Fluffy dog

[Ossie 11]

as some of you know, i've acquired this fuzzy wee thing from my cousin:

she's been a housedog all winter, now she's out in the kennel with the lurcher, and her coat is, quite frankly, crap. it's more like something you'd pick out of your belly button than an appropriate covering for a bushing/ratting dog. it really is as soft & fluffy as it looks.

now, the tiny, tiny little bit of girlyness buried deep in me rather likes her being like that, but it's doing her no good - everything sticks to her (i'm dreading the goose-grass getting up), and she only has to look at a puddle to get soaked through.

 

is there anything i can do to toughen her coat up, or will i just have to make a very small boiler suit for her to wear whilst working? i've previously only had rough-coated russells, so this isn't something i've ever had to deal with before. big dog is fluffy in places, but he's 25" tall, and the crap doesn't stick to him half as badly as it does little dog!

 

 

oh, i have trimmed her head since that pic was taken - the hair was getting into her eyes while she slept, kept waking up looking like she had conjunctivitis, so i gave her a quick prune this evening).

[cwn annwfn 0]

Is there an undercoat or only long fluffy hairs?

[TOPPER 1,809]

wait for the weather to warm up and clip her right out no 2 should do it then every other day comb it throw with a stripping knive or old hacksaw blade to take the fluff out this should leave you with a harder coat

[littlefish 585]

I sometimes look after a dog with a fluffy coat. It is a crossbreed terrier type thing looks like bichon frise x jack russell! I seems to have no wiry top coat, just fluffy curly hair that as soon as it gets wet soaks right through to its skin and it gets very cold and looks pathetic. Its coat is completely different to my terriers, one smooth and one rough. I think it inhertied its weird coat from its mixture of parents and it will never change, it gets trimmed now and again but it is good because it does not shed (it is a housedog). Good luck with getting yours improved - if they are to be outside a lot they definitely need a bit of weatherproofing.