Lily's hair

[Schnauzerluv]

I decided to start a new topic instead of reviving my old thread "starting to hand strip a puppy", hope that's the best.

So two years later we welcome a second mini schnauzer, a pure black female this time, Lily.

I was so impressed with the results of hand stripping for Ozzy (our 2.5YO) that I wouldn't think of doing anything else for Lily. But it seems Lily is more of a challenge to get it started....

1st off: She has extremely soft curly hair. It grows really fast and tends to stick straight up (aka lots of undercoat puppy fluff). I know I'm hand stripping some hairs because I feel some wire hairs growing in, but honestly I'm finding a lot of her soft hair is breaking off instead of stripping out and I don't want to make things worse by essentially giving her a clippering.

This is Lily when she was 9 weeks old and I hadn't started to hand strip much yet. Yes, I know I have my work cut out for me!





She is now 16 weeks old and I've removed a lot of that fluff and this pic was taken after she got wet from the rain, but look how fine and soft that hair is!





I'm starting to think she isn't a good candidate at all for hand stripping but hoping I can still attempt it and get some wire hairs at least. Maybe Ozzy's is still full of undercoat too, but he has a lot of wire hairs too so it works. Opinions?

Btw I am carding them.

[Dawnspell]

It certainly looks wild I think I'd do intensive carding for a couple more weeks then try the stripping again. Hopefully it will be blown by then and should come out easier and not break. I know I've heard of people with pups theyre going to show that have soft coats of letting it blow then stripping to bald to give it a jump start. Not suggesting that, I dont think Lily would appreciate that in your cold winters

If you part the coat can you see any wire coming through ? I'd look across the shoulders wheres its normally the hardest wire.

What are you using to get the undercoat out ?

[Schnauzerluv]

Thank you Alison for the response! Ok I agree, I think her hair has already been stripped out and the rest is not ready yet because the longer hairs around her tail (I had not got to yet) are much easier to remove and don't break. It's almost like I'm trying to pull undercoat at this point when it breaks. Yeah her breeder said she strips the puppies bald, must be a thing with the line to have soft hair. But I'm not interested in showing, I just wanted to help her grow a more weather-proof coat and I like the wire coat look. And you're right, not interested in stripping bald due to the cold winters although it's still pretty warm here atm.

I do see her wire hair coming through, quite a few actually. Probably the longer hairs I initially stripped out (her hair was so long!).





I think you are onto something asking about the carding. I was mostly using the Andis deshedding tool, especially for Ozzy and I realized yesterday after posting the picture that I missed so much undercoat on Ozzy. So much came out! Also I think I was behind on carding just because two minis are a lot of work lol! But I use this stripping knife on Lily because she is so small and barely any undercoat comes out yet (not like Ozzy anyway)



I'm gonna do what you suggest 1) only pull the longest hairs that are ready 2) concentrate on carding the undercoat 3) wait till it blows again.

Thanks so much!

[Dawnspell]

I've got the andis deshedding tool but I do find it can cut wire hair if used on the jacket. I mainly use it on the blending areas neck, bum and skirt because of that. I dont get much undercoat out with a knife if his coats long. I use this tool especially on the neck, shoulders and round the tail where the under coat is thickest. Theyre blunted so no cutting at all and because theres only 6 blades you can get down to the skin without pulling as you rake.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00 ... UTF8&psc=1

[Schnauzerluv]

I had a blunted rake but I gave it away because I thought the schnauzers needed the blades I have this tool but it's sharp



Idk, not much of his wire comes out with the andis tool, I get so much fluff out with it.....maybe it's because Jasper doesn't have much undercoat
...?

But I'll try repurchasing a blunted rake thanks!