How To Groom An Old English Sheepdog

How To Groom An Old English Sheepdog ~

Finally, I use my comb to go through the muzzle and beard, as well as carefully comb the coat on the ears. The edges of the ears mat easily, and often go unnoticed. Use your comb following the ear from top to bottom and be VERY gentle if you have to do any mat removal on the ear flaps. The skin can tear easily there.

After combing the out side of the ears I flip the ear over and comb the inside ear flap. I then puff in a bit of R-7 ear powder to give a good grip, and pluck the hair from inside the ear with either my fingers or forceps.

The next step is to apply an ear cleaner, there are many brands on the market. If you have nothing handy, alcohol will work as long as the ear is not inflamed at all, as then it would sting. If the ear is inflamed or red at all, I would use witch hazel.

You can saturate a cotton ball and then clean as far inside the ear as you can go. I do not recommend using a q tip as the canine ear is shaped very differently than ours, and you may damage the ear drum. If the ears are really dirty, I would use a different solution (which is posted here) and fill the ear canal to flush it out, then resume cleaning as usual.

Either when you are finishing up or while you are working on the feet, is a good time to trim the toenails.

Most Old English Sheepdogs have at least some white nails which makes it easier. You will need nail clippers, I prefer the guillotine style. You should also have some styptic powder, a styptic pencil, or cornstarch will work in a pinch. This is just in case you do cut into the quick. The quick is a blood vessel that runs into the nail. In a white nail it can be seen fairly easily.

If your dog has one or more black nails, it is easiest to just try to trim them about the same amount as the white nails, or trim small slivers gradually until you can see a dot in the center of the nail, indicating you are close to the quick.

Once you have gone through this a few times, as long as you make sure you groom faithfully once a week, on an adult dog in full coat this entire sequence will take you 60-90 minutes. Maybe a little longer for every other week when you do nails, trimming etc.

Mat Removal

Having an OES means you WILL run into mats occasionally, no matter how well or how often you groom. Grooming on a regular basis and thoroughly reduces the incidences of matting, but they will still happen.

If you stick to a schedule though, you will find them faster, when they are smaller and more manageable.

To remove a mat first you need to isolate it from surrounding coat. If it is very small, you can use a comb, just the end tooth of it, to gently pick it apart and then comb it out. A slicker brush works well for tiny knots that slip through the teeth of the comb.

For larger mats, usually found behind the ears, and the neck and chest area, you can either use the same method (one tooth of your comb) if it is not too tight or close to the skin. With the tooth of the comb break the mat from the skin out into tiny mats. For example, if the mat is about an inch, I would split it into 6 to 8 pieces, and then comb out and maybe finish with the slicker if necessary.

If a mat is very tight, and or close to the skin, the Mars Coat King rake or similar product comes in handy. You simply pull the rake through, and the blades slice through the coat separating the mat into smaller mats you can then work out with your comb. Makes sure you use the rake only on mats as it does cut the coat and remove a lot. Even on a mat, if you have a show dog I do not recommend using this rake on very visible areas. It does however do a quick job without a lot of painful tugging and pulling on your dog’s coat and skin.

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