HANDSTRIPPING THE PET NORWICH TERRIER

BEFORE
This is Sandy. She is 4 1/2 years old and has been to the groomer once. That groomer shaved her face and tail, but lacked confidence to do more. The owners wanted her to look more like her breed, and knew the benefits of handstripping.

AFTER




Most of this groom was accomplished by plucking hair out using latex exam gloves. I had explained to the owner that how much I could do in one day would depend on the readiness of the coat for stripping, the dog's tolerance, and how my hands held up. Fortunately we did well in all three areas.


PLUCKING FOR SHAPE
The first and most obvious goal was to get rid of all that chestiness:

You can see (I hope) the difference between the side on the right (dog's left) and the side not yet done.

SETTING THE TAIL
Around the tail is a particularly troublesome area. Look at how it wants to bunch up in front of the tail.

I had to get rid of all that, without making a bald spot. This is the place where I used a stripping knife. Since her jacket was so long, I had to pull hairs way up the back to solve the bunching problem. The only "tricky" part is to not pull too much out of any one spot. I would work on the area some and then lift the tail to see if I had eliminated the bunching. Finally, I got my result! TIP: Pull only a few hairs a time, but get a quick and even action going, as you would while scissoring, Work one area at a time.

Notice that there is a nice straight line that runs from the front of the tail parallel to my hand. That's a Good Thing. You want that!


PULLING FOR COLOR
In addition to making choices of plucking areas for shape, you also are pulling out hairs that are the wrong color. This dog's jacket was diluted with a lot of old, straw colored hairs that I searched for and destroyed.

I also pulled out about 1/3 of the jacket, focusing on long hairs. These hairs will be replaced by fresh, plump, dark guard hairs. I will have two more sessions with this dog before the owners leave for the summer (lucky them). Her jacket should be darker by then.

PULLING FOR LENGTH
Amazing as it seems, you can actually pluck hair along a line to make it shorter. I pulled for length along the backs of the legs and the underline. TIP: Always pull hair out in the direction you want it to grow. Be careful not to pull out and up where you want the hair to grow downwards.


Here you can see how I worked the underline. To make it a little easier on the dog, and to help me define a line for the undercarriage, I pinched the hair in my left hand close to the skin, and then plucked with my right.


About 1 1/2 hours later we have this:


THE BATH & DRY
Bathing and Drying the hand stripped terrier presents some challenges, because you don't want the coat to get too fluffy. The terrier jacket should be tight to the body, not lifted. For this reason, terriers that are being shown are rarely wet-bathed all over. Oftentimes only the furnishings (legs/beard) will be bathed in water, and the jacket will be dry cleaned. Pet owners, however, want a freshly bathed dog. It's part of what they seek from our service.

I bathed this dog in a texturizing shampoo - #1 All Systems Crisp Coat. This type of shampoo gives minimal softening to the coat. Now for the drying:

(1) BLAST OFF! First I pat dried with towels. Using a high velocity forced air dryer (Kool Dry), I removed the excess moisture, CAREFULLY blowing from the head toward the tail and down the legs, so as to not overly lift the coat.


(2) BLANKET! This is a terrier grooming technique shared by Pam Julian. I've always wanted some instruction in this method! Blanketing helps to make the jacket lay close to the body when dry. The body was snuggly wrapped with a towel and secured. All we had for clamps were LIPS system snaps and chains.


We let the dog sit in the towel for 10 minutes. Voila! She looked like this:

The hair was barely damp and finished drying while Sandy waited for her owner to arrive.

FINAL COMMENTS:
Pet groomers need not be daunted by hand stripping. It is not rocket science. It is simply more finite or minute than grooming with shears or clippers, but it is still shaping and shortening. This particular dog was very easy. She was neither squirmy nor mouthy, but very patient and tolerant. I think we had one whimper out of her the whole time, and that was when I was plucking the underbelly. Some terriers are terrible around their rear ends, and I end up compromising and using thinning (blending) shears there. This dog's coat was also prime for stripping, it pulled out effortlessly.

Of course, I am not too happy with this head. That was out of my control, and I was actually grateful that I could focus on the body this time. As that face grows out, we will give it more of a wedge shape. Before the dog leaves for the summer, I will get a final "after" shot and then we will really see the huge difference that grooming can make.

Clients who opt for hand stripping need to be understanding that the result is more of a "work in progress" than the finish of clippered/scissored grooming. It is nearly impossible to get the same consistency of result when you are working the coat by hand as when you can clip and snip. The results are very rewarding, however, as you become much more intimate with the coat. It is great fun working with color and texture. Try it!

P.S. I charged $75 for this groom. If the dog and her coat had not been so wonderful, I might have broken it into two $50 sessions. The total table time was about 2 hours.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: This pictorial was made possible by my friend and grooming buddy, Pam Julian, who just happened to drive down from Phoenix to Tucson (120 miles) to visit me on this day. Without Pam, we would have had little more than the before/after shots. Pam has helped me manifest a dream I've had about the possibility of sharing my grooming through photos. I hope she and I can partner again soon! Thanks, Pam, You're The Bomb!

Addendum, July 2011: In reviewing this article, it still holds up well. There are a few things I would change if I groomed this dog today. Products: For a wet bath, I would use ShowSeason "Texture" shampoo followed by ShowSeason Results Rinse. Sometimes I dry clean the jackets of stripped terriers with Chris Christensen Dry Breeze, an excellent cleaner-in-a-can that freshens the coat without any softening. Tools: Chris Christensen has a small flat nozzle for the Kool Dry dryer that is ideal for drying coats that you want to lay flat. I have also been using Coat King rakes on these fully blown coats to help remove a lot more coat within the time allowed in a commercial salon. For pet grooming goals they seem to work well and I've not ruined any coats. Although I still use my fingers to pluck hair, when hand stripping today I use stripping knives more than I did during this grooming. My most-used knives are the McClellans. Price: I would charge more for this groom today, more like $100-120.

BBird