Hand Stripping

Terriers are double coated. They have 2 types of hair that make up their coat; the dull colored softer undercoat, and the rich colored wire top coat. Hand stripping is removing the dead off the top coat by finger plucking or by a stripping knife. It’s performed on a dirty coat because it’s easier to grip the hair and remove it. When you remove the top coat with this method new hair will emerge from the hair follicle in it’s place and will be thicker and have more vibrant color.

Only the upper portion of a terrier’s top coat is actually colored and has the wire texture that terriers are known for. The lower portion of the top coat the hair is very thin and dull in color. A terrier needs to be hand stripped when you spread the coat out with your fingers and you see dull and soft under coat. If they aren’t hand stripped at this time then the whole coat will change color and will become softer in texture. This is known as a blown coat.

The top coat and the under coat grow out of the same hair follicle. If you don’t have your terrier hand stripped and carded the hair follicle will become clogged with fine hairs and oily sebum. This can lead to skin problems, such as the pimples or “acne” that is sometimes found on miniature schnauzers.

Does it Hurt?

The terrier coat was bred with this type of coat. If done correctly, it does NOT hurt. Some terriers may not care for certain parts to be done. If you are not showing the dog then there is no reason to pluck out sensitive areas they can be clipped or scissored.

Why not just clip the dog down?

When you clip off a terrier’s coat you are taking all the color out and leaving the under coat, which is soft, thin, and dull. Every time you clip the dog down the coat will continue to get softer and softer. The only way to get a nice harsh coat is to continue to strip out the under coat and have top coat slowly back in its place. It takes a very long time to switch a soft coat back to the correct color and texture, but it can be done.

Different types of stripping

There are 3 types of stripping: “full strip,” “staging,” and “rolling.”

Full stripping takes everything off and leaves the dog with just the undercoat fuzz, or bald with no hair (AKA “stripping to undies”). This will look really good at about 10-12 weeks but until then will be rather naked looking while the top coat grows out over the under coat if it was left.

Staging is when you are preparing for a presentation on a certain date, such as a dog show or grooming competition. Different parts of the dog are stripped by a schedule since each area can grow at a different rate and that each section needs to be different lengths to show of the structure of the dog.

Rolling the coat is when you have many layers in the coat. Each time they come in a layer of coat is removed so there is a shorter coat underneath so the pet doesn’t walk out of the salon naked. This allows new top coat growth to gradually overtake the soft under coat.

For all our stripping clients we do all the stripping needed for your terrier over a few visits. This ensures that your terrier has breaks between stripping sessions of a few days to a week.