# Hand-stripping a Brussels Griffon, benefits???



## dredges (May 18, 2012)

Hand-stripping a Brussels Griffon, benefits???

We have been taking our Brussels Griffon to get hand-stripped every 4 to 6 months, but it's so expensive and inconvenient.
He has never been clipped or scissor cut, except a little to get hair out of his eyes.
I always thought we were doing this to keep his hair wirey, but my fiance' said it was to keep it from shedding. Truth is we can't remember why we decided to go down this path.
Our dogs coat isn't very wirey now, it's quite soft, but he doesn't shed and we love that.

The problem is now that he has developed bad knees he doesn't want to lift his leg and his tummy get stinky, also the groomer last time left his bottom side long because she said his knees must hurt and he was too uncomfortable and wouldn't stand any longer.

If we just get him clipped it would be a lot cheaper and more convenient, there are only 2 or 3 groomers that even offer hand-stripping in an hour radius of my house anyways.
But will he start to shed? and what will happen to his coat? 

Thanks


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## bett (Mar 15, 2012)

i have nothing to add regarding stripping but he is soooo cute i can jump thru the screen.
thanks for making my day!


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## flashyfawn (Mar 8, 2012)

Clipping on a wire coated dog will make the coat much softer, but if his coat is already soft, then you might not notice that much of a difference in texture. His color will most likely fade a little. That isn't a breed that should shed much if at all and clipping the hair won't change that. Normally it is possible to restore the coat to hand stripped condition after clipping but the more he's been clipped, restoring the coat will be harder. For example on an older dog who has been clipped for years and years, it's probably going to be pretty hard to fix that. But if you get this dog clipped a couple times and decide you don't like it, the groomer who is doing hand stripping should be able to get the coat back to what it is now although it may take a few grooming appointments to get there. Hand stripping is done on some breeds because it's considered correct care for specific coat types but for a pet dog, it's your preference. As you said, clipping is going to be cheaper and easier to find.

Now with his knees, that's still going to be a problem. Clipping might go faster than hand stripping but there is still a lot of manipulation that has to go on during a haircut. If he's really in pain and having a hard time, you have to understand that it's going to be nearly impossible for the groomer to do a super great job--sometimes a groomer has to decide that the comfort of the dog is more important than the perfect haircut. Or it could be that the groomer expected him to stand for the whole groom, which IMO is not realistic for any dog. Does he have luxating patellas? If that's what he has and it's really bad, there is a surgery you can have done, one of my dogs had it done when she was a little under 1 yr old and she has never taken a bad step on that leg since then. But she's a huge dog and I know this problem is more common in little dogs, and sometimes they don't need surgery.


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