Bathing/Clipping a Matted Dog

I would like to start off this post with a warning.

I know that I have many pet owners that read my blog.

It is important to understand that I very strongly disagree with pet owners bathing their dogs when they are matted, or have not been thoroughly brushed and combed out first. 

Bathing a matted dog and not drying it correctly (as I will explain in this post) will only cause the matting to become tighter.

Shampoo and water could also get trapped under the matting and cause skin irritation.  

I have had several groomers question my method of bathing matted dogs.

Earlier this month Brent asked me to describe my process of bathing matted dogs.

I haven't had any really matted dogs in recently (thankfully), and with most of my Christmas customers being regulars, I most likely will not have any badly matted dogs till after Christmas, or in the spring.

So, this post will be made up of a mixture of a lot of different dogs and pictures that I have taken the last few years.

So here we go.

Like most groomers out there, I was taught to never bath a dog with mats in it. 

I followed this rule for the first 15 years of my grooming career. 

I always preclipped my dogs, even ones that were not matted. 

It never crossed my mind to even try bathing a matted dog.

To be honest, I can't really remember who told me about bathing matted dogs.

I went to a seminar once and met two groomers that talked about bathing dogs without brushing out the undercoat first.

I remember being blown away as they sat there insisting that they could groom a Keeshound in one hour, start to finish, all undercoat removed, by bathing it first and then blowing out the undercoat with a HV dryer. 

Shortly after that seminar I started grooming out of my Mobile Grooming Van.

Because time was so important, and my goal was to spend no longer than one hour to an hour and fifteen minutes at each house, I decided to no longer preclip my dogs.

I started putting every dog straight in the tub.  

My van was booked a year in advance.
 Just about all of my customers were on regular 4 to 6 week schedules, so I rarely had any matted dogs.   

When I opened my shop again, I continued putting all of my dogs in the tub first with no preclipping...even the matted ones.

That was 13 years ago.

I have been bathing matted dogs ever since.

I think that I will write this post in a question and answer format.

I will try to think of all the questions that another groomer might ask.  

Let's get started.

**Why bathe a matted dog?    

In my opinion, it is 100% safer and easier to clip a clean matted dog than a dirty, greasy matted dog.

 Let me ask you some questions....

~Have you ever spent a tremendous amount of time trying to fight a blade through dirty, greasy, matted hair?
~Have you ever had several blades dull in the process of clipping a dirty, greasy, matted coat?
~Have you ever had your blades jam, over and over again, in that dirty, matted hair to the point that you wanted to throw the blade across the room? 
~Have your blades quickly heated up fighting their way through the mat?
~Have you ever scared the sh*t out of yourself because you were not sure whether you were cutting mat or skin?
~Have you ever accidentally nicked a dog because the mat pulled the skin up into the blade? 

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, those are all good reasons to bathe a matted dog before clipping.

  

 What blade would you have preclipped this matted, overgrown Yorkie with?

A #5, #7, or maybe even a #10 blade. 

   After bathing and drying this once matted Yorkie was able to go home with a cute #3F blade cut.

~The blade never jammed.

~The blade did not heat up.

~I did not have to fight the blade through the clean coat.

~I did not dull any blades.  

~The dog was not nicked.
~The Yorkies clean hair was clipped much faster than if it had been dirty. 


**Will the grooming take longer if not preclipped?

The main complaint that I hear from groomers about bathing matted dogs is, drying all of that matted hair.
As you will read later in this post, you do not have to worry about getting all of the matted hair dry.
Your goal when drying a matted coat is to HV dry only the hair between the dogs skin and the mat.
The hair that you will be cutting...the air space between the skin and mat.

I heard that....'What the heck is she talking about?'   

I will explain in more detail later.

Anyway, remember you have already saved the preclip time by putting the dog straight into the tub. 
I think that you will also be surprized at how much the matting breaks down, under the force of the HV dryer, when the mat is free of dirt and grease.
It can make the drying go pretty quick on some dogs.

On some dogs, the dryer will surprising remove most of the matting.  

 
  

What blade would you have used to preclip this dirty, matted Poodle?

 With the help of a special shampoo and conditioner, the HV dryer was able to blowout just about all of the mats in this dogs coat.

Five minutes of brushing while fluff drying and this Poodle was mat free. 

Instead of being preclipped with a #5 or #7 blade, this dog was able to have a clip comb used on the body and legs.

Now, if only the owner will let us remove the mats from the topknot next time. :) 







**Do you bathe a matted dog any special way?

Yes. 

To bathe a matted dog, I like to use Best Shot Shampoo and Creme Rinse.

I use both the shampoo and creme rinse straight, I do not dilute it.

Another product that I like to use on matted dogs is 'The Stuff'.

I will make up a bottle of diluted shampoo and add a cap full of 'The Stuff'.  

 

 Bathing a matted dog may take you a little extra time, but not much.

I like to hand bathe my dogs.

I like to know that I am getting the shampoo worked really well into the matting.

I also like to work the mats apart that loosen up as the hair is cleaned.

Make sure that you rinse the shampoo very well.

Then creme rinse.

Depending on how tightly matted the dogs coat is, I will let the Creme Rinse sit a few minutes before rinsing well. 

**How do you dry a matted coat? 

In my opinion, a matted dog MUST be dryed straight from the tub.

DO NOT kennel dry!!  

If you do not have the time to HV dry dogs, or do not have a HV dryer, DO NOT bathe matted dogs.

  

 

A HV dryer is a must when bathing and drying matted dogs.

I recommend the ones with a variable speed control. 

You also want to remove the pointy regulator from the hose.  

 Use only the wide end mouth end of the hose.

 You want to place the hose right up against the mat.

Your goal is to blow the mat apart and move the mat as far away from the skin as possible. 

 Even if you are only able to move the mat a little bit away from the skin, it will give you a safe, clean air space between the skin and mat to easily get a blade through.

 I like working in a circular motion while working the air under the mat.

My goal is to dry from the skin out.

If you are drying a dog with very big thick mats, it is not important to get the mat itself dry.

The only hair that you want completely dry is the hair between the skin and mat.  

**Will I always be able to get a longer blade under the mat? 

I have found that most of the time I am able to get a longer blade under the mat then if I had preclipped. 

The clip definitely comes out smoother and plushier. 

The blade also slides nice and smoothly under the mat without overheating. 

Here are some examples of what the hair looks like, under the mat, after it has been cleaned and HV dried. 

  
Matting that loosened up a lot under the dryer.

A Poodle that would have had to be preclipped with a #7 .

After bathing and HVing the matted coat, a #4F blade was able to easily go through the coat. 

 This matting blew far enough away from the skin to get a 3/4 blade through the coat.

We were able to get a #3F under the mat on this dog.

 The mat on this dog was so tight that we still had to clip the dog with a #7F.

If we had preclipped, it would have taken quite a while to fight the blade through the dirty coat.

We may even have had to use a #10 blade, which could have caused skin irritation or a possible nick on this white, tender skinned dog.

Clipping a clean, matted dog allowed us to easily glide the #7f blade under the mat without worry. 

 Well there you go....

That is how I groom my matted dogs.  

It does not mean that other groomers have to do the same.  

Just have an open mind and give it a try sometime. 

You never know, you may be pleased with the results. 

 Sometimes it is hard to break away from the only way you know how, or have been taught, how to do something. 

It doesn't hurt to try something new.

You can always go back to the old way if you don't like it.

Just give new things a fair chance.

Try it a few times.

Give it a chance to get used to it.

If you still don't like the new method, no big deal. :)

I hope that this helped.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.

I will eventually answer them. :p

I have 13 comments waiting for me right now. :/

Oh....wait!

One more thing.

Please forgive any typos you may see in this post.

Blogger has been a real pain tonight.

It has been adding letters here and there, among other things, all night...driving me crazy!

Thanks. :)

Happy Grooming, MFF