Grooming a Young Terrier Puppy

Airedale TerrierAiredale Terrier

Puppies as young as six weeks can be taught to stand on the table to be groomed. If their grooming lasts only a few minutes and rewarded with a treat, they soon yet the idea. Then you will be rewarded with a grown dog which will stand on a table to be groomed which is always pleasure to work on.

It is so much better for both your back and your dog to groom it on a table rather than on the ground. The table should be at a comfortable height for you, and the dog should gradually be taught to be held steady by a 'noose'. This keeps the dog relatively still and confined to one position. But for the safety of the pup, please do not leave the pup attached to the noose whilst unattended!

Procedure

Begin by pulling out the loose puppy hair with your finger and thumb - not taking too much hair at a time. Then, 'undercoat' by dragging the undercoat out holding a serrated edged knife at about 110 degrees to the line of travel of that knife from the back neck to the tail as demonstrated in the DVD[1] referenced below.

Undercoating with serrated edged knife.Undercoating with serrated edged knife.

In a week or two, with an Airedale puppy you will see the 'new' coat coming through which should be quite hard and have a considerable number of white or 'grizzle' hairs. These usually disappear at the second stripping. When the pup is around 4 or 5 months old, it is time enough to go through the complete grooming process.

References and Further Reading

[1] Jane Harvey, DVD "How to Groom an Airedale" Rangeaire Vision, Victoria 1985, 2004 ISBN 978-0-9804296-0-2

BREAKING NEWS.

We have now published a unique Terrier book 'Terriers Unveiled' Available at our sister site: https://rangeairevision.com/terriers-unveiled/


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