or both. Using clippers on some types of coats ruins the natural growth of the hair, and the dog may become very woolly. For the pet dog, this may not matter, and it certainly saves time for the groomer and is less expensive for the owner.
Hand-stripping a large dog may take several hours, but to clip the same amount of hair from the dog would take about five to ten minutes! Therefore, clipping might be the better option in some cases.
The groomer and the dog’s owner must decide what is the best for all concerned in advance. Among the issues to consider are the stress factor, the time available, the grooming expenses involved and whether or not the dog is to be shown.
For the professional groomer, it is essential to know if a dog of any breed is likely to be shown in the conformation ring before putting clippers anywhere near it.
Certainly, most pet owners have absolutely no intention of showing their dogs, and they don’t care two hoots for the intricate details of finger and thumb plucking, or knife-stripping, and so on — they just want their dogs to look as smart as possible and to smell lovely.
Show Dogs
Those wishing to show their dogs at top level will certainly learn the skill of presenting each breed to its own breed standard, and this includes understanding that many of the different breeds of terrier have slightly different shapes – such as eyebrows, beard, whiskers, and so on. Lots of people call Scotties black Westies. But you will soon discover that they have completely differently shaped heads.
Terriers
Once upon a time, terriers were trimmed once a year or every six months. Nowadays, it is much more respected to keep all terriers looking smart at all times and they are trimmed regularly every six to eight weeks, and even more frequently when they are being shown.
Attention should be paid to the coat on a weekly — and sometimes even daily — basis, for the best-looking guys always get the prizes.
As with all terrier breeds, read the breed standard to be sure that any trimming does not fall into the category of disobeying your national kennel club rules where show dogs are concerned.
List of Stripped Breeds:
- West Highland White Terrier
- Airedale Terrier
- Brussels Griffon
- Cairn Terrier
- Dandie Dinmont Terrier
- Fox Terrier (Wire and Smooth)
- Irish Terrier
- Lakeland Terrier
- Norfolk Terrier
- Norwich Terrier
- Parson Russel Terrier
- Schnauzer (Miniature, Standard and Giant)
- Scottish Terrier
- Sealyham Terrier
- Welsh Terrier