Part 3

BASIC GROOMING

If you are on of those people who wants more than a shaggy little haystack running around the house, a couple of hours a month will give you a dog who looks like a proper Cairn. White Cairns do not actually shed much topcoat, undercoat is shed twice a year, especially in the spring. Vigorous brushing helps keep this shedding to a minimum.

The first thing to do is to obtain the right equipment to groom your pet. You will need a brush, a metal comb, scissors, thinning shears, and if you are really serious about keeping a male tidy, electric clippers for the general area.

Start by thoroughly brushing your dog. Tell him/her often what a good boy/girl he/she is. Clip his/her nails and get that task out of the way immediately. Then trim the hair from the bottom of his/her feet with the scissors. This will not only give him/her better traction, but in the winter it will prevent ice balls from building up between his/her toes. Placing his foot back down on the grooming table or whatever is passing for one, scissors his/her feet into a round shape when viewed from above. Thinning shears can neaten the feet and cover up the scissor marks.

Next, the ears need to be trimmed. Taking a few hairs at a time firmly between your thumb and forefinger, pull them out completely. You only want to "strip" out the hair from the top one-third of the ear. You may use scissors to even up the edges to a nice point, but be careful. Once nicked, twice shy as the saying goes. If pulling out hair by the roots sounds too painful (actually it isn't), you can carefully lay the scissors flat against the upper third of the ear and cut the hair off. You will need to use one finger as a base to lay the ear against, then press with the flat of the scissors.

The rest of the body, legs and tail can be trimmed to the desired length using the thinning shears or clippers with a blade guard for a half-inch hair length. Just follow the natural body contours with whichever tool you choose. Do use the thinning shears on the tail, which should be shaped like an inverted carrot with a point at the end. The genital area of males can be clippered to keep it clean, but caution is recommended to avoid clipper burns or nicks.

Remember that any cutting of the coat will soften it. This is due to the way hair grows on a Cairn. The first 2 inches of hair growing out of a follicle is hard, the proper texture. As the hair continues to grow, the new portion near the skin comes out of the follicle softer and thinner. When the hair is cut, the hard end is removed leaving only the softer, silkier hair. The more it grows, the softer it gets. Only by removing the hair from the follicle and allowing a brand new hair to formulate and grow is the coat kept hard.

STRIPPING THE COAT

If you want to be more a purist, you can strip your dog down completely every six or eight months and just let the hair grow out evenly all over. Stripping a dog means pulling the topcoat completely out by hand and letting it start over from scratch. By the time a hair is three or four inches long, it is very loose in the follicle and ready to come out. Simply grasp a few hairs at a time and with a quick wrist-snapping action, pull them out. If you do not grip too tightly, any hair that is not ready to come out easily will slip through your fingers.

Obviously, stripping an entire dog takes time. Most Cairns, not to mention their owners, are tired out before the entire job is done. It is suggested that stripping be done over a period of several days or even a few weeks. Start with the head and leg furnishings. Then progress to the sides, tail, neck, and back.

If you want to combine stripping and using the thinning shears, strip the top of the neck, the back, and about halfway down the sides of the dog. Then use the thinning shears on the rest of the neck, sides, belly, legs, and tail. You will end up with hard coat on the back and generally longer, softer hair everywhere else. Your Cairn will appreciate your not stripping his/her entire head, as this is sensitive area.

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