Golden Retriever
Golden Retrievers vary in size and coat type. The guard coat should by shiny and hang flowing and soft. It provides a waterproof layer that ensures the dog can shake off after a swim and dry relatively quickly. It should not be cut to attempt to de-bulk the dog as if this happens it may forever be damaged, and regrowth can be spikey, dull and wiry.
The undercoat is a different texture and sometimes a different colour. It naturally keeps the dog insulated from hot and cold. Therefore, with changing seasons the dog sheds the undercoat. As part of our grooming schedule we use products that open the hair follicle to blow out the loose undercoat so that instead of it coming out all over your house over a number of weeks, we remove it painlessly during the groom. We also check the dog all over, trim nails, clean out paw pads, ears and tidy feather and tail. The process is usually enjoyable for the dogs and comparable to an itch finally being scratched.
How long to book for the appointment
On average a Golden Retriever groom takes 2 hours.
Occasionally with small females that have thinner fur we can complete everything in 1.5 hours.
Dogs weighing more than 35kgs take significantly longer. Dogs that are tall, heavy or have thick fur can require
2.5 - 3 hours or even more.
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The issue to note that to fully deshed we blow dry the hair under pressure and the more dry the fur after deshed treatment, the more undercoat comes out. A dog whose coat is matted, thick or dreadlocked will take a long time to dry. A dog that is very big and whose surface area is greater than normal cannot be completed in the same time as a smaller dog. A dog that is easily frightened and that requires a quieter, less forceful blow dryer, will take longer to dry. All these factors determine the groom time required to get the entire process performed satisfactorily. If a full deshed is not completed because too short a groom was booked; then over time, the coat of the dog becomes worse and worse.
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The same can be said for owners who get their dogs washed regularly but not dried by a mobile dog wash. To not deshed or dry the dog just means the coat smells better but is often as dirty as prior. Once washed and whilst still wet, the dog rolls in grass, soil and sand which sticks to the damp clumps of fur and makes the state of the coat worse not better. The damp fur takes longer and longer to dry out each time it gets wert and more debris has time to join the clump as the dog rolls drying.
We often reach the point that the only humane way to remove severe matting from a dog is to clip individual clumps out as they are often bound tightly to skin. In extreme cases we have to clip sections or all of the dog and this in turn affects the regrowth of the coat and future prospects for managing the coat.