Hi there,

I have a 7 month old Solid Black Cocker Spaniel. She's beautiful, my baby!  I wanted to know opinions of hand stripping.  I only heard about it a couple of weeks ago and have already had my cocker clipped but left full coat with a long skirt.  I wanted to show her as she has a good pedigree and is lovely.  I have been told that because I have had her clipped I would only be able to enter her into Companion shows.  This however does not bother me as I feel showing should be fun and enjoyable, not too serious!
I am under the impression that hand stripping is unpleasant and uncomfortable for the dog due to hair being pulled out.  Am I right in thinking this?  Its bad enough having your legs waxed!!
Any info would be grately appreciated.

you can show your cocker no problems.  Handstripping only hurts the dog is you pull at not ready to come out hair.  Yesterday I handstriped my first dog and do little parts of my setter since she has been spayed.  It's nothing like leg waxing either.

I tried it a bit on my Yankee tonight and he didn't seem to mind, though I can't say I got huge amounts of hair coming out - don't know how much should come out on average??

Lucy, I was amazed that when I started on this Parson nothing much seemed to be coming out, then all of a sudden when I looked at the table it was all there...loads of coat! :)  Keep at it slowly. 

Guest, I have found these links to may find of interest

handstripping
lots of grooming questions
all from a good cocker forum

I have wirehaired dachshunds and have, this year, started to hand strip myself.  But none of them have ever been bothered by it.  My youngest just lies down and lets me get on with it. 

If you are seriously interested in showing your Cocker, then handstripping is really the best way to go - clipping is not considered acceptable in the show ring in the UK (though it's quite common in some other countries). If you are lucky, your bitch has a good coat that will recover from the clipping so that you can start handstripping in the future but this will take time. Often once a solid black has been clipped, the hair can grow back much thicker & curlier but hopefully as your bitch has only been clipped once, this won't happen & you will be able to start again afresh in a month or two. Does your breeder show? If so, perhaps he or she could give you some tuition in handstripping. Done properly, it is not painful (my Cockers often fall asleep while I'm doing it) but it is a skill which takes time to learn. There is a grooming video which covers handstripping a black Cocker which you might find useful. There is also a Grooming booklet available from The Cocker Spaniel Club

Jane

I would also agree that hand stripping does not bother the dog as you are only taking out the old dead jacket. I hand strip my freinds westtie and she loves all the fuss that she has and it keeps the coat a lot cleaner and easeir to keep

Do you fancy handstripping Westies for a living katja?  There seems to be a great shortage of groomers who are capable of doing it! :(  You'd certainly be busy....... :)

I think it is a shame that not many groomers handstrip now and when they do the prices they charge are shocking, ask for doing it for a living i would rather handstrip than clip some of the smaller breeds

Where abouts are you????  Spread the word!! :)  So many people are finding it difficult to get Westies handstripped!

When I qualify as a groomer I will ask the people if they want the dog clipped or handstripped and do what the customer wants - if I've learned how to do it properly by then!! :-D

One of the first things that I was taught at training school Lucy was that grooming is one of the professions where the customer isn't always right!;)  I was told that it was up to me to educate and explain to the owner WHY it is better to handle the coat correctly. :)  Once it's explained that in the long run, handstripping is better for the dog and easier for the owner to maintain, only the odd one or two clients in nearly 20 years, insisting on clipping.  Obviously the badly bred Westies with soft coats and no undercoats are a different story! :(
Just out of interest, are you training at a general college that runs a grooming course? :)

Hi Val I'll second that!!! Yes where abouts are you Katja.

I specialise in grooming Westies both pet clips and hand stripping. I also do 'hand stripping' lessons if anyone is interested and they live in the Cheshire area. Hand stripping is far better for the coat than having it clipped and as Val has already mentioned - it's up to us to try and re-educate the public. I've found that a lot of people in my area have never heard of hand stripping they just think that Westies have always been clipped.

Fourpaws, could you give me any tips on hand stripping?  For my sins I am handstripping in the YKC grooming competition this year for abit of fun after doing really well last year with an aussie last year.

Any tips you could give me would be greatly apprechiated! :)

Well done you for entering the competition. I've sent you a PM ...

north wales. Have you thorght about asking a good groomer or your breeder if they handstrip and ask them to teach you ,i am sure that there will be a charge for this but it would realy pay off in the long run, as some time the jacket is not all ready at once and so when you have got a few minutes you could do a bit. it does pay off to handstrip