The hallmark of the Cocker Spaniel is her beautiful coat; however, many owners are not quite prepared for the amount of work entailed in learning how to re-create the rather involved show clip, and in maintaining this luxurious coat between clippings. Even if you decide to have a professional groomer keep your Cocker Spaniel trimmed in one of many different pet clips, you still need to be able to wash, dry, and brush out your dog’s coat.

Depending on the Cocker’s coat type (straight, wavy, or curly), and the amount of hair the Cocker has (dense to sparse), she will require brushing every two or three days to once a week. First use a pin brush and brush in the direction of the Cocker’s hair. Make sure to brush all the way down to the skin, and not just skim the surface. Mats and tangles begin deep, and the only way to find them is to brush to the skin.

Because the ends of the pin brush will be coming in direct contact with the Cocker’s skin, choose a high quality brush. Brushes with the little balls on the end of the bristles tangle and break hairs. The balls also fall off and leave pins with flat edges that can scratch a dog’s skin. Choose a pin brush that has metal pins that have been smoothly filed into a rounded shape on the ends.

A pin brush with wood “pins” is a terrific choice; however, be careful. If you drop this brush on a hard surface, the wood pins break, ruining the brush.

A slicker brush can be used to go over areas that tend to collect pine needles, leaves, twigs, and so on. The tiny metal bristles of a slicker brush will pick out the tiniest debris. Keeping your Cocker’s coat free of grime will go far in preventing mats.

The Dreaded Mat

The areas of Your Cocker Spaniel that are most likely to “grow” mats are in the underarm area, behind her ears (depending on the length of hair in this area), on her ear flaps, underneath on her belly, on her chest, and on her legs.

Obviously, too, some textures of coats are going to be more prone to matting than others. Since Cockers can have a straight, wavy, or curly coat, with some coats harsher and some softer than others, the propensity to mat is going to vary with different types of coats. Seeking out and destroying mats, however, is the same regardless of coat type.

1.    Spray the mat with detangling spray. Many show dog grooming supply websites carry a variety of high-quality products that help hairs to be more elastic and less likely to break during the detangling process. These sprays also also condition hair without making it oily or greasy (which would encourage it to pick up dirt).
2.    Use the broad tooth side of your combination comb. Holding the hairs above the mat (and closest to your Cocker’s skin), begin combing at the base of the mat, gradually picking away and working up the mat. Your goal is to break a big mat into several smaller mats.
3.    Switch to the narrow-tooth side of the comb. Once you’ve broken up the mat, continue breaking it up even more with the closely spaced half or your combination comb.
4.    Finish with a slicker brush. The slicker brush will remove any remaining bits of tangled hair that are too small for the comb to pull through.
5.    Avoid scissors and shedding blades to break up mats. Both scissors and shedding blades have the ability to seriously cut your Cocker’s skin. Additionally, cutting through a mat (to divide it into pieces, instead of using a large-toothed comb to pick and separate it) may be quicker than meticulously picking through a mat, but it causes a massive loss of hair and leaves a thin, ragged area on your Cocker.
6.    Vow to brush your Cocker more. Really bad matting can be avoided with regular brushing. In particular, run a comb through your Cocker’s trouble spots after she’s been out playing in the yard or has gotten her coat wet. And don’t assume that if you let your Cocker Spaniel go without brushing for months that it will be simple to clip off her coat. Mats can form so closely to the skin that they cause infections. Trimming these mats from a Cocker’s coat requires veterinary attention.

Helpful Tip: If your Cocker has mats, do not allow her to get wet and then dry with the mats still present. This will cause the mats to “felt” and pull tighter to the Cocker’s skin. Felted mats can’t be broken up and must be shaved off. However, a felted mat is so close to the Cocker’s skin that it is extremely difficult to clip the mat out of the coat without the dog’s skin pulling up into the clippers and bleeding. Remember, it’s okay to wash a dog with mats only if you are going to pick out every single mat from her coat before she dries.