Haircut West Highland White Terrier: requirements and types

Grooming the West Highland White Terrier has its own characteristics and requirements. There are several types of haircuts that are designed for show career and home use.

Trimming is in great demand among owners of the West Highland White Terrier. This procedure is a uniform plucking of the guard hair. With the help of trimming you can keep a dog's hard coat in perfect condition. Often owners resort to easy trimming, during which all dead osteal hairs are removed with a neat grip on only the upper part of the hairs.

Live hair remains untouched. This option of grooming is suitable for the cold season, because after the dead wool is removed, the remaining coat can be leveled using a typewriter.

If light trimming is carried out, the maximum interval between the haircuts should be 3 months (30% is removed). Otherwise, with a large amount of hair removed, the animal will become bald and unattractive. If you make the right care of the coat, it will not fall into mats, get wet. Such wool protects the dog from cold weather, heat and other weather conditions. The “plucked” West Highland White Terrier will not dirty so much, become cold and take on a neat look.

Trimming can be of several types.

• Clapping. It is a pinch in which only fingers are applied.

• Stripping During this plucking the master uses a special knife-stripping.

• Plact The coat is removed with a sharp and quick movement.

Haircut West Highland White Terrier should be done according to the rules.

• First, the animal should be combed with a brush from the back of the head to the tail. After that, combing is carried out in a vertical direction along the abdomen and paws.
• If the owner does not have experience in trimming, you should not use special knives to prevent injury to the dog. It is best to pull out with your fingers.
• A small amount of baby powder can improve capture.
• After the preparatory measures have been taken, you can grab the skin fold with the fingers of your left hand, pulling it up. Due to these actions, the longest hairs will become noticeable. The most convenient way to grab them is with the thumb or forefinger of the other hand.
• Several hairs should be grabbed, after which they jerk dramatically on themselves.
• First of all, the back is plucked (starting from the withers and to the tail). The fur grows rapidly in these areas, so it needs to be thinned regularly.
• When plucking is done, the wool should be constantly combed. This will allow you to consider the result of the process.
• The bang is neatly cut with scissors, after which the hair on the ears is removed. It should be left 1 centimeter from the tip of the ears. It is advisable to ask the assistant to hold the head of the terrier, to ensure a neat haircut.
• The hair on the chest and throat should be cut with thinning scissors.

For the first time, trimming is not done entirely, but through a single hair. The puppy will look untidy, but this procedure is essential for grooming.This is due to the fact that the coat of this breed is fully ready for trimming for a period of 4-6 months. If the owner appeals to the groomer after 2.5 months, a new one, more rigid and short, will appear under the untidy fur.

The specialist will remove the remaining hair from the first time, and the animal will acquire an appearance that will be fully suitable for the exhibition. The procedure is not fast, several visits will be spent on creating layers, but each time it will take less time to work with wool, and the animal will become more and more similar to other representatives of the breed, placed in glossy magazines.

For this reason, experts advise that you take responsibility for the care of your fourfold friend with care if you are planning an exhibition career.. The first work of the groomer is made when the puppy is 1 month old. The traditional “chrysanthemum” on the head is created only with the help of plucking with your fingers. Paws and "skirt" do not touch.

Hygiene procedures for breeding grooming are mandatory activities. Daily manipulations will be required, with the help of which the whiteness of the muzzle is maintained. To keep the coat white, you can use calcium carbonate with boric acid. They need to be rubbed into the wool, and then proceed to combing with a brush from natural bristles.

Scheme of exhibition grooming:

• the length of the hair on the upper part of the body (from withers to tail) should be 4-5 cm;
• plots on the throat, on the sides of the neck, up to the shoulder-shoulder joints should be shortly pulled out;
• the hair on the crest of the neck should be 5 cm, the transition from the neck to the withers should form a smooth arc;
• the sides and sciatic tubercles remain short;
• elbows plucked in such a way that the snug fit was noticeable;
• The “skirt” should start from connecting the elbow to the highest inguinal point;
• the transition from short to long wool should be smooth;
• on the paws, only protruding hairs are plucked out;
• around the anus and on the back of the tail leave a short fur.

For exhibitions there is only one option, which is called breed grooming. Some owners are exploring non-standard options that are also suitable for their dogs, but do not fit the breed standard. You can choose haircuts of other breeds and experiment with your pet, but experts distinguish between 2 types of work with hair: for the exhibition and for the house.

They differ from the standard grooming with a shorter hair length, which makes the covering more practical. Some owners cut their animals under the machine, which is undesirable. Experienced groomers recommend resorting to this option only in the following cases.

• When the animal has skin diseases that are in the acute stage. Do not pull out damaged skin.
• If the pet has never been plucked, and its age is more than 5 years.
• The owner likes the look of the animal.

You can just slightly shorten the length of the hair, creating a rectangular shape, without resorting to the shape of the head "chrysanthemum". Also, owners of dogs of this breed are experimenting with bangs, emphasizing the sex of their pet.

How to cut a West Highland White Terrier, see below.