# Hand Stripping vs Regular Clipping?



## theairedale (Jul 15, 2014)

Hello everyone!

I read that Airedales should be hand-stripped, but would just a regular haircut be ok too? Our Airedale is just a puppy, around 4 months old. There aren't many groomers who will strip the coat in our area, and it takes very long and is rather expensive.

Is it necessary to have the dog hand-stripped (would the coat still be healthy if it's just trimmed)? Would it be ok for such a young pup? We don't plan on showing him, maybe just some agility when he's old enough.

Thank you!


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## petpeeve (Jun 10, 2010)

Hand stripping the coat is usually reserved for conformation show dogs, where the proper, harsher texture is to be cultured and retained. Clipping the coat is fine for dogs who aren't conformation candidates, if anything it will soften the coat which really isn't important to most pet owners. In some cases, if allowed to, it may grow back a little goofy (ie: wavy) though.

If you have the time and energy, learning to hand strip is not that difficult. But it can be time consuming especially on a larger terrier. Once the coat is in proper form, maintaining it by occasional rolling is much easier.

I found these sites in a pinch, haven't really read through them so I can't vouch for their accuracy or helpfulness ...

http://britmorschnauzers.com/rolling.html 
http://www.janedogs.com/rolling-the-coat
http://schnauzer.dogboard.net/t222-rolling-coat


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## BernerMax (Mar 15, 2013)

we had a very sweet airedale growing up (although from "hunting" lines, she was extremely gentle and soft mouthed, she even carried around a baby bird in her mouth for hours one day, after it fell outa its nest, I did not know how unusual this was for the breed)...
we always clipped her (busy family with 3 kids) its just easier, more convenient.
Even with our schnauzer now we just clip her at home... I find even just clipping is nice bonding time with the dog...


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

It's perfectly fine to clip it. For the most part, only show people hand strip, and most of them clip retired dogs. There was a professional groomer on this site with an airdale who she showed in conformation and grooming shows, and she spent an hour or more per week on grooming him. Stripping is a lot of work! Clipping will make the coat softer and dull the color compared to hand stripping, but it won't ruin the coat or have any other ill effects. 

Either way, get him started now. If you are going to take him to a groomer they will want to get started early so that he's easy to handle and groom.


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## theairedale (Jul 15, 2014)

Great! Thank you all so much


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## NicoleIsStoked (Aug 31, 2012)

I have a norfolk terrier and though i don't show him, i do keep him handstripped. as mentioned, clipping will ruin both the texture and the colour of the coat, making it soft, fluffy and faded. once you clip him once, the damage is pretty much permanent so make sure that's what you want to do. trying to strip a dog that has been clipped is difficult, and painful and not guaranteed to reverse the damage. that being said, if you don't mind the changes in the fur, there is no reason not to cut it. i've seen many airdales that have been clipped and they tend to be a light faded grey colour on their back which i personally find unattractive. the wiry harsh coat is what makes your terrier a terrier.
for my breed, clipping them makes them look like a brown maltese. certainly not flattering. either way, i tend to like my dog a little on the shaggy side anyways. every few months i spend an hour or two rolling the coat and then about once a year pay the breeder or a groomer to strip him down to his skivvies.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

There is a way to look stripped but do clipping as well so there is less skill needed to groom and color and texture is better. Use a Mars Coat King type tool to strip out the soft stuff then clip to length or it might be the other way around, clip then strip out. The loss of color is because undercoat is less colored than top coat and MCK strips out the undercoat and there are a lot more soft undercoat hairs than guard hairs per follicle so it is easy for soft undercoat to dominate the coat texture.

I used a 12 blade MCK on Max, a spaniel mix with a horrible spay coat, took an hour a week to strip out the nasty gray undercoat so he was shiny black but he only got his feathers shortened a bit rather than clipped. The excellent poster here with an Airedale suggested using a metal flea comb which also worked fine but took longer. After a year of flea combing I didn't see any difference in the coat quality so went back to the MCK.


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