Pet Grooming for Your Cocker

This is a 6 month old puppy with approximately 8 weeks of hair growth. This is more hair growth than you should have to deal with if you keep your dog on my recommended 4-6 week grooming schedule.

This shows the amount of fuzz one of these kids can grow in a relatively short time. I let this pup grow quite long for this article, but please keep your dog groomed more often, especially puppies, so they learn to accept grooming without fear or nervousness.

Holding the dog's nose up, measure one finger width above the breastbone. Place the clipper, with a #10 blade attached (try a #8 1/2 for dogs with sensitive skin) flat against the skin, with teeth pointing up, at the measured spot above the breastbone. Shave the entire front of the neck, all the way across the chest, going against the grain of hair growth.

This shows the neck shaved with a finger on the breastbone. Remember to take your time. If you take off too much hair, it'll grow back; but you can avoid mistakes by taking your time and checking your "pattern" as you go.

Pull the ear up out of the way on the side you're working on. Holding the dog's head (and ear), shave DOWN the sides of the neck/shoulder to a point almost level with the shaved line of the chest.

You will keep the blade flat on the skin until almost down to the shaved line at the chest.

As you approach the shave line at the chest, you need to slowly "flip" the edge of the blade away from the body to blend the shaved line into the longer feathering that will be left on the sides.

With the ear flipped backwards, shave up the cheek (against the grain) to a point just above the front of the ear and even with the corner of the eye.

Shave the muzzle (against the grain) forward to the end of the nose.

To get the muzzle truly "clean" of unwanted hair, you must stretch the skin of the cheek and muzzle backwards and keep it pulled tight as you shave against the grain with the blade flat against the skin. This will probably take several passes to get the area really even.

Be sure to watch the heat of your clipper blade as you can burn your dog if the blade gets too hot. Use some Kool Lube as you go along to keep the blades cooler.

This is a tricky area and one many dogs don't appreciate having shaved. You must hold the dog firmly and insist he behave himself. You will need to pull the skin of the face tight again to get all of the hair shaved from underneath the eye. You can't use the entire width of the blade in this area, so you will only worry about keeping one edge of the blade in contact with the dog's face.

Be sure to keep the blade pushed into the hair. Even though this is a sensitive area, you can't get the job done if you're timid about getting in there!

Here again you'll need to stretch the skin to get to all the hair you need to clip. You're still trimming against the grain and keeping the blade pushed into the skin for a short ,even clip.

You'll shave forward to the end of the chin, being sure to get up under the upper lip.

Cockers have a "pocket" in the lower lip that it is very important for you to keep the hair clipped out of. This area can be prone to nasty, smelly infections if not kept clean.

The easiest way to get into this area with the clippers is to insert your thumb into the corner of the mouth and pull the lower lip taut as you clip.

Be sure not to catch the little nodules that grow on the edge of the lip. These little skin bumps can be difficult to avoid, and while the dog won't die if you accidentally clip one, it is painful for the dog and if cut, this area can bleed profusely.

To finish out the grooming of your Cocker's face, you will shave the top of the nose, corners of the eyes and you will clean out the "stop". You will do this by trimming from the eyes out to the end of the nose.

To clean out the stop, you will make an inverted "V" between the eyes. In other words, you will use the edge of your clipper blade to trim slightly back into the space between the eyes (at an angle) from each direction.

You will start by trimming the outside ear leather from approximately 1/3rd of the way down the ear (including the long hair at the bottom of the ear) up to the top of the head. This is about 1/2 of the length of the ear leather (the skin of the ear).

Holding the ear up, with your fingers behind the ear leather for support, you will shave the same amount of ear leather that you did on the other side of the ear (about half of the leather).

You will start above the ear canal and shave down (against the grain) to the ear canal and then all around the ear canal.

To clip around the bottom edge of the ear canal, you will lay the ear down on the head and hold the dog's head as you clip the hair. The hair will grow in different directions in this area, so you will have to change the direction you are clipping so that you continue to shave all of the hair around the canal against the grain.

It's important that you keep the hair around the ear canal as short as possible to allow air to circulate into the ear canal. This will help keep your Cocker's ears healthy and free of infection.

When trimming the back edge of the ear, use your fingers to support the ear leather so you get a nice, even trim.

Use your fingers for support under the front edge as well.

Along the back edge of your dog's ear are two small "flaps" of skin that form a pocket on the edge of the ear.

You must locate this flap and be careful not to catch the edges as you clip.

I've shaved the area in this picture so you can see the flaps.

Normally you would shave the ear just below this flap in the front and back of the ear.

In this picture you can see the pocket formed by the flaps.

At this point you're going to tidy up the hair around the top of the head. Starting on the side of the face, trim UP to the corner of the eye and around the sides of the skull about half an inch above the top of the ear.

You will shave UP the back-skull from about half an inch down on the neck to about half an inch above the curve of the back of the skull.

You will have about an inch wide total area of shaved skin that falls between the top of the neck and the top of the head.

Next you will shave the EDGE of the long topknot hair from the sides and above so that it's somewhat blended into your shaved area.

You do NOT want to shave the topknot, Just trim the long edge that hangs over the shaved area.

This will really save your scissoring hand when it comes to finishing the topknot!

It may look like I'm shaving the topknot in this picture, but in reality I'm skimming the long hair that hangs over the shaved edge. I'm not applying pressure to the blade or trying to shave the area down to the skin. I'm just skimming the long hairs so that they blend in a litlle more evenly around the edges.

Continue trimming the excess topknot around the head.

This is where anyone wanting to show their dog in conformaton classes will stop. "Show" dogs do not get their backs shaved. They are hand-scissored with thinning shears, hand-stripped with a stripping knife or a combination of both.

Shaving the back is an acceptable clip for obedience, agility, or field trial dogs and is almost always done on pets.

You will still be using a #10 blade (switch to a cool blade, use some Kool Lube or take a short break to let your blade cool if hot). If you don't like the completely shaved look of a #10 blade, you can try a #7F or #5F on your dog's back. The longer blades (#7F & #5F) are sometimes a good choice for dogs that have really straight coat down their backs. Be sure you get a "finish" blade though - #7F or #5F, not a plain #7 or #5 blade.

Start at the top of the neck and shave straight down the dog's back.

You will shave about 3 blade widths straight down the dogs back. Pull the skin slightly to the side of the back bone on each side so you aren't bumping over the ridges in the dog's backbone as you clip. It also sometimes helps to pull the neck skin forward as you clip through the shoulder area.

As you work down the back, you will turn your clippers as you come down the sides of the dog. You can't make a straight shot down the side from shoulder to hip or it will leave a funny looking line that's impossible to blend.

As you get to the height of the shave line of the chest you will "flip" the blade out from the skin, just as you did when shaving the sides of the neck. This will blend the shaved area into the feathering.

Up till now you've been working more from the front of the dog. As you work your way down the back, shift to a position that's more to the rear of the dog and continue shaving and blending the back/sides of the dog.

As you get to the rear of the dog, pull the skin slightly forward and shave all the way down the dog's back to (and slightly around) the base of the tail. Then pick up the tail and hold by the long hair on the end of the tail or by the end of the tail itself if your dog won't stand reasonable still.

Shave the top and sides of the tail from the base to the tip.

Check your blades again for heat build-up and spray, change or take a break if necessary.

With a cool blade, holding the top-side of the tip of the tail, shave the underneath of the tail down to the rectum.

Still holding the tip of the tail, shave just to the left, right and beneath the rectum, taking off any long hair that might come in contact with feces.

To help keep the groin/belly area clean, I recommend shaving the groin area. Start by picking the dog up by the front legs, supporting his body and asking him to stand on his rear legs. Begin about the middle of the belly (2-3 inches in front of the end of the penis on male dogs), and shave down the belly (to the vulva on female dogs). Clean out the entire groin area.

As you shave down through the flank area, be careful not to catch the edges of loose skin where the leg joins the belly (where the clippers are in this picture). You must also take care not to catch the dog's nipples or genitals as you shave down through the belly.

Lifting each rear leg will help give you access to more easily clip up the inside of the legs and into the genital area. Be sure not to lift the leg too far and don't let the dog yank the leg excessively while you're holding it up.

This is what the belly should look like when it's all cleaned out. In the summer, or just for convenience of brushing and hygiene, you can shave the dog from the "arm pits" all the way down the chest/belly to the area shown here.

The next job is to clean out the hair between the pads of the feet. You can continue to use a cool #10 blade or you can switch to a #15 or #30.

While holding the foot backwards off of the ground, you will need to "hook" the inside and outside toenails of one foot, with the fingers of one hand, pulling the two outside toenails towards the front of the foot.

This will help spread the pads of the foot so that you can get the clipper blade into the hair that grows between the pads.

The hair between the pads can get very matted and can catch small rocks, twigs, or other yard trash that can injure your dog's foot.

Matted hair can also retain moisture between the pads of the feet and this can lead to fungus or bacterial infections of the skin.

Trimming the hair between the pads is very important as this hair can get very matted and can catch small rocks, twigs, or other yard trash that can injure your dog's foot.

Matted hair can also retain moisture between the pads of the feet and this can lead to fungus or bacterial infections of the skin.

I've tried to show you several positions for holding the feet in this series of photographs. Like many other parts of your dog's grooming, this is not one where he's likely to stand perfectly still. Do your best to make him behave and don't reward a dog that fights by stopping.

Your next step will be trimming the hair around your dog's feet. You will want to have the nails trimmed as short as possible before you begin. The first part of this process is to trim the hair around the bottom of the foot.

Trim all hair that hangs past the pads of the foot when holding the foot backwards off the ground.

You will trim the hair around the edges of the foot pads very close.

This will also include the long hair that hangs down from between the toes.

Once the hair around the bottom of the foot is trimmed back, you will set the foot back on the table (work surface). Brush and comb the coat of the leg and foot that you are working on, down towards the foot. Slanting your scissors as pictured, trim around the entire foot.

Brush and comb the foot again and scissor around once more.

Continue to the next foot and repeat the procedure. Be sure you trim the hair around the nails very close. This will go a long way towards making your dog's feet look neatly trimmed.

You will have to adjust the angle of your scissors for each portion of the foot you are trimming.

You will also have to continue combing the foot down as you are working your way around the foot.

It's important to make your dog behave during this portion of the groom job, as it's quite easy to catch the pad of the foot in the scissors if he should fight you.

This picture shows the bottom of a correctly trimmed foot for this puppy.

Your dog's feet may not look exactly like this dog's when trimmed as this is just a puppy and he does not have full leg feathers at this time.

For pictures of a foot trim on a full coated adult dog, you can check out the "Show Trim for Feet" slide show.

When trimming around feet with the dog standing, be sure the dog is standing square on the foot you are working around.

There's no wrong position for holding the foot to get to long hair. Just remember not to take too much off at a time when holding the foot off of the table. The hair will lay differently when the dog is standing on the foot and if you trim too much while holding the foot up in the air, it may look totally bald when you set the foot back down!

The key to learning how to trim feet is to trim a little, comb the foot and set it down. Continue trimming, comb again, set the foot down and check your progress. By going slowly and constantly checking your pattern, you will soon learn what you can and can't trim.

The most common mistake made when trimming the feet is not combing the long hair out from between the toes. If you don't pull this hair out as you're trimming the foot, the dog will have long hairs popping out from the toes as soon as he gets down and runs around for 5 minutes.

This is what the feet should look like when you're finished. This is probably shorter than some people would consider "correct" but I don't like to have wet, dirty feet running through the house and keeping the feet trimmed "tight" helps keep the dog's feet cleaner and dryer. Thus my house stays cleaner and dryer! Another alternative for neat freaks and dogs that have foot problems is to do "poodle feet" when you groom. This means shaving the foot (toes and all!) up to the first joint in the leg. This does keep the dog from tracking in so much dirt, but it looks pretty silly on a Cocker that has leg feathers.

ALL Cockers should be left a topknot. Bald headed Cockers are atrocious looking! It takes some work to get a topknot groomed right, but the end results are well worth the time. For starters, always brush and blow-dry the topknot towards the back of the head.

Keeping the topknot groomed regularly will help train it to lay correctly. Use your thinning shears to trim the sides of the head even with the corner of the eye. The hair at the corner of the eye should be as short as possible.

Use thinning shears to trim unnecessary bulk out of the topknot so that it will lay flat around the skull. Go around the back of the topknot with the shears inserted from back to front. ONLY CUT ONCE IN EACH POSITION! Keep the shears close to the skin. After you've gone around the back of the topknot, brush out the cut hair and touch up any areas that still seem thick.

You cannot rush this as taking too much hair off in one place will ruin the look of your Cocker's head.

After brushing the topknot again, use the thinning shears to blend the long hair into the shaved area around the head. This is NOT done with the shears pushed into the topknot. You will go around the topknot with the shears SKIMMING the ends of the long hair and blending it into the shaved areas. You will trim, brush, trim, brush until you get a smooth look.

Look at this picture and notice how the thinning shears are tipped so that the final look will be a smooth, curved topknot that blends into the shape of the head.

You will continue to blend all edges of the topknot until smooth.

The most important thing to notice in this picture is that the side of the face is straight up-and-down. The sides of the head, at the corner of the eye, don't appear to be wider than the skull or muzzle.

Notice how the finished topknot does not have anything "sticking out" and gives a nice rounded apperance to the head.

Hard to imagine this is the wooly booger we started with, huh?

This is what your freshly groomed Cocker Spaniel should look like. Notice the even, blended line along the side and the smooth appearance of the clipped areas.

The Ungroomed Dog

This is a 6 month old puppy with approximately 8 weeks of hair growth. This is more hair growth than you should have to deal with if you keep your dog on my recommended 4-6 week grooming schedule.