All too often I am asked the questions:
- What is a matt?
- How can I spot a matt?
- What can I do to prevent matting in my dogs fur?
Well, the first thing that I say to all my clients with a dog that has a heavily matted coat is "Let's start over", matting is very densely tangled clumps of fur in your pooches coat and can be quite painful depending on the severity of the matting. It is usually kinder to remove the matting with clipping rather than attempting to "de-matt" your entire pooch with our tools as pulling on the matts will really hurt as you can imagine, think of it if you had a knot in your hair and you went straight for your brush to pull it out, hurts right?
So, the above image is from a pooch I did recently! The owners had recently rescued him and he was in need of a good groom. When speaking with the owners, I showed them the ear matt's to which they responded "I thought they were part of his ear!".
To an untrained eye it can be quite difficult to spot matts or to know that they exist and when we first buy or rescue a dog we aren't given a manual on how to keep up with the grooming of our beloved dogs. If you try and run a comb through your dogs coat and you get stuck it is likely you have a matt. You can also feel for the matts, if it feels incredibly dense then it is also probably a matt.
Fewer and fewer owners are being made aware by breeders that their pooches need regular upkeep with grooming and home brushing. For instance, a poodle or curly coated breeds will need daily upkeep with brushing and regular appointments with the groomers preferably every 4-6 weeks to keep on top of their coat to prevent any matting. Breeds with a straight coat are a little easier to maintain and will only require brushing several times a week rather than every day but they still need to be seen by the groomer every 6-8 weeks rather than 4-6.
When buying or rescuing a dog the best thing you can do is get a "slicker brush", you can buy them on Amazon or Ebay for about £5 and looks like the one I have attached below :)
Keep on top of your brushing from a young age and your pooch will soar through grooming rather than struggling.
I have attached a picture below of what regular brushing and grooming appointments will look like for your pooch and what happens when your pooch gets matted.
With Rascal, he has regular grooming appointments and his family brushes him at every opportunity, his coat is white, fluffy and has a beautiful finish when he's been groomed.
We also have Rio who is a rescue, his face was incredibly matted and his back legs were fused together which prevented him from running, he couldn't see well due to the heavy matts on his face and his mood was completely affected due to being so impaired.
I have since done my "Let's start over" with the new owner who was more than happy for us to do so and from keeping in touch with her, she has told me that Rio is like a puppy again! We are now on a schedule for every 8 weeks to build back up his coat and keep him looking sharp and matt free!
Remember my lovely clients, we only want the very best for your pooch so I will do my best to explain in this blog why we do what we do :)