Harsh Coat Dog Grooming Tips

Video Transcript

"So there is different types of coats on long coated breeds. You can have a harsh course coat and you can also have a dog or a dog breed that has a finer softer silkier coat. The individual dogs are the breeds that have a finer softer long coat are going to require a lot more maintenance. It is going to be more difficult to keep them brushed out because that fine coat is going to mat a little bit more. An individual dog or a breed with a harsher courser coat is going to be a little bit easier to manage, easier to keep brushed out. It is typically the undercoat that is the fine part of the coat but there are individual dogs whose hair is finer and thinner. With a course coat, so this dog has a fairly good course coat, you should be able to hear the sound of your fingers rubbing together. I don't know if you can hear that but that is the sound of me rubbing the course coat between my fingers and it is almost like a rasping sound; very easy coat to maintain. So one thing you want to know is within your breed, the breed that you own or would like to own, read the breed standard, find out what is the appropriate coat type. If it says that the coat type should be course and harsh, then you want to make sure that the puppy that you get or the adult dog that you get has that type of coat. Again with any breeds that are supposed to have one coat type, you might have individuals or groups of individuals with another coat type. It is much easier to maintain a harsh coated long haired dog than a finer coated dog and so if that is within your breed standard, you want to make sure that, that dog the dog that you get has that kind of harsh coat. You can tell the individual hairs are thicker, you can tell by rasping the hair between your fingers and you can tell just by touching the overall coat and looking at the adults and seeing how easy it is to brush through the adults. The difference between a course harsh coat and a soft fine coat and for breeds with a soft finer coat is appropriate, that's fine to get individuals of that coat type. You just want to make sure that the grooming requirements are not going to be over what they would be for a normal dog within that breed standard. "