Before getting into the hand stripping techniques, you have to make sure that your puppy is already introduced to the “Meet and Treat ” during the socialization period prior to fourteen weeks. The “Meet and Treat” should be arranged as early as possible for a puppy that’s going to need to be groomed on a regular basis.

Working from the base of the neck through the withers, to the base of the tail is the easy part, so that’s where we’ll start our shaping plan. Have plenty of tiny, soft high-value treats on hand for your hand stripping session.

1. Pet, palpate and brush the dog all over (something that families should also do on a daily basis). Click and treat for calm behavior. While doing this, note and learn to identify the difference between the hard outer coat and the undercoat.
2. Learn to isolate (not pull) just one hair on the topcoat.
Practice to see if you can do that all over the back, being sure to click and treat for any calm behavior. At this stage, we are just touching the hair, isolating it, and clicking/treating for calm/relaxed behavior. We are not yet doing any pulling.
3. Once you are able to isolate the hair, and the dog is able to remain calm, the next step would be to go from the back of the head down the neck again, isolating just one hair at a time. Remember to click and treat for calm behavior.
4. Once the dog is comfortable with being handled, and relaxed while having his hair tugged all over, continue working on this practice daily until you notice that the hair is starting to actually come out. Reminder: Be careful to make sure that you can see the little white root at the end of the hair.
5. The next step is to grab two hairs (and for the following step, you will grab three hairs), all the while clicking and treating for calm behavior. As you are doing this, be sure to note in which direction the hair is growing, as hair grows in many different directions. This is important since, when you ultimately pull, you want to pull in the direction that the hair is growing.
6. The groomer is working on her skills while also desensitizing the dog to remaining in a still, standing position and while allowing tugging all over his coat. Remember, it will be so much easier once the animal is accustomed to the standing/pulling, and the groomer has developed the skill to be able to quickly pull just a few hairs out at a time.
7. Finally, take the time to help the dog to feel comfortable. Please don’t try to do it all in one sitting. Take breaks, and even divide the work up into more than one session when necessary.

Next, try to experiment with the back legs, the tail, the front paws, and the chest. The ears, the belly, and the area around the rectum are all very sensitive areas, so it’s very important not only to isolate the hairs by hand, but also to shape the dog to stand still so you can pluck them out individually.

When actually pulling the hair out, be sure to use the hand not involved in pulling to stretch the skin in the opposite direction; in this way, the hair will come out easily. Once more, the rationale for using your fingers, and only plucking a few strands at a time, especially in those extra-sensitive areas, is that it is the best way to help desensitize the dog gradually to the process.

An important point to remember here is that you want to pull the hair out so that you are able to see the little white root at the end. This criterion is key in making sure you don’t cut the hair. Using your hands and sometimes the use of chalk can be helpful, along with rubber thumbs. Other tools include volcanic rock or pumice stone, and rubber fingertips to grasp the hair.

Learning to strip using these alternative tools has advantages over using stripping knives. Stripping knives are very useful if you know how to use them, but using them incorrectly can result in permanent damage to the dog’s coat. The danger lies in ripping out the hair and inadvertently cutting it.

Rather, the hair should be carefully braced up against the flat part of the knife which then gives you leverage to pull. The worst thing that you can do is cut through the hair; should that occur, the hair will not grow back the same way.

Additionally, you want to take care not to destroy the character of the wiry coat by cutting or pulling too much hair out at a time. To repeat—inadvertently cutting the hair risks ruining the coat!

To get started, we recommend rolling the coat at the beginning of this process. This is defined as only pulling out the hair that is ready to come out. This will also translate to more frequent and shorter grooming visits. If you start with a puppy, and set aside a few minutes at different times of the day for the pup to come in and just have his hair lightly combed and pulled all over, this will slowly begin the desensitization process.

You will again find that some parts of the body are much more sensitive than others. For example, the hair between the eyes at the point where the nose and the top meet is a highly sensitive spot. You will find the same level of increased sensitivity around the rectum, the genitals, the ears, the flanks, and the belly, so you will want to spend a bit more time and take things a little more slowly in these areas.

Oftentimes, you will find groomers “faking” these spots (using a thinning shears); however, it is possible to desensitize to the pulling in these locations as well. In order to do so, the suggestion is to focus on these specific body locations by learning to hold the skin tighter than you would in another area, and pulling just a few hairs out at a time.

You may even pull just one hair out at a time. By going this route, you will ultimately get the animal really comfortable with the process, and the overall look of the coat will be magnificent.