Advice re hand stripping a black Schnauzer puppy

[Lunas World]

Thanks for your advise. Hm.. I had a lot of typos in that post, Oops

I've been in contact with the breeder we got Luna from and they were pretty helpful. Their method was to card once a week, top of head, and jacket on body and sides. Not beard, legs or furnishings. Then hand strip the same areas after. Eyebrows, legs and feet are then scissored, with the ears, neck and rear end clipped.
Bathing if required is done after the hand strip and before the scissoring.

Sounds doable and roughly what I understood as an acceptable method. I'll be carding chest also on the area that's to be shorter and some of neck (mainly near collar area).

Where am I at... well I'm still working on some carding. The chest and neck are really tough areas, Luna is particularly thick in undercoat in these areas which make it difficult to pull through the stripping knife. I have to comb a fair amount with pin comb (which also pulls out some loose/dead undercoat in this area) and then cover half the knife with tape or thumb so only half of the knife it pulling undercoat. I only do 5 mins at a time to not stress Luna too much, she doesn't seem to mind it but I had to work really hard to first get her to allow grooming with the slicker which is what we started with when we got her (she is still not keen on legs being done). She would hate it initially. I struggled for a month or so then spent about 2 months gradually working on it with clicker and treats - successful. So I don't want to go too crazy with the carding and irritate her so she doesn't like it. I hope it will be easier to maintain it in the future rather than currently going from full undercoat.

Oliver is super cute. Love the curly tail.
Looking forward to pics of some black pups all nice and groomed on thread
I'm away next week, but when I'm back I'll start on my first strip... woahey.

[natalie w]

Hi
what do people do regarding clipping ears, face and bum? i know on the salt and pepper you clip but i have also heard on the blacks it can make their colour fade?

[Pennyblack]

Hi Natalie, because Jenson's big sister has faded to a dark silver at only 18 months old, I'm carding his face and bum but Pennie's ears have remained solid black so I'm going to clip Jenson's.

I'll try and get a decent photo of the pair of them tomorrow so I can show what I've achieved with Jenson so far. I think it's going well as I can already feel some decent wire hairs coming through.


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[AliceGrimm]

I would love to know more about technique and what not for blacks and black and silvers.

Also, is carding always necessary?

[Pennyblack]

Grooming table has finally been bought and got a few tips from the girl who runs our ring craft class. Never twigged that brushing encourages/stimulates hair growth so unlucky, Jenson...half an hour or brushing each day from now on! I've ordered Ewa Highland's video as well so fingers crossed in a month's time he'll be looking much better.

His coat is continuing to improve and the wire is coming through much more




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[Lunas World]

Looking great there.

I'd finally got through all of Luna's body with the carding. The chest and front of neck were the most difficult where undercoat was rather dense. Since, it's been much easier to maintain with a carding once a week. Also last Friday I took the clippers to her front neck, face and top of head. This was my first time giving her a more Schnauzer face. Went pretty well considering, but the clipper just would not cut a lot of the time, a new clipper is on my wish list now as she looks quite choppy and rough. I've also started stripping, attempting the rolled coat. I've stripped two weeks running after carding her. She seemed to take to it really well and will behave even when I know she is getting a bit tired of me having her stand there for me. I let her on her side while I did her sides, she seemed to like that better and it was easier for me. Her tail was fairly tolerable for her so I carded that and started stripping there too.

After each strip she looked better, neater I would say, less wayward fur. The only this is that right now I'm just guessing how much to take out each week. Obviously a the moment its all basically all the same length. Guides say every 12th hair but really that helps very little when you're looking at your little dog. I just did 2x2" areas pulling twice every say 1/2" with my blue mikki.

I've started carding top of the head weekly (still very soft and curly).

With regards to bum area and side of face. I carded these a little then, clippered. Blended in with more carding and a little stripping.

Next task to get to grips with is her legs, I've little hope she will be as accommodating.

Question for you all. How thick to make the eyebrows. By thick I mean how dense or how high on the head to start them. I followed Luna's existing line given to her by her last professional grooming but I think that they are to low (i.e. they start too far forward on her head)

[Janer]

Question for you all. How thick to make the eyebrows. By thick I mean how dense or how high on the head to start them. I followed Luna's existing line given to her by her last professional grooming but I think that they are to low (i.e. they start too far forward on her head)

When I first started grooming Meg I was stumped by her eyebrows, on a black dog there are no colour lines to follow. Meg's breeder advised just leaving them alone (scissoring the length only, so that she could see) but letting them remain untouched above so that eventually they would fall naturally into eyebrows. And I have to say it seems to have worked, now 3 years old Meg has natural shaped bushy eyebrows. I favour the German fall (I think that is what it is called) ie the long bushy hair down the nose, mainly as I am unsure how to deal with the hair between the eyes so the fall covers a multitude of sins

[Pennyblack]

Update on Jenson's grooming progress with one week to go until his first show!

I bought the Ewa Highland grooming DVD and that was a huge help in showing me what I should be doing. The only area I've struggled with is clipping the underside of his tail as he's really not eating that at all but on the whole, I'm quite pleased with how he looks and will just tidy up bits this week to get rid of the few tufty bits that are left.




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[Janer]

He's looking good, love the blurry tail from the wagging!

Just one thing with your tail issue, I too have got the Ewa dvd and I only realised recently that I have been approaching the tail wrongly. Whether the DVD is not clear or I was being thick but I was previously trying to clip bum towards the tip. I now do tip towards bum which is quicker and easier so Meg is much happier. A much closer clip too, which I prefer. But then I am not showing

[Pennyblack]

It doesn't matter which direction he just doesn't like it lol...I'll persevere this week lol


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[Lunas World]

Jenson is looking amazing, just fab.

All the effort I've put into working on Luna and she looks, well a bit thin on the body (attempting to hand strip roll her coat) and short (my fault totally) and silky in the legs. Slightly disappointing.

Luna's coat was always very curly and rather dense with undercoat. I stripped out her undercoat on her body, neck and chest. I've regularly clippered her bum to keep her clean as she has had a number of accidents (clingers) in the past. At the weekend I thought I'd give a go at her legs with some long overdue scissor work.

Well, one leg Friday... this,

To this (yes opposite leg as I took the before image, after),


Then a front leg Saturday morning, this,

To this,



And on Sunday the whole other side,


I also tidied up her skirt. Every Monday evening I've been stripping her body coat and chest (chest two weeks only) for the last 4 weeks, hence it's looking a quite thin right now. I definitely went too short on the legs and I think also the skirt. It's just her leg hair really doesn't stand out (bushy), it just sits flat. This is making her coat blend in way to much with the legs and skirt as I was aiming for a slightly more obvious variation in texture (hence the effort to strip her). She was getting pretty matty on her legs and feet which is why I went a little short on the legs, plus I know it's a bit of a hack job (but then it was my first attempt at this).

p.s. I also later clippered her tail first time. 2mm on the bottom and sides, 3.8mm on the top. Both with the fur growth direction. Takes a little getting used to having had it longer for all her life.

Any advice from the forum? I was warned her coat would look worse (moth eaten) before it looked better when first starting to roll hand strip it. But everything just seems to be a bit meh, I don't think her curly hair will work well on her legs for the bushy look, what is the alternative look that still looks like a schnauzer. I mean she does at least correctly get recognised as a miniature schnauzer now, we just get the "is she pure, I've not seen a black one before".

[Pennyblack]

You've done a fantastic job with her! I'm really impressed with how good her coat is looking. Not sure Jenson is looking quite so good but I'm persevering.

He's now been in two shows, good results from the first one but nothing at this past weekend's outing. He's not rating the grooming attention but I'm sure he'll accept it before too long.

I'm heading to Crufts on Friday with a long shopping list of extra bits and pieces so fingers crossed he'll appreciate it haha.

After his first outing at Irvine & District Open Show - 2nd behind a 2yr old St. Poodle in AV NSC Utility Graduate, Grp 4 AV Utility Puppy, Res AV Memorial Puppy Stakes.


At second outing - East of Scotland Open Show - coat is improving



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[trails4me]

Is grooming a standard schnauzer the same as a mini?

[Dawnspell]

Is grooming a standard schnauzer the same as a mini?

The pattern is the same for all 3 sizes. Standards don't seem to get the full furnishings of a mini though.

[Pennyblack]

Thought I'd post an update on my lad.

We had a show last weekend where he came 2nd in Mini Schnauzer Open class, then on yesterday's outing at a Scottish Utility Breed Club show he came 2nd in Limit Dog, won Best Puppy in Breed and got Reserve in Members' Puppy Stakes. All in all a good 7 days from him.

Lots of coat work has been put in over the past month and I'm getting much happier with it but still a long way to go especially with his skirt and furnishings but I've met some very helpful breeders at a couple of shows who have shared very helpful tips with me so I'll get there!

No more show until next month so plenty of time for him to behave like a puppy and for me to work on his lines.


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