# Groomers & Hand-stripping.



## peznite (Oct 21, 2009)

Hey guys

I have been taking my westie to the same groomer the past year. The first 3 times she's been groomed it was in EXTREME hot weather so I basically just told the groomer to shave her down as much as possible because of the heat (My idea = bad Idea I guess?)
The first image was taken after her first grooming at 8 months, the second was taken at 10 months of age, and the third was taken when she was 1 year old. The 4th image is my westie now after not having being groomed for a few months. We stopped getting her groomed because it was no longer hot anymore. Our groomer runs a home-business and she is extremely busy so it took us awhile to get another appointment in. This time we just want her to get a small trim, nails done, all that stuff. But we aren't going to tell her to shave her this time, how do we ask a groomer that we want her hand-stripped? Is it fair to ask a home-business groomer to do this? I am not sure whether it's a big thing to do or not...I just read westies need to be hand-stripped.
8months (day of groom)








10months (day of groom)








12 months (day of groom)








16 months (not-groomed)


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## MoosMom (Sep 15, 2009)

It depends on your groomer. She may not hand strip. If she does do be prepared for a price increase because it is more work. Hopefully your dogs coat is in condition to be stripped after being shaved, and FYI-shaving does not make your dog cooler.


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## Graco22 (Jul 16, 2007)

To be honest, looking at your dog's coat, hand stripping isnt' really your best option. She has been clippered already, a few times, and this damages a harsh coat, making stripping more difficult, and can make it painful for your dog. Since she's a pet, I say just keep clippering her. Stripping is not something you can do once or 3 times a year. It must be maintained (rolled) weekly, or you will have to just pull the coat out bald as it will be all dead coat if not rolled. Nothing wrong with clipping a pet. Her texture looks soft already anyway. If you were to come to me, I would refuse to strip her, and there is a chance your groomer doesn't even offer hand stripping. It takes hours and hours, and needs to be talked about when scheduling the appt. If you want her left longer, just show her how long you want her left with your hands/fingers. Do you want a westie pattern? If so, tell her, if not, tell her same length all over. If you just want a tidy, then ask to just have the very tips tidied up all over, and the face reshaped, etc.


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## Love's_Sophie (Sep 23, 2007)

I agree with Graco on this one. Your pup seemed to have a soft coat to begin with; possibly the adult coat wasn't really growing yet. At this point in time, it would probably take several months of you bringing her into the groomer, and simply having her card, and lightly trimming the dog, to encourage the harsh coat to come back in, if it will...she may just have a poor quality coat, and hand stripping may never be the right option for her, as Graco suggested. 

And if your groomer does not have proper experience working with hand strip dogs, I wouldn't want to see her experiment on a client dog...


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