We are now fast approaching warmer weather, and we will need to get our furry family members ready for the much warmer days and warmer evenings. Just as we wrap up warm during the cooler months, our furry ones also keep warm by laying down extra coat to guard against cool winds and rain.
When the sun starts to come through they, like us, start to remove layers of coat in a bid to keep cool when the temperatures rise. Some dogs are lucky, as they have a finer coat that will fall away naturally and leave them with nice cooler summer coats, but others are not so fortunate: they are the ones with double or even treble coats, whose old thick coat will struggle to come away naturally. You probably have seen evidence of this if you have a dog that has a thicker double or treble coat. Usually a slightly different colour to the main coat, this dead undercoat appears in clumps and needs to be removed.
If you have ever seen sheep in a field with clumps of wool hanging from their bodies, this is the look your dog will get if it has a double or treble coat that is left to come away on its own. It is not a common sight, but if left long enough, this is the type of look your furry one will end up with.
The problem with not getting this coat away from the main thinner summer coat is that it gets so very thick that it sticks out. This is then at risk of getting tree sap and grass seeds stuck in it, and I have seen it where it is so thick and dense that it starts to pull out the new finer summer coat out by the roots – this, as you can imagine, is not at all pleasant for our furry ones, as it can leave the skin in a very poor condition, with the skin becoming dry, flaky and even very red and sore. In very severe cases, the coat that is pulled out will leave bald patches, and in some cases the coat will never grow back properly.
There are a few things you can do to help this dead undercoat to come away: all dogs need to be groomed and even short-coated dogs will have a thicker undercoat in the winter that is ready to come away by spring. With short-haired dogs – and cats too, as they also lay down extra coat in the winter – you can easily keep on top of the spring time shed. A useful tip I give my grooming clients is to wear a pair of household rubber gloves, and by stroking your pet in the direction the coat grows, the rubber gloves will help any loosened coat to come away. If you can do this every couple of days during the spring time, the dead winter coat will be gone by summer, and you will be surprised by how much coat will come away just by stroking your pet.
Another tip is to give them a bath – the process of bathing helps to loosen the undercoat, and besides making them smell nice too, it will be a pleasant and enjoyable treat for them. Once they have had a nice bath and a conditioning rinse, they will start to lose any dead undercoat almost straight away. To help get the dead undercoat away I use a hairdryer; this enables the dead hair to be loosened from the roots. While you are using the dryer, brush your pet to ensure that most of the dead coat comes away. Once they are dry, you will notice a lot more fur on the floor for a few days: this is the natural process of the coat falling away. I would recommend carrying on using the rubber glove to stroke them, and you will end up with a happy pet with a lovely shiny coat.
Our furry ones with a longer thicker coat will need a lot more work to help them get rid of dead undercoat. Dogs with a collie/golden retriever type coat will need regular grooming for a few good weeks to remove all the dead hair, as to get it all out in one grooming session would be way too much for them. A great tip for these dogs is to do it little by little as part of a grooming regime: every couple of days at least before the undercoat starts to come away. Once it gets to the point of clumps of hair sticking out, it is a major job to groom out, and several sessions would be necessary to get all the dead coat removed.
The bathing tip is also good for longer, thick-coated dogs, but you really do need to get all knots out first. Once you involve water on matted coats, they become almost impossible to groom out without causing pain and discomfort, and this is the last thing we want to do. If you can get all the knots out and as much undercoat as possible, the process of bathing, giving them a conditioning rinse and drying the coat with a blowdryer will loosen out the old hair, and the pet’s coat should be left smooth and much thinner, helping them to keep a lot cooler in the summer heat.
The best way to help your furry friend is to prevent the coat from getting too matted in the first place: if your dog has a thick coat which normally develops clumps in the spring time, then the best thing to do is to keep a regular all-year-round grooming regime. This is the only way to keep them comfortable and looking their best. We like to feel cool in the summer and warm in the winter and our pets are no different – as they are not able to pick up a brush or a comb, we have to do this for them.
Happy grooming.
By Sue Ogden
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Sue Ogden is a professional dog groomer living in the Algarve. In her regular column, she provides readers with information on how best to care for their pets. Trained in the UK, she studied nursing, breeding, grooming, nutrition and kennel management. 910 851 140
