Hand stripping is a grooming technique involving dead hair removal from a dog’s coat using a hand instead of a pair of clippers to help keep its coat neat and healthy. Although this method speeds up fur growth and shedding, many puppy owners can be apprehensive about the comfort and safety of their canine friends during a hand-stripping process.
You can rest assured if an expert canine groomer carries it out. Sure, some dogs hate the sensation of stripping fur through their hands, but it shouldn’t be painful in most body areas. However, pulling out hair from the follicles in highly sensitive places like ears or the tummy can cause some amount of discomfort.
A haircut can be traumatizing if your puppy has had an unpleasant experience earlier. For instance, an accidental shave or cut can drive the puppy into fear mode, and it might outrightly refuse a haircut after that. Accidental injuries will affect a furry baby physically and leave behind painful memories.
With dog insurance, it can be easy to get timely medical help at affordable costs. However, without pet insurance, you might have to shell out much of your hard-earned savings to get your canine pet tested and treated for an injury. Contemplate purchasing a policy if you haven’t bought one already.
In the meantime, read this article to learn what hand stripping is and some dog breeds that require it.
What is hand stripping?
This is a technique puppy owners and groomers employ to strip off excess hair from a canine’s coat. Note that clipping is a largely prevalent method that utilizes a pair of electric clippers to shave the top layer hair of a puppy’s coat or cut it.
The main difference between hand stripping and clipping is that in the former case the hair is removed from the root to enable new fur growth, and in the latter case only the top layer of the fur is eliminated.
Whenever you clip a puppy’s coat, all you get rid of is the superficial portion of the dead fur and the rest remains intact. This process can lead to a lackluster coat with weak hair and deteriorate the fur quality with every clipping.
This is precisely why so many dog owners prefer hand stripping to clipping. At the same time, you can’t consider hand stripping to be the best solution for every dog’s hair needs. It can be an ideal solution for some pups, and for others it may be the only urdughr solution.
How to use basic grooming tools?
Stripping is time consuming and when done poorly, painful for the dog and is of no benefit outside the Show community.
When dealing with the twice a year “Blowing of the Coat” from double coated dogs like German Shepherd Dogs, Husky’s and the like, and for that routine “brushing out” that your dog needs once a week or more, you need to learn how to use four basic grooming tools…
- A tangle comb to pick grass burrs and debris out of the topcoat- Use the long tines to carefully loosen tangles and lift burrs and junk.
- An “Undercoat Rake” to pull loose under coats to the surface – Be gentle, the tines can deeply scratch the dogs skin, so test the rake on your forearm so you know how much pressure is too much.
- A long time, ball tip bristle brush, to reach all the way thru both thick coats to the skin and distribute oils throughout the coat – You can give your dog a good rough brushing with this too. It’s a rare dog that does not love the massage and “Scritching” from this type of brush.
- Finally, you use the metal tine “Slicker Brush” to help capture and pull loose undercoat dislodged by the Undercoat rake – THIS tool will load up with fur almost instantly. Use your Tangle Comb to help remove the fur from the brush.
Dog breeds depending on hand stripping
Talking about hand stripping, it depends mainly on the coat type rather than the dog breed. It is worth noting that dog breeds have specific coat types, so naturally, certain dog breeds depend more on hand stripping.
A coat has two hair types – undercoat and topcoat – requiring hand stripping. Know that hand stripping involves removing dead hair in the top coat by pulling them from the root instead of just trimming them. For instance, Terriers and Dachshunds would do well when groomed this way.
Should you consider hand stripping your furry baby’s coat, make sure your dog is comfortable to avoid accidental cuts and injuries during the process. Also, consider being prepared with pet insurance for dogs just in case something unfortunate happens.
Dog insurance covers a little pupper’s testing, treatment, and medications during non-routine vet visits and medical emergencies. So, contemplate buying a pet insurance policy.
