handstripped English Cocker

[wagsmom]

I have an Orange Roan English Cocker who I hand strip. I have two people giving me conflicting information on where the skirt should start on him. Does it vary depending on coat markings/colors? Even in pictures on the breeders website some are lower than others.

oh, and just realized that our boy is a cousin of the best in breed English Cocker at the Westminster show!

hope to get some helpful feed back, I'm so confused

[spanielcrazy]

A lot depends on how much coat your dog has. Generally speaking, the skirt is a continuation of the body, so should start no higher than where the ribs curve back downward and in, felt from the side. It's more of belly feathering than a skirt, as opposed to American Cockers whose skirt starts higher up the side. You don't want it going any higher than the web of skin on the back leg, from there it continus down the front of the hind leg only, not on the sides.

Are you grooming for pet or show? Showing may be a little different as you may want to emphasize or de-emphasize certain things.

Color and markings don't determine where the skirt falls. You want to see the outline of the body and the feathering flows naturally from this. A "skirt" is not a proper look on an English.

Look also at show pics of Springers and English Setters, this will help you to see the lines on a larger dog where it will be easier to see, and their grooming is very similar.

[wagsmom]

it's not for show, but I did use him in a grooming competition. so do you know why some skirts are higher up on the English? My dog has a really thick coat, and the skirt sticks out, I just didn't want to lower it if it's not supposed to be ya know. he just turned a year today, would his puppy coat be gone?

[spanielcrazy]

His puppy coat should be gone at a year, it usually changes around 9 months. Is he neutered? Neutering changes the coat, they oftn get very wooly after neutering.

Not sure what pictures you are looking at so can't answer why some skirts are high. It could be individual grooming styles, it could be, in a show dog, that the chest lacks depth and they are trying to fill it in with coat, it could also be an illusion of the camera.

If the feathering is sticking out use a thinning shear, going in the same direction as the hair to take out the stuff thats sticking out and get the feathering to "hang" Try getting it to drop straight down off the body, then see if it looks right to you or if it seems too hiigh you can take more off

If you could post a side picture of your dog perhaps I could advise you better

[wagsmom]

thank you for your suggestions, I'll take a pic and post it when I can. but what you said makes sense. he is neutered, he was at 4 mos.