Some groomers believe that the idea of clipping is to shave so close to the skin that it removes all the hair. It is cruel to do this. Clipping so closely can leave the skin red and grazed. Enough hair should be clipped away to create a clean, tidy appearance. The point of having different-sized blades is to give the groomer the opportunity to predetermine the length of hair to be left. Dark faces can take a closer blade, while white faces can be severely grazed by a very fine blade, leaving horrific scalding which leads to weeping sores.

Clippers are designed to be maneuverable, and it is the job of the groomer to learn the art of twisting the wrist, and stretching and bending themselves to get into different parts, rather than twisting and contorting the dog. I have seen some groomers twisting a dog’s feet in all sorts of directions in order to clip them. This is wrong. The clipper itself, in the groomer’s hand, should be turned up, down, around, wherever, and the dog’s foot should remain as still as possible.

Do be sure not to dig the clipper into the skin, but to run the blade over the top, as flat to the skin as possible. Be sure to tighten all wrinkles or loose flesh as you go, to prevent grazing and to obtain a neat finish.

Apart from when clipping Poodle feet, or unless you are experienced in what you are doing, always run the clipper with the grain of the hair. When attending to the face, you should always clip away from the eye, for safety’s sake. Good clipping is an art. Think of clipping as a caress. It should be done kindly, with consideration, and the finished procedure must give a clean, neat and comfortably appealing appearance.

TYPES OF CLIPPERS

There are several makes of clippers on the market. Some will suit you more than others. I like one made for shearing thick-coated breeds, and another for clipping show Poodles and dogs with more delicate skin. Experience will help you to choose which ones you prefer.

SNAP-ON COMBS

These are plastic extensions that snap onto normal clipping blades to enable the groomer to leave more coat. They can be used on the body and legs to reduce scissoring time. Different sizes are available and are useful for giving puppy-type lengths on coats such as the Poodle, Lhasa Apso, Bichon Frise, Old English Sheepdog and many others.

Apply the attachment (size 1) to a No. 10 Oster, and experiment going with the grain and against the grain. Westies are often clipped with an attachment of a 1 on a No. 4 Oster blade. These are fun to try, but if you are a professional groomer don’t experiment on a client’s dog unless the coat is intended to be cut shorter to finish.

Note: snap-ons in the U.S. will leave the hair as short as a No. 7 blade or as long as three inches, depending on which setting is used. The blades usually used under the snap-on are: No. 50, No. 40, No. 30 or No. 10.

HAND – STRIPPING

This is done before bathing (although some breeders with hand-stripped breeds claim that they do not bathe their show dogs at all).

Show dogs should always be hand-stripped, and some beautiful and elegant breeds, such as the English or Irish Setter, should never be clipped all over their body or it will encourage the hair to curl into a mass and destroy the wonderful slight waviness and sleek, silky appearance of the coat.

The required natural-looking coat, such as that of the Border Terrier, will be ruined by clipping because the softer undercoat takes over from the more coarse topcoat. It is essential to strip out this type of coat by hand twice a year, otherwise the dog develops a shapeless appearance.

The dog will also feel hot, uncomfortable and itchy because the coat is full of dead undercoat. It is much better if the dog is hand-stripped every six to eight weeks. This way, there is less hair loss and the dog remains smart all of the time rather than just twice a year.

Stripping is done less and less in pet grooming salons. The use of thinning scissors and clever clipping has replaced this mode of grooming. It is a shame, and probably brought about by lack of good training and sheer laziness. However, the reluctance of the dog owner to pay for the time required to do a thorough job may also be responsible for hand-stripping’s decline, particularly in the U.S., where most pet dogs are clipped rather than stripped.

HOW TO HAND-STRIP

• Lift a small section at a time, grasp a small
amount of hair between your thumb and
finger, and extract the loose hairs from
each part with a quick, jerking movement.
• Be sure only to take a few hairs out at a time, as pulling large clumps will cause pain and distress.
• Always follow the direction in which the hair grows.
• Keep the skin taut as the hair is stripped out.

THE STRIPPING KNIFE

It is not difficult to learn how to hand-strip, but, because it is time-consuming, many groomers do not have the interest and patience required to undertake this task, and many owners do not want to pay an hourly rate for this work.

Many people find it easier to use a stripping knife, rather than the finger and thumb. The knife used is a blunt one (otherwise, the coat will be cut rather than pulled, so it may as well be clipped). It is advisable to use a serrated-edged knife. With a new knife, run it across a stone to blunt the edge before use.

Note: the knife and hair need to be pulled straight back and not flipped up at the wrist.

COAT GROWTH

Hand-stripped breeds will need attention to their coats from about the age of 3 months, when the coat begins to stand off in a frizz or halo. This fluff can be removed fairly easily by hand, using finger and thumb.

Underneath this frizz there will be a new jacket, which will look tidy and which will last the pup until it is about 7 months old. When the long hair starts to form a natural parting and fall into clumps, the dog is again ready for stripping. The adult coat will be seen around the third or fourth jacket. Unfortunately, many pet owners leave this type of coat until the pup is about a year old and then bring the dog into the grooming salon, which means a lot more work for the groomer, and far more for the dog to endure.

ADULT STRIPS

When hand-stripping is required in the adult dog, it is best done at natural shedding time (i.e., the spring and autumn molt).
Stripping with a blade is probably less tormenting for the dog, but still takes considerable skill, time and patience. Some dogs are most obliging about lying on their sides to be stripped and this does help to  make the task a little easier.

Before stripping the coat, the dog should be thoroughly brushed, and combed with a fine-toothed comb. Start the stripping from the head and work downwards, being careful not to strip out the soft undercoat. This is recognized, as it is a different color/texture to that of the top coat.

After stripping, the knife can be run through the coat to remove the loose undercoat. Scissors or clippers can be used on some breeds to trim close to the hair around the anus, and the feet are scissored to a neat appearance.

DOCKED TAILS

Now that docking dogs tails is banned in some parts of the world, it is essential to look at this area in a different light. The tail also needs to be properly finished in any stripped breeds that are no longer docked, such as the terriers.

Firstly, what breed is it, and how is the outline of the dog supposed to look? Leaving a tail undocked has caused many problems because this is one area where conformation has.oft en been neglected. Consequently the variation in tail carriage is tremendous with tails incorporating everything from a pig-like curl to a full circle, a banana shape, or a Spitz-like version with the tail touching the body or back or the side of the rump.

Covering up tail faults is very difficult for the exhibitor. The general groomer does not have this worry. The best we can do is to make the dog look as neat as possible — and finished. Many a good-looking dog has walked out of the grooming salon with a tail spoiling the whole effect by being too long, or by not being in balance with the rest of the trimming. A short clip and a huge bushy tail do not look right.

Perhaps the hand-stripping of an undocked tail is easier to balance. The section that is stripped can continue right to the end. The show person may prefer to strip more from one section underneath or on top to a desired effect. The groomer of pet dogs can simply continue the trimming with a blunt stripping knife, finger and thumb, clippers or scissors.

Some dogs hate being hand-stripped, especially on their tails. They can get distressed enough to misbehave or even snap. The dog is hand-stripped to retain its natural coat, but how important is this? Certainly not enough to stress the dog unduly. If dogs are distressed because of hand-stripping, it is best not to do this. Often parts of the dog, such as the back, can be hand-stripped while the tail is blended in with thinners or scissors, and maybe even clippers.

ROLLING

Show dogs frequently have their coats “rolled” to enable the exhibitor to keep the dog in tip-top condition all year round. Rolling — a type of hand-stripping — prevents a full molt. A full molt can result in the dog looking quite bald or “out of coat” in comparison, which thereby lessens the chance of the dog winning.

Rolling takes a few hours every 10 to 14 days, and it is much easier to keep the dog looking sharp at all times with this practice. Pet owners should be encouraged to consider the option of rolling, rather than putting the dog through the ordeal of hours and hours on the grooming table because the owner has left the coat for such a long time between trims.

When rolling, the skin is literally rolled between the fingers of one hand, while the other hand picks out the stand-off hairs (i.e., the longer, dead ones). Pet owners can sometimes be encouraged to have their dogs groomed this way on a regular basis, when the breeder has explained this procedure.

Unfortunately for the groomer, breeders often tell pet people only to have the dog’s coat stripped once or twice a year. Reeducating in modern methods is the answer.

CARDING

To perform this, the clipper blade or blunt stripping knife is held in the hand and kept flat. It is used in much the same way as the stripping knife, to card through the coat and remove any thickened top coat. The undercoat, which is essential, can be kept in check by removing the excess with a blunt stripping knife; this process is called “scraping” or “carding” and allows the top coat to lie flat and neat at all times.

THINNING

Thinning shears thin the hair so it lies flat. They are used where the hair needs to be shortened but where it would altered by
using the clippers. For instance, clipping an English Setter down the neck may encourage thick, curly hairs to develop, which is undesirable. Using thinning shears will thin the hair to give a neat appearance, but they must be used correctly.

The shears are worked by taking two to three sections at a time, and combing or brushing out the loosened hairs. The shears must always be worked with the growth of the hair; they must never cut straight across the hair, as this will cause a doorstep effect.