bobtail Matt Removal
I am posting this as it's own thread in responce to several forum members who, in my line grooming photo essay thread, asked for help in removing matts from their bobtails. Here goes! Like most grooming subjects matt removal has some basic guidelines which can then be varied to best suit you and your dog. I'll describe my methodology and hopefully it will get you going. While I do own a matt rake one of my primary goals is to minimze it's use. I find them to be extremely destructive to the coat, both guard hairs and undercoat and their use can subject the dog to excessive pulling and skin irritation. Matt removal should be undertaken as soon as you find it/them during a regular grooming session. The more frequent the grooming the sooner and smaller you will catch the matts and the easier they are to remove. Don't defer dematting "until you have groomed the rest of the dog" or "until another day when you have time". Deferring matt removal allows time for the matts to grow (the bigger they are the faster they grow - a nasty out of control spiral) and risks forgetting their location until they get much bigger and are easily seen/felt and consequently harder to remove. When you find a matt "isolate" it by making sure the hair around it is brushed away. The line you are grooming will inherently isolate hair "above" the matt (on the side towards the dog's spine) so you just need to superfically brush the hair below it down (with the grain) and the hair beside it to the front and back respectively. By doing this you can readily see and access the entire matt and minimize disruption to the surrounding hair. Your first and most important tools are now your fingers and thumbs! The idea is to gently tear the matt into numerous smaller matts which can be removed hopefully without using a matt rake and with minimal use of combs and slickers. Envision a series of parallel lines running perpendicular (ie from spine to sternum) to the last grooming line and running through the matt at about 1/4 inch intervals. Select the first envisioned line about 1/4 inch from either the front or back of the matt (either end is fine just develop one routine and stay with it) and grasp the hair adjcent to and forward of it with your left thumb and forefinger and on the other side and adjacent to the line with the right thumb and forefinger. (I primarily work facing the dogs spine so if the dog is facing to my left for me the left hand is "forward" of the matt, right hand is "behind". If you work facing the dog's feet or if the dog is facing to your right it will of course be opposite handed.) As you grasp the hair your thumbs should touch each other as should the fingertips below them. Before doing anything more ENSURE that the muscular base of your thumbs are touching each other as well, this is absolutely critical to control! Now slowly and gently "roll" your thumb bases together such that your finger/thumb grips lever apart from each other and tear the knot apart. It is very much a reverse scissor action that you are trying to achieve. Your thumb/finger grips should part by about an inch and the matt will tear towrds the dog's skin. If the matt is not very "long" this single motion - or even a portion of it - may be enough to tear the matt to it's end. In many cases the matt is adjacent to the skin so be careful not to end up pulling on the dog's skin. If the matt has not been torn completely through, reset your grip at the end of the first "tear" and repeat as necessary to drive the tear all the way to the end of the matt, which is often dog's skin. At this point you should have one "new" little matt and the remainder of the "original" matt. Tearing the matt in this way breakes it into manageable pieces and will help remove some of the broken hair from the overall mass. Move to the next envisioned line, another 1/4 inch into the original matt and repeat the tearing process. Ultimately you will have broken the original matt into a series of these smaller "1/4 inch" matts. (Note that if the matt is originally very large and/or very tight you might want to break it down in "1/2 inch" matts and then come back and break those "1/2 inch" matts into "1/4 inch" matts.) After the first "tearthrough" is complete use your coursest comb to see if it can now pass it through the matts. Always hold the matted hair as close to the skin as you can before trying to pass a comb through it. Using only the one or two tines at the end of the comb, comb through a few hairs width at a time. It will take several "passes" to completely go through the entire width of the "1/4 inch" matt while holding it at the skin. Once you can comb through without pulling, release the hair and very gently comb through, a few hairs at a time from the skin. When you can do this, this first "1/4 inch" matt portion is basically removed. If the course comb doesn't go through the "1/4 inch" matt using no more effort than you would be willing to use on your own hair stop! Either try tearing the selected "1/4 inch" matt in half again or very gently use a matt rake. You will only be able to use at most two blades of the rake on such a small matt. To get the matt rake blades into the matt hold the matt about 1/2 to 3/4 inch from the skin. Place the matt rake blades perpendicular to the hair being held and using a short rocking motion ease the rake through the matt until it protrudes right through. Now, grip the hair between the rake and skin and draw the rake down the matt length using a larger rocking motion (perhaps even a sawing motion if necessary) with forward pressure to drive it down the matt's length. Matt rakes have sharp working edges! Be careful not to cut yourself or have the rake "roll over" exposing the blade edges to the dogs skin and possibly cutting your child! Once you have broken the matt up with the matt rake do it all over again with your course comb and the matt is essentially removed. Please treat matt rakes as a last resort. If you really need to use them do so but recognize that they are hard on the dog and their use is an indication that you have fallen behind in the grooming routine. (Blowing coat is a non-routine event that can necessitate more frequent matt rake use than normal and I know there are also occassions when other of life's situations prevent us from grooming for extended periods of time but I feel that the use of a matt rake should usually be taken as a sign that we have fallen behind the grooming requirements and need to improve our grooming routines/techniques.) Whether you have been able to complete basic matt removal with a comb alone or have had to use a matt rake and comb you still need to "brush out" the previously matted area. The area needs to be "line brushed" with your standard pin brush in all four directions, bottom up, top down, left to right and right to left. The idea here is to coax out the last crossed hairs and "soft tangles", some of which will have been made by the relatively heavy tearing and combing activites necessary to remove the matt. A final test of complete removal can be to pass your course comb through the now de-matted area. It should pass through easily and remove very little if any hair. During "blowing coat" periods it may be necessary to use the intermediate step(s) of medium (and fine) combs and possibly slickering between the course combing and the 4 way brush out. If the undercoat has matted close to the skin there will be no other choice than to use one or more of these intermediate steps. Being patient, deliberate, methodical and in many cases repetitive will ultimately remove the matt. I have used the term "... relatively heavy tearing and combing activities ...". As I have noted on other occassions grooming is a gentle activity. Matt removal needs to be as gentle as possible, but by it's very description though it is less gentle than a general grooming. Do you best not to tug or pull the dog's skin, especially when you are combing from the skin out and cannot hold the hair between the skin and matt. A note of caution, if your dog is not used to de-matting or when removing a particualrly big or tight matt keep close watch on your dog's reaction. He/she will inevitably wriggle and try to shield/hide the work area, that is normal and expected. What you need to watch for is signs of stress, panting, wimpering and flushing of the skin in the work area. While I counsel against defering matt removal, if this happens you will need to limit how much you do in a given session. Let the dog go for a rest of a couple of hours (perhaps the day) or go on with the rest of the grooming and complete matt removal at another time. Don't stress your dog and risk alienating him/her from grooming. Grooming is an excellent time for bonding and togetherness, don't loose that to a bad experience and upset on either side. As always if any of this is unclear post a reply or private message me with specific questions. Sometimes it is difficult to put down in words what is second nature to me and I'm sure it can be difficult for a reader to envision a process from words only the first time. Sorry (small brag here) I don't have a matted dog to do a photo essay right now! Cheers Carl |
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| Carl-
Thank you so much for your post on matt removal and your essay on Line Grooming. For those of us getting started, your guidance is greatly appreciated ! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience in keeping Old English Sheepdogs well groomed .... |
I love how your instructions are always so clear and well thought out. Thank you very much Carl  |
| Thanks so much for the wonderful, detailed description. This will help me tremendously! |
| You always amaze me Carl... Thanks for sharing! |
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