# Advice on Matting



## kimmly_nl (May 11, 2012)

Hello,

My little boy Hav, Milo is 14 months old now and I am trying to keep his coat long and avoid the groomer. But he seems to be matting really bad. I brush him out every day, but the mats keep coming back with a vengence!! My daughter wants to show him in ring for Junior Handling, so I am really reluctant to get him clipped down. Is he "blowing" out his coat? He hates to see me coming now with the brushes, it is like torture to him with the mats being so close to his skin and now he is scratching like crazy (I think it is irritating him so much dematting). Any advice? Do they blow out their coat more than once?

Thanks,
Kim and Milo


----------



## TilliesMom (Sep 30, 2010)

def. sounds like blowing coat! Do you have a GOOD comb? CC buttercomb #05 is what is reccomended the mosy. you need to comb down to the skin a MINIMUM of twice a day during this time, because the matts do literally form out of thin air and sometimes JUST after you finished combing a new one appears!! very frustrating, but with patience you CAN get through this!! From what I understand they can and do blow coat another 1 or 2 times, BUT the first is DEFINITLY the worst, so if you can get through this you'll be on your way!!


----------



## mamacjt (Aug 23, 2011)

Do you keep him really clean? I mean like bathing him at least once every 2 weeks or so? I have found that a clean dog mats less. I also am careful which grooming products I use. A friend told me once about CC's Ice on Ice. It is a leave in conditioner that I spray on him after a bath and towel drying (but before blow drying) which repels dirt and is also used as a de-matter if I should catch a mat while he is wet. I couldn't live without it.


----------



## Becky Chittenden (Feb 4, 2009)

He is blowing coat and some do this more than once. I've had ones do it once and a pair of littermates 3 times. Always brush out all the mats before bathing and blow dry while also brushing at least weekly does help


----------



## kimmly_nl (May 11, 2012)

Thanks for the advice everyone! Yes I do bath him regularly, at least once every 2 weeks. If needed weekly. I will try the spray on conditoner recommended and the brush  I have an quite the variety of brushed and combs already... I guess I just need a little patience as well, lol.

Again thanks for the replies and advice!!


----------



## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

If he is blowing coat, you better be combing him 2x day. Or, you will be getting him shaved soon.


----------



## heatherk (Feb 24, 2011)

Are you using a good conditioner on Milo? I have found that that can make a HUGE difference - a well-conditioned dog is much easier to keep combed! 

Also, regarding his attitude about grooming, keeping the grooming sessions short and giving LOTS of high-quality treats always seems to help with the dog's resistance to being groomed. Even though Cey has been groomed on a (semi) regular basis since he was 8 weeks old, I still give him lots of cheese and other high-quality treats whenever I am grooming or bathing him (he hates baths!) so even though he still doesn't really like being combed or bathed, he tolerates it for as long as it takes knowing that he will continue to get cheese and other high-quality treats randomly throughout the duration of the bathing or combing . 

One more thing - if the matts are close to his skin as you say, it may be that you need a better comb/combing technique. I would recommend getting a good CC comb and then combing Milo out thoroughly using cornstarch or a diluted conditioner/water spray to get through the matts. It doesn't have to be all done in 1 day - divide his body/hair up into sections that are do-able in 1 day, and then just do one section a day. The previously-combed sections should be relatively easy to comb again when you are combing the next section... just focus on getting the next section, whatever it might be, totally and thoroughly combed out from the skin up with a good-quality comb, and then when it's all done, he should be a lot easier to comb out than before.

Just my two cents!


----------

