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Thank you for the positive feedback! Even *I* never knew how many hard coat and grooming details were floating around in my head until I started making videos!

I'll start a new playlist for it, probably in a month or so. Thanks for the positive feedback!

​@@dogsanddharma Thank you for all the help! ❤

For this job I would use an Andis De-Shedding tool or a Mars Coat King, just make sure you're using one with wider spaced teeth and make sure the tool is *dull* by, literally, digging in the dirt with it and keeping it in a dishwasher for a few weeks or frequently running hot water on it.

That makes me really happy to hear, thank you!

Or build one from the ground up!

I'm not sure I got a good translation of the question, but it seemed like maybe you're wondering if your dog is getting a hot spot on his neck from the grooming...? It's possible. That can happen if a lot of coat is being pulled all at one time, or it's from an area where the coat is soft and doesn't release well from the skin. Carding the coat roughly or with the tool at the wrong angle can potentially cause skin irritation too. The best advice I have is to go slowly and monitor the dog's experience as you groom. They'll almost certainly complain if something is too hard, fast or intense, and them doing so is usually an attempt to start a conversation about how things are going.

Thank you so much. I am incredibly honored.

There can be understandable reasons why someone can get behind on grooming, particularly unexpected situations like health issues like illness or injury, moving, death in the family, new job... the list goes on and on. Even the most responsible owners can have circumstances beyond their control that cause grooming to get behind. And for a very old dog, like this one, his "proper" appearance is less important than the dog's comfort and dematting this particular dog's face would have been unkind.

Thank you, yes, that's the real upside to a very hard, correct coat, it still looks good even when it gets quite long. Eventually though there always comes a time to bring it back down.

I'm so glad to hear that, thank you for sharing!

You are very welcome!

Q: Thank you for the groin treatment shown, but I was wondering whether to shave or not to shave in the summer A: If you mean the groin, then yes. If you mean the entire dog it depends on if the coat is hand-stripped or clippered already. If clippered already then yes. This is the case for the Schnauzer in this video. If hand-stripped and you want to keep hand-stripping after the summer then no. I hand-strip a hard-coated Schnauzer down short for summer if I'm not rolling the coat.

Yes! Support is the key to trust, which is the key to cooperation!

I learned so many tricks for "efficient" grooming professionally over 30 years, I feel happy sharing!

Thank you!

You can start doing short socialization sessions with raking or finger plucking. Check out the puppies playlist and the beginner playlist for good videos on that. Note: if your dog is "shaggy" at only ten weeks of age, he may have a softer coat and may be harder or impossible to strip depending on how far from "hard" the coat is. In most hard-coated puppies the hair is still laying pretty flat at 10 weeks of age, upward of 4 or even 5 months. Email me at StrawHatStandards@gmail.com if you'd like to get a free consult and coat evaluation.

I think the textured stones are better for beginners. There are also metal "textured stones" but I find they are too heavy for most beginners and tire out your hand and arm faster. With more experience and/or stronger arms, the metal ones are good too. Both are preferable to edged stripping "knives."

If the sutures are still in, or the skin hasn't healed yet from the surgery, which is the situation I think you are alluding to, don't tape over those areas. That's a good time to use just glue, so there is nothing touching the healing incisions. I hope that's the info you're looking for.

Awww, thank you! You just made my day!

Thank you for the suggestion! Sometimes I forget what I wanted to learn when I was first starting out. In a nutshell, the purpose for plucking the hairs is to stimulate new hard hairs to grow in. Left to its own, a Schnauzer hair will grow continuously until it is VERY long. Many pets are clippered but that destroys the hard, coarse texture. The only way to keep the hard coat and to keep it a reasonable length is by "pulling it down" so new hair grows in. This functionality was bred into the earliest Schnauzers over 500 years ago (!) and part of that selective process was for dogs whose coats pulled easily, which is why a correct coat can be plucked/stripped without being painful to the dog.

You're welcome, I'm glad it helps!

There's not much you can do in the moment, but going forward, make sure you are doing some work on the hips (and everywhere else) at least monthly, even if it's just some raking. That's the only way to make sure there is always coat coming in under the current top layer.

Thank you! He's a sweet boy, that one, from lines with cooperative temperaments!

I usually start it gradually and in short sessions, once the hair sticks up long enough to easily grasp with my fingers. In a softer coat this will be at a younger age and in a harder coat it will be later. Generally speaking though, between three and five months is when I typically get going on it with puppies.

I'm less familiar with mini coats, but I know that there is an uncommon genetic trait in standards where the coat along the topline can be black and not banded. Perhaps that plus some color genetics that only exist in minis could be part of it. Also, if it's gotten long, it could be some sun bleaching. Same if it's a young dog that hasn't had the puppy coat fully stripped out.

You're welcome!

I'll look for an opportunity to show that in a future video! Meanwhile, with most SS, if the second black band of the coat is more than about half an inch, it's probably long enough to pull. Conversely, if the white band is still growing out, that is still a "live" hair that will be tough to pull out. You can tell if a hair is broken by whether it still has the short black tip on the end -- if the end of the hair is white, or if the whole hair is black, it has been broken/cut.

@@dogsanddharma thank you so much, I can’t tell you how grateful I am 🙏

Thank you for letting me know -- I'm really glad they help!

That's a great question! It likely does dull the shears faster. I don't really notice it because my show grooming scissors are only used for that and they get relatively less use than my professional, daily use shears, so I don't notice it as much.

By 12 weeks the cartilage of the ear can already be "set" but if it's done consistently, and long enough, they may be able to still be improved.

Well, they can be, and many are. Many, especially in the US don't have a correct enough coat to hand-strip so clippering is a necessary reality.

For show dogs, with some mousse in the hair when we blow it dry, and some hairspray. For at home, keep the legs clean and when you brush, do it very regularly so you can be sure you aren't pulling any coat out. Also, running in a yard with brush or high grass/weeds will tend to break and pull the hair out, which also reduces the volume.

Thank you! I'm glad it was helpful.

That never completely goes away, since we will always be learning new things but trust me, as you get more experience in more areas, you'll realize more and more that the things we believe are horribly obvious mistakes... just aren't.

More of an upside down v.

Thank you, The knowledge of what to do comes the fastest when you just keep trying things!