hand stripping

[Jedd]

I just spent a couple of hours plucking away at a Cairn Terrier (and now one back leg looks really good. lol)

But the hair was really long around the rear half of his back and I was unsure what to do with it. Should I have thinned that out with thinning shears and then continued plucking away at it or what? I'd really prefer not to take clippers to this dog if possible.

[lexapurple]

Can you tell us more about the dog? Was it blown coat? Was coat shorter on front half of t he dog?
If you trying to handstripp the dog correctly, keep you thinners, clippers and shears away from it. Pull longest hairs out and evaluate if there are shorter layers under it. It is possible that it is all blown if there is no new tight hairs underneath, and you may have no choice but pull it all out and start all over.

[groomingfool]

If it's too thick, you can muck out (rake or card) some of that thick undergarbage and then pluck the top coat tighter. No thining shears if you can help it, since it will change the texture of the coat. Happy plucking!

[Jedd]

The long hair is the hair that comes (on this dog anyway) from the back down and over the back legs.

I'm very new to grooming and have never worked with a Cairn Terrier so I can't compare this one to any others. I'm doing this dog just for the learning experience and my first rule is 'do no harm'. So I stopped and didn't do it's back until I had a better idea of what I was doing.

The coat seems to be all the same length and there isn't as much undercoat as I would have expected. (or maybe the undercoat has grown out the same length as the guard hairs?) They said that their regular groomer mentioned hand stripping so that tells me that it probably has always been getting clipped. But with my lack of experience I wouldn't really know. All that I do know is that it has been awhile since they have had it groomed.

I just want to learn to do this properly. It could be quite a beautiful dog if done right I'm sure.

[lexapurple]

If all coat is same lenght it is ether blown or the dog is open coated. If it is a pet and you don't want to experiment with owners reaction to bald pet you could pull out as much hair as possible without balding the dog and trim the rest with thiners and see what it looks like in about 4 to 8 weeks.If there is new undergrowth there, pull out all of the longer left over coat and neaten up new growth. Regular carding and stripping would help improve the coat. Sometimes, the weaton cairns erspecially, have very poor open coats and there is nothing you could do to make them look right, especiaally if the dog was clipped all its life.
I would also recommend you to find a local mentor who can show you how to handstrip and different stages of coat on different dogs. good luck.