Much Floof ! Grooming tips for new long haired doggie please

[AlienatedChildGrown]

We lost all three of our dogs to old age (17, 16, 17) during the pandemic. We’ve just adopted a new 2 year old boy this week from the rescue that recently opened in our town. He’s great ! But…. I’ve only ever had short haired dogs before. And I feel like King Canute versus The Floof with our existing dog comb.

What do I need to get to brush him properly ? I don’t want to go mad on amazon just to find a lot of expensive disappointment. Nor do I want anything that would damage his top fur or hurt his skin. We live really rurally, lots of walking in countryside, today he leapt into a stream, rolled about on burrs, attempted to bring home as many varied grass seeds a soggily possibly. He’s having a fabbo time and I don’t want to stop his fun for the sake of staying clean & tidy. So need something that can be used daily, or even three times daily after each walk, without causing any issues.

Any suggestions ?

Picture enclosed, but doesn’t show the full floofyness. The top coat is really quite long, coarse is some areas, soft in others, crimped on legs and tail like he escaped from the 80s. V. v. thick undercoat that is shedding due to 30°C temps 🥵

What's floof? Fluff? Fur?

Fluff mostly. It’s not like normal fur. Or at least nothing I’ve taken care of before, There’s a long top coat with various textures, really much finer that it seems at first. And the thickest undercoat I’ve ever seen. Which is about 3/4 cm long, bright orange and really dense.

It’s so hot now that it’s bad enough without having your own personally grown duvet on all the time. There are also matts in places. A couple of dreadlocks I might had to snip off. My old “normal shorthaired doggie” comb is just not up to the job of maintaining him let alone sorting him out in the first place.

I would go to the groomers and get him professionally groomed and clipped if necessary and get their advice on what is best for every day grooming.

We have three dogs and one has long and coarse hair with an undercoat that's sheds and looks and feels like dense cotton wool.

I shave him which gets rid of the problem but he is considerably smaller than yours.

@ElenaSt I’d love to take him to a professional but we’ve only had him 5 days, andhaven’t managed to persuade him cars aren’t evil yet. He’s only just got the hang of stairs, and is still somewhat suspicious of them. His trainer is having to come to us on Tuesday to help him with his car trust issues. The one groomer locally who might have been willing to drive down to us unfortunately died during the pandemic. The nearest alternative is a good 30 minutes away in light traffic.

Cotton wool is a pretty good description of the undercoat. If I could get it out I think he’d be a lot more comfortable in the heat. I reckon with lots of treats and the careful use of nail scissors I could get the worst matts out painlessly. But I’m not at all sure he’d tolerate clippers. He’s still adjusting to house life as opposed to street / rescue kennel life and I’m leery of upsetting him when he’s doing so well at coping with so much change.

He's gorgeous! As he has a double coat, get professional advice before doing any clipping (other than matt removal) - our double coated long haired dog can't be clipped but I'm not sure if this is a universal rule. Ours has a long outer coat (crimpy in places too) and the dense cotton wool undercoat. I swear by Les poochs brushes to get the undercoat out (plus the occasional wash and blow out at the groomers). They are not cheap but worth every penny! Use with detangling spray. I also have a pin brush for the outer coat. My dog has better brushes than me....

Undercoat rake and a slicker brush should sort you. If he has matts then they’ll probably need to be shaved - it’s hard to get all but the smallest matts out without hurting the dog. If they aren’t big you can try squirting some show sheen in and massaging it into the matt then using a greyhound comb to gently tease it apart. Don’t get the dog wet because the matt will just get tighter.

Get an undercoat rake..one that looks like a small garden rake from amazon or similar. I also use a knot splitter (looks like a plastic large comma with a blade in) for tricky matts. Do NOT clipper (unless you need to do a little round the butt end for hygiene..we had to do that recently after a bout of diarrhoea)
Double coated dogs should never be clippered as it makes the undercoat fuzzier.
And building up trust is a slow process so combine any attempts at brushing with the best treats ever :)..even just for seeing the brush if he isn't used to it.
Congrats on your new boy!
My double coated beastie is currently blowing her coat... soooooo much hair,....

our double coated long haired dog can't be clipped but I'm not sure if this is a universal rule.

I think this applies to all double coated dogs so you need to be careful with finding a good groomer OP who knows how much coat to remove if you do want your dog clipped. It's not something I've ever had done with my double coated coat but I know people do.

I know someone whose double coated dog was clipped too short, practically shaved in fact, by a supposedly qualified groomer - not at the owner's request - and the coat has never looked right since.

You will need to brush then comb to get fur underneath. Probably brush for 15-20 mins daily. Or do as I do and get dog clipped every 12 weeks. Then only 5-10 minutes daily.

We have Lhasa Apso.

We also use lots of doggie conditioner and detangle spray.

@Absolutechaos Thank you ! He is rather lovely looking. We think he might be a wäller hund (possibly created entirely accidentally since he was found down in the south, nowhere near the northern boarders). Did a reverse image search with some of his photos and wäller came up straight away. We don’t seem to have that brush brand over here. Anything on here that looks like it might be similar ?

I’ve combed him (with original comb) everyday and appear to be creating a second Bohdi with the accumulating pile of floof. Complete fail at enticing him into the car so far. The trainer says he appears to have had an adverse event in one based on his reaction. He’s been so easy train in all other respects that trainer said if DS wants to go in for provincial competitions it might be a perfect hobby for our boy because he seems to love “working” and adores other dogs (proper helicopter tail wagging). But none of that can happen until we slowly slowly eradicate the “That’s a death trap! Nooooooo !” car problem.

Any recommendations for shampoo, conditioner and detangling sprays ? We can borrow the dog washing station at the rescue centre he came from, but we’ll have to DIY it and bring our own stuff.

Is he originally from Romania?
Might be worth googling breeds and trying to work out if he should be trimmed of not as some dogs have coats designed to keep them cool in summer and shouldn't be cut.

No, I’m up in the north of Italy in the plains. He was found in quite a bad way down in the South. So somebody in the volunteer network rescued him and sent him up this end of the country.

There’s so little info on the Wäller Hund I’m poking around groups for the Aus. Shep & the Briard since those are the breeds used to create the Wäller. Hoping they’ll have some useful tips.

We’ve just ordered a kong zoomgroom because I’m hoping with something soft and massage like will help him get over his grooming aversion.