Completely confused about stripping/carding/raking 10 month old pup

Grooming is an important part of looking after your Schnauzer. Regular grooming will help keep your Schnauzer healthy and comfortable and you will spot potential problems early. Whether you decide to clip or strip your Schnauzer, help is on hand. Schnauzers are generally a non-shedding breed and will require a fair amount of grooming to get rid of dead hair.
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higsywigsy
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Completely confused about stripping/carding/raking 10 month old pup

Post by higsywigsy »

Dear Schnauzer lovers - I would love to have a go at grooming my gorgeous boy Scooby with hand stripping etc to make his coat more waterproof but am completely confused about what is what and how to start!
I have a mikki blue stripping knife but apart from that not much else.
Can I start this process at his age?
Do I have to remove the undercoat to get started etc etc. He has started to get some wiry long hairs coming through but not many yet.
Pls can someone give me an idiot's guide!
THANKS!
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Schnauzer Sam
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Re: Completely confused about stripping/carding/raking 10 month old pup

Post by Schnauzer Sam »

Hi Rachel,

I'm assuming at 10 months old he's already been clipped? What colour is he?

People will tell you that if he's been clipped then it's too late to strip. I know that it's possible to recover a coat that has previously been clipped as I've done it with my older girl Rosie who is 16 months old though she had only been clipped twice and both were simply tidy ups that I did myself rather than a full blooded clip.

If you want to put the work in to try though then you've nothing to lose as you can always go back to clipping if it doesn't work out. Be aware though that it may take a year of weekly stripping before his coat recovers.

You have everything you need at the moment, the blue Mikki knife (which is the coarse one).

Once a week, pull the knife, held flat against the skin, through the hair while using the other hand to hold the skin taught. You'll find it easier to do this in short strokes at first as there will be quite a bit of resistance. This is carding and it will rake out the fluffy undercoat and give the wire a chance to grow. Just be careful not to be too enthusiastic - he's meant to have some undercoat.

As the outer coat grows, use the same knife, but this time hold it at a right angle to the skin, put your thumb against the knife with a light pressure and pull the knife to pluck the hair. Don't twist the knife or your wrist, you're trying to pull the hair not cut it.

Have a look here for more information.

http://britmorschnauzers.com/rolling.html
Country Girl at Heart (Molly) 8 April 2003 - 22 December 2018

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higsywigsy
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Re: Completely confused about stripping/carding/raking 10 month old pup

Post by higsywigsy »

Hi Sam - huge thanks for this. Scooby is a salt and pepper. He has had one puppy cut and 2 proper clips.
So I gently card his coat until his full wiry coat comes through then I strip out dead hairs.
Do you still need to card the coat when the full wiry coat has come through?
Also which areas should I card and strip, and which do I trim and clip?
Thanks again for helping me understand this!
Rachel
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Re: Completely confused about stripping/carding/raking 10 month old pup

Post by Schnauzer Sam »

Hi Rachel,

Yes, you'll always need to card Scooby's coat - it pulls out the undercoat which allows the wire coat to be dominant otherwise it'll be swamped with the undercoat again.

You always strip the jacket - i.e back and sides of neck, back and sides of the body and the top of the legs. If your dog tolerates it you can also strip the ears, top of the head and the cheeks. One of mine has no concerns about this, the other one hates it so I clip them instead.

You use scissors on the legs and chest, the edges of the ears and eyebrows. Use clippers on the butt and the throat and the sanitary areas. You'll find that thinning scissors work best for the legs and chest as the cuts are blended in.

Be aware that if Scooby has been clipped then it'll take up to a year for his coat to look good again.

Here's a pic of Rosie at 9 months. She had been clipped at 4 months and 5 months when I stopped as I wanted to strip her so this was 4 months of carding and stripping.



Image
Last edited by Schnauzer Sam on 13 Nov 2018, 12:32, edited 1 time in total.
Country Girl at Heart (Molly) 8 April 2003 - 22 December 2018

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higsywigsy
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Re: Completely confused about stripping/carding/raking 10 month old pup

Post by higsywigsy »

Ok Sam - this is brilliant. I understand now. Will give it a go. Rosie is beautiful. Thanks hugely!
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Re: Completely confused about stripping/carding/raking 10 month old pup

Post by Oscar 12345 »

Hi Rachel, I can recommend an excellent dvd where an owner shows you how she clips and strips two of her dogs. The video by Linda Forsyth who is a well known breeder/shower. Here is a link http://www.redcape.co.uk/index.php?rout ... uct_id=271

You might be able to get a second hand one. Will take a lot of the confusion away and give you the best start.
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we also need a schnauzer.
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Re: Completely confused about stripping/carding/raking 10 month old pup

Post by Schnauzer Sam »

Rachel, I should have added that I'm new to this stuff. I've owned a schnauzer for 15 years but it's only a year ago that I started to strip and I had the same queries as you. My oldest dog ( who lives with my ex-wife in Northern Ireland) has always been clipped and she faded to the palest grey within a couple of years and I wanted my latest girls to keep their colour and so I decided to try my hand stripping.

I got a lot of help from members of the forum and as neither of my girls will be shown it won't be the end of the world if I make a mistake :)
Country Girl at Heart (Molly) 8 April 2003 - 22 December 2018

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higsywigsy
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Re: Completely confused about stripping/carding/raking 10 month old pup

Post by higsywigsy »

Oscar 12345 wrote: 13 Nov 2018, 09:50 Hi Rachel, I can recommend an excellent dvd where an owner shows you how she clips and strips two of her dogs. The video by Linda Forsyth who is a well known breeder/shower. Here is a link http://www.redcape.co.uk/index.php?rout ... uct_id=271

You might be able to get a second hand one. Will take a lot of the confusion away and give you the best start.
Thanks For this. Will try to hunt out this DVD. Much appreciated
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Re: Completely confused about stripping/carding/raking 10 month old pup

Post by Janer »

Hi there, hope you are getting on with your hand stripping. I just wanted to say that there are some excellent videos on YouTube. There are also some rubbish ones as well though 😕
I have found two particularly helpful
Mrblowntopieces has 6 videos showing how to deal with different parts of the dog. It is a Giant Schnauzer but the technique is the same only bigger! American but doing a standard shape that we would recognise apart from the hateful cropped ears and docked tail.......why do they do that?
The other is a professional British groomer, a long video (45 mins I think) but excellent info. Sponsored by Andis but showing handstripping. The groomer is called Angela Caley. If you search on that you should find it.
Sorry I don’t know how to copy YouTube links 😱😱
dchichester
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Re: Completely confused about stripping/carding/raking 10 month old pup

Post by dchichester »

Hi Janer, I don’t know why we do that either!😩 I’m working with a breeder right now for my first standard. The cropped ears are optional (which I will definitely not be doing), but finding a breeder in the US that doesn’t crop tails is next to impossible.

I have a question to the board... at what age do I start stripping my pup? Thanks!
dchichester
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Re: Completely confused about stripping/carding/raking 10 month old pup

Post by dchichester »

Hi Janer,

Yeah I don't know why we do that either!😩 I'm hoping to get my first standard pup in a month or so, and the breeder said the cropped ears is optional (which I'm absolutely not doing), but unfortunately I didn't have a say into the docked tail.
I also have watched the video by Angela Caley, and am slowly building a list of supplies based on what she was using :)
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Re: Completely confused about stripping/carding/raking 10 month old pup

Post by Schnauzer Sam »

Hi Daniel,

You can start stripping when you get the pup at 8 weeks. Indeed, some breeders will already have started it. You don't really need to be pulling a lot of hair out; you are really trying to card out the undercoat to leave room in the hair follicle for the wire to come through and remove any "blown" hair.
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dchichester
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Re: Completely confused about stripping/carding/raking 10 month old pup

Post by dchichester »

Thanks Sam. Do you find that most people do the full grooming themselves (stripping, clipping etc.), or stripping only and leave everything else to a groomer? I'm interested in doing the whole bit myself, but fear that I may be taking on too much.
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