AUSTRALIAN COBBERDOGS
Care of the Australian Cobberdog
Coat Care
One of the many distinguishing features of the Australian Cobberdog is an amazing coat, luxuriously soft and smooth textured, falling in gentle waves and loose spiral curls. Growing to a full length of approx 4 inches, it is very low to no shedding with little to no odour.
A non - shedding coat requires regular maintenance, weekly thorough brushing, and trimming every 6-8 weeks. Please remember to only brush your cobberdog when his/her coat is DRY! Wet brushing is more difficult and can create knots.
Our general routine, is a quick daily brush to remove any day to day debris, followed by an extensive weekly thorough brushing which is fantastic bonding time for you both. During this session, I lay the dog down, and start at the paws and work my way up, making sure that I brush from skin to hair tip. This is important, when running your brush over you may not realise that you are only surface brushing and mats that form close to the skin can be missed.
Ear Care
Important factors for good ear health include, keeping the ear canal cool and dry. Long haired dogs often grow hair deep within the air canal. This hair can increase the heat and reduce air flow to ears making ideal conditions for yeast infections or mites. To mitigate this, removing the hair in the ear canal is advised, as well as underneath the ear flap. The best way to do this is to use blunt tip scissors, and trim the hair close to the skin. We prefer to trim over plucking as research has shown that plucking can cause micro tears in the skin. Once the air canal is free of hair, you can use your clippers to clip the underneath flap to remove additional hairs and allow air flow. Once the hair has been reduced, wipe the ear out using a good quality ear cleaner once per week. At Lovelocks we use 'Epi-Otic' ear cleaner.
Feet and Nails
Regular nail clipping and grinding will ensure the nail doesn't grow too long which can cause pain. The nail needs to be trimmed so when standing it doesn't touch the ground, but you must be careful to trim only the tip and not too short so as you will cut the quick and cause pain and bleeding. The best bet if you are unsure is have your vet show you. After trimming we use a 'Dremel' grinder to smooth the edges out and file away any excess. You can buy a 'Dremel' from Bunnings.
To finish off, using blunt tipped scissors or a 5/8 clipper blade, trim the excess hair from between each toe, and between the pads. Run your finger in between the pads to ensure nothing has been left behind, and if necessary use a paw pad conditioner.
Cobberdog Clip
Whilst there is no official Cobberdog clip, many of the breeders are working on refining the styles that suit their vision for the breed. We find one of the most appealing aspects of the Cobberdog is their gorgeous soft coat falling in gentle waves and choose to keep our dogs with a little more length on the leg to keep the 'Teddy Bear' look.
Step 1 - Removing the bulk off from the body
On a clean dog, using a 30 blade and a number 7 comb attachment, I run the comb over the top of head, neck, and along the back to base of tail (Pink line in below photo), I repeat the steps until I have shaved of all of the back, sides, neck, and half chest, leaving a skirt and leg hair intact. Always follow the line of the dog, if you go against the hair growth you will get a shorter clip.
Step 2 - Blending into skirt and leg
I use the number 8 comb to clip down the sides of the body (Blue Line in photo below), to be the first step in blending the skirt and follow with the thinning shears to blend the skirt into the clipper line (Green line). Now stand back and assess your work, if this is the first clip from fluffy puppy coat, you may need to take off additional length from the tops of thighs, so there is a seamless blend into bottom of leg length. To do this, with your hands tease up the long fluffy hairs and use your thinning shears to trim.
Step 3 - Legs and paws
Brush legs and paws, hold leg up and using scissors trim hair into a straight line taking care not to take to much length off, you mainly just want to even up the leg length. Place the leg on table and have pup stand with full weight, brush paw hair and then trim in circle around paw (White line). Don't forget to get the hair in between the paw pads.
Step 4 - Belly and sanitary areas
Sanitary clip, most people will use a #10 blade, I use a #7F blade as I think the #10 gives them a too short look on their bottoms, and my daughter asked "why did you give the dogs a 'Brazilian' hair cut" , so I have since opted to keep a little more length on to save their modesty whilst at the beach and in public. Whichever blade length you decide, run your blade down the genital area, inside of legs and armpits taking great care not to get caught in skin folds in these very delicate areas.
Step 5 - The head - COMING SOON!