The Staging Method of Stripping
Part One

Many handlers prefer to rotate dogs rather than dog's coats! The professional handler usually has people standing in line, waiting for him to be free to handle their dogs. By using the "Staging" method of stripping out, the handler has one dog coming into coat, as another is going out. This enables him to handle twice as many dogs with fairness to twice as many clients. In addition, we must consider that the handler is traveling to shows every single weekend...one, two and three-day show weekends, and for dessert he or she may travel a circuit, taking in many shows in 14 days. This tires the handler, and it exhausts the dogs! So, by "Staging" the dog's coat, the dog gets an average eight-week rest every couple of months, while they are growing new coats.

Since we are not professional handlers, perhaps you are wondering what benefit this method may offer you. TIME, m' dears . . . marvelous, blessed time! If you are holding down a job and your grooming must be done in your spare time, THIS is the method for you! The initial rough stripping (stripping out) is done in two parts, spaced from two to two-and-a half weeks apart. Then there is about 8 weeks for the new coat to grow in, and you only have to "de-fuzz", and brush them from time to time. You and your dog both get a lovely rest, and you get to catch up on what the non-doggy world may be up to. In addition, in order to successfully rotate a coat, your dog must have a coat that is rotatable! Remember, a great wealth of HARD coat that can be grown in layers in necessary. I say it again . . . many dogs do not have a coat that can be properly rotated. They grow in a single, hard coat, with much undercoat, and as you work it from to show, nothing grows in to replace what you have removed. Soon your dog's coat looks like the moths have been at it. THIS type of coat should be STAGED!

Convinced? Well, let's get started! We still pluck, pull, shape and blend, etc, in the same manner as previously described. But this time, instead of pulling all the hair off the whole dog, we are going to do it in two STAGES . . . this is why we call this "the Staged Method".

FIRST STAGE

(Mark the day on your calendar)

Shape the dog's muzzle (NOT the whole head . . . just the MUZZLE). Leave the hair on the skull, ears, neck, throat, brisket, etc. You will remove more hair at this time than you would if he were going to a show next weekend. He has 8 weeks to grow hair, so bear this in mind. (Refer to the previous chapter on the head to refresh your memory.) At the same time, remove half of the eyebrows, from the inside corner of the eye to about the middle of the eye (observe the illustration-one). The whole object in staging is to remove the hair you want to be longest . . . at the FIRST Stage! The hair we want to be shortest is removed 2 to 21/2 weeks later, at the SECOND Stage . . . Simple! Since we want the longest hair of the eyebrows over the inside corner of the eye, this is removed now.

Do you have the muzzle shaped and half the eyebrows done? Good! We now strip the whole of the body, from the withers back to and including the tail. The WHOLE of the body, mind; this includes shaping the underline. At this time we will, by shaping, shorten the hair at the deepest point of the chest, by a good quarter-inch . . . I mean that much shorter than we would leave it for "show". The furnishings are shaped at the First stage, front as well as rear. Do NOT take them down radically! Do them as you would for show. We don't want them growing "Higgledy-Piggledy" during this "waiting period". Strip the hips and the point of the buttocks, all the way down the edge of the back of the hind legs, but leave the hair in the area between the points of the buttocks, and from the anus down to the scrotum.

Remember, STAGING IS FOR STRIPPING OUT, not for fine trimming (study the illustration-one). If your dog has well-pronounced withers, you will leave the withers hair for the second stage. If, on the other hand, he needs longer, fuller hair at the withers to shorten the look of his back, or to lengthen the appearance of his neck, we will strip the withers NOW. JUST AT THE TOP - DO NOT strip down the line of the shoulders. This pattern of stripping should form a little "Horseshoe" shape, with the "toe" of the horseshoe resting where the neck joins the whiskers (see illustration-two). Your dog now resembles a LION with a fuzzy fanny.