Matted Makeover...See What I Can Do

I had a little matted Maltese in the other day.

I hate when dogs come in matted in the middle of the winter.

I really hate when they are matted, because they have been wearing a sweater.

Hair + sweater + static electricity + friction = mats!

The last thing that I want to do is shave a dog in the middle of the winter that we are having now.

This little ones hair is not really that long, but she has been wearing a sweater.

Unfortunately, the body, ears and tail are very matted.

So, in the tub we go.

I made up a mixture of shampoo and 'The Stuff' in hopes that I would be able to loosen the matting up enough to get a longer blade through the coat.

The legs were only a little matted and I was pretty sure I would be able to easily brush them out.

Her ears had been pretty long and were matted.

Her owner had also been cutting some mats out of the ears.

One ear was choppy but still long.....

.....but the other ear was really hacked  up.

So, I called the owner to see if it was okay to take both ears short and start over again.

Yes, I called the owner.

I did not just take it upon myself to make the ears look cute and uniform, she is not my dog.

Yes, I have had pet owners tell me to leave long, uneven, chopped up ears, because they did not want them short no matter how goofy they looked.

Not my dog.....I do what the owner wants.....as long as it does not hurt the dog.

This owner told me to go ahead and do what I thought was best.

The matting on the body did loosen up away from the skin enough for me to get a #3F under the mat.

Most of the matting on the legs blew out with the HV.

I did have to shave the chest and belly with a #7F blade.

The tail was a matted mess.

While not pelted tight to the bone, there were about four large chunks of mats.

I used the mat splitter to carefully split up the four large mats into much smaller mats.

 I made sure to keep the tail bone covered with my fingers so that I was sure that I was only cutting mat.

I also split the mat by putting the point of the mat splitter between the tail bone and the mat, then carefully cut down, away from the tail bone, through the mat.

I was not expecting much hair to be left on the tail after brushing out these smaller mats.

 I was pleasantly surprised.

The smaller mats brushed out quickly and easily.

I did let the owner know that dematting the tail caused the tail to lose a lot of hair and was now very thinned out.

 The cut is shorter than the owner would have liked for the winter, but I am sure that she will be wearing her sweater again.

I explained to the owner that she should brush the dog every time she takes the sweater off.

I also let owners know that it is best not to let her dog wear the sweater 24/7.

I think that she looks really cute with the shorter ears.

Maybe the owner will decided to keep them short.

Maybe......I am not holding my breath.

Pet owners love those long ears! :)