Matted Wheaten

Another grooming blog I follow (Pet Grooming: The Good, The Bad, and The Furry) recently discussed grooming matted dogs. There are several different ways to go. If the dog isn't very matted, sometimes you can brush the mats out and do a longer haircut. If the dog is extremely matted, you have no choice but to shave the dog bald and start all over again.

Then there are the dogs in the middle. They're too matted to brush, but not necessarily matted enough to 10 strip (shave bald) the dog. Some groomers will shave the dog bald anyway, either because they don't know better or else don't care. But I don't like sending dogs home bald unless I really have to. Also, I have too soft of a heart to say no when a customer begs me to leave as much hair as I can.

So here are a whole bunch of pictures to show the process of grooming a fairly matted dog while still leaving some hair. Yes, it is more work to do all this than to shave the dog entirely, but I like happy customers, so here we go.

This Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier came in to be groomed today. It was a new client, so I'm not sure how long it had been since she was groomed, but I'd estimate 4-6 months.

The dog came up to greet me and I bent down to feel her. I instantly felt the mats in her chest and front legs. 

"Oh, she's matted," I said. "She's REALLY matted; I'm going to have to shave her."

"I was afraid you'd say that," he replied. "We used to be really good about brushing her every day, then we got busy. But it's really only her neck and chest, leave everything else as long as you can."

I told him I would see what I could do.

This is the before picture.

Here's the side view.

Some dogs that come in like this I will wash and blow out first. Since this was a new dog, and a Wheaten (Wheatens generally are not big fans of the velocity dryer), I decided I'd be better off shaving her before the bath. (Incidentally, this turned out to be a good decision. There's no way she would have let me blow out all that hair with throwing a...how do I say this...poopy tantrum.)

In this next picture, I wanted to show you how much of the dog was not matted at all. I got a 5/8" blade through some of her hair. So much for the matting only being on her neck and chest, huh?

I didn't bother with my 1/2" blade, I went straight down to my 3/8" blade. This is how much I got off with that.

OK, I had to use my 1/4" and 1/8" blade to finish the back legs and do the front legs. You can't see her tail, but I had to take it off with a 10 blade - it's a very short blade, 1/16", that we use on sensitive areas like the potty areas. Now for that awful mane...

This is definitely where the matting was the worst. You see that whole flap of hair hanging down, still attached to her skin? Yeah, hair isn't supposed to do that. When we tell you we have to shave your dog due to matting, this is why. (For more matted dog pictures, see here.)

Here's a different view of that hair flap.

I had to shave her ears, too, even though that isn't what the owner would have preferred. The only way I can demat ears that are in that bad of shape is to split the mats, but I can only do that if I can tell where the edges of the ear are. Her ears were so matted that I couldn't tell what was ear and what was matted hair. Anyway, here she is all shaved and ready for the bath.

Here is a picture of her after the bath. I haven't brushed her head at all. Can you see what an effect scrubbing all the grease and dirt and grime out of her had on her head? It looks better already. And yes, it's not the lighting, she was so dirty that she changed colors slightly after the bath.

Here's a slightly better view of her head.

Here are the pictures of the end result. I think she turned out pretty good if I say so myself. You couldn't really tell that some spots were much shorter than other because I blended it really well. She still has about 1/2" of hair on most of her body, so she isn't bald. And her face turned out pretty cute.

Here's a front view. Sorry if any of these pics are a little blurry, she wouldn't hold still.

See?

So there you have it. That somewhat describes the process of leaving as much hair as possible. It's a pain in the behind to change blades constantly from long to short and finagling blades under the mats, but I tend to think the finished product is worth it. To my fellow groomers: would you have done the same thing? I'm curious.