A
better question would be
'What colors do Cairn terriers NOT
come in?' Breeding for specific coat colors has been best
described as the outcome you'd typically expect from trying to herd
cats. Any color other than white is acceptable for Cairn
terriers. About the only other criteria insofar as colors go is that it
is nice if the Cairn has a dark muzzle and ear tips.
Give
yourself some latitude if you are looking for a Cairn pup with a
specific coat color. Don't be disappointed if as an adult,
that
expected color morphs into something entirely different. By
then,
coat color won't matter anyway.
Question:
What's the difference
between a Cairn Terrier & a Wheaton Terrier?
Answer: A Cairn Terrier is a
breed. Wheaton refers to a Color if we are discussing Cairn
Terriers.
Wheaton Terriers vs Cairn Terriers - the physical differences are
profound. You can't confuse the two.
Search:
Cairn Grooming - Before and After
Comment: We'll
let Sue and Axie demo this one:
Axie
Before the Main
Event (03-09-2011)
Axie
looks a bit more staid after his experience than Rufus does.
For
Rufus, going to the hair dressers means 'Joy to the World!'
Axie's trim
job looks
pretty nice.
Rufus
on the other hand went to a new stylist who supposedly knew how to
groom Cairn terriers. The bad trim job on the body is
forgivable.
Whacking off his bat ears, is not.
It takes forever to regenerate bat ears.
Question:
Can
I Shave my Cairn Terrier?
(Bear in mind that this
answer is specific to the question asked. You might also want to look here).
Answer: Sure.
Summer Doo
Winter Doo
Can
you hurt a Cairn Terrier Coat by
Shaving It?
Cairn
coats are hand stripped if you wish the Cairn's coat to
conform to the breed standard:
Here
we have a young Brom, a resident of Sunny Florida. Notice how
the
hair looks coarse and wiry / spiky?
This is how a Cairn's coat should look and this is accomplished by hand
stripping.
Rumor has it that the coat is also more waterproof.
And here we have Max, who is turning 3 in February, 2010.
That is a good looking adult coat.
A
Couple Hand Strippers
And
here we have Rufus, resident of Northern Nevada and frequent star
/ guinea pig of the show.
The
coat on Rufus looks soft and lays down. Thicker undercoat and
the
coat colors seem to soften, which is probably a result of not
allowing the outer hair to grow. This is what happens when you
clip a Cairn's coat. It does not conform to any standard,
other
than your own.
So to
answer the question: Can you hurt a Cairn Terrier Coat by Shaving It?
If you
clip the coat, Yes.... but the word 'Yes' does not
mean 'Yes'
as in
irreversible.
Is it reversible? Yes.
How long do I think
it take to turn a clipped coat into a proper, stripped coat?
I
don't know. We've actually had some internal discussion this
last
year about changing grooming tactics to see what Rufus would look like
as a properly groomed Cairn Terrier. The vote is not in yet
but
if we do, I'll put up a grooming diary.
If I was to guess..... A year or less.
AHA! Jill was kind
enough to provide personal, first hand experience!
Jill says:
I
saw you had a question "how long does it take to correct a clipped
coat?" on your page and we're actually dealing with that now.
We
clipped Maggie's coat when she was a puppy (in the summer) but noticed
in the winter that her coat did not do a very good job of repelling
water/snow.
So, in July 2009,
we had her hand stripped. The lady that runs the local doggie
daycare that Maggie goes to is also a show groomer, so she was all
gung-ho to give our dog a "makeover".
The hand stripping process took ~4
hours and when I picked her up, I was definitely
shocked. The dog was BALD.
We had to take caution to not leave her out in the sun for too long
(sunburn) and Maggie also had A
LOT of itching as her new coat was growing in.
It
took a couple weeks for her to not be bald, but the new coat that grew
in was coarser, denser, and definitely more water repellent.
The picture I sent you of Maggie on the stairs was taken on Christmas
Eve, so she had ~5 months
of growth. In talking to the groomer, a show dog will get
hand stripped 2-3 times a year, where non-show dogs can get stripped
once a year.
Unfortunately for Maggie, the groomer
jumped the gun and stripped her one day at daycare, so I currently have
a bald-ish Cairn in the middle of a Pennsylvania winter. If
you
have any other questions about hand stripping, let me know!
~ Thanks so much Jill,
from someone who has actually been there, done that (great
picture, by the way) .
My
only other question would be cost. It is tough to find a
groomer
who actually can groom a Cairn Terrier, or any terrier for that matter
to where what you have in the end actually conforms to the breed
standard for grooming. No one like that around here in my
neck of
the woods that I am aware of.
Can you provide some
detail as to what such a stripping service from a professional costs?
Do
Cairns have Hair or Fur?
Cairns
are furry, low
shedding dogs. They do have an undercoat but are low in
dander.
A
general rule of thumb is if you are looking for a non or low shedding,
hypo-allergenic type dog, look at breeds which require
grooming
because their hair keeps growing and go from there.
Question:
My Cairn terrier Smells but all shampoo Smells what do as well keep ruf
fur
Answer: You
will find it does wonders if you wish an actual answer to your question
when you learn proper sentence structure and the ability to articulate
your question in an acceptable form of grammatical composition.
That
aside, the more you bathe your Cairn, the softer and less
water
resistant the coat. Cut down on the bathing and improve the
quality of the food. This may take some experimentation.
Cairn stink = people food left-overs and low quality (Sam's Club) food.
And.......If
you haven't yet achieved a GED,
I suggest you do yourself a favor and pursue one.
Cairn Terrier -Toe Nail Clipping
For this
topic I defer to Barb, Cairn Terrier enthusiast who presents a
series of three videos.
Cairn Terrier Toe Nails - featuring
a 12 year old cairn terrier named Oliver (as of 2012)
