Westies and pet groomers
A person taking home his first Westie puppy has usually been given more information than can be absorbed, especially on the subject of grooming. Puppies are so cute just as they come. A little brushing is all that is needed . By the time the puppy is nine months old and the coat has grown long in all directions, the grooming information has evaporated.
There are three choices. Number one, do it yourself with the necessary investment in grooming tools and a lot of time spent to learn the techniques. Number two, find a person who knows the breed and is skilled in hand-stripping to do it for you. Such people are hard to find, and usually quite expensive, so most pet owners, choose option three and send their Westies to a groomer.
The majority of commercial groomers are ‘pet groomers’; that is, they are trained to clip and scissor the dog’s coat in certain ways - a ‘one coat fits all’ approach. They have little or no experience with breed standards, or how Westies are prepared for show. They will however take direction from you as to how you want each part of your dog’s body styled. When you decided on a Westie, you had a picture in your mind of the breed. Go back to that picture. Also find other pictures of Westies groomed to the standard for the show ring. Look at calendar Westies and pictures of Westies seventy-five years ago. If you can visit a show and see many live Westies, you can begin to get a feel for the essence of the ‘Westie look’. Discuss the pictures you choose with your groomer, so she can see exactly what you want your Westie to look like. Note especially the tail which is left wider at the bottom and narrow at the tip. Note on the tip of the ear leather, that the hair is very short around the edge and across the back of the ear. Inner ear hair is either plucked out or clipped off.
Some groomers will clip off the hair on the bridge of the nose. This is not appropriate for the Westie. It should be scissored with thinning shears so as not to cover the eyes, but leaving eyebrows and allowing the nose-bridge hair to fall over the sides of the muzzle. Using clippers regularly on the dog’s back will allow the hair to come in soft. A harsh coat is preferred, and to get some harshness without hand stripping, a groomer can use a many-bladed tool. One such tool is called a Coat King.
Author: Anne Matheson.