Shedding?

Hi,
Can anyone shed any light for me on shedding (pardon the pun!) with the cavalier?
Phoebe appears to be shedding at the moment as her hairs are everywhere and when she shakes herself loads fall off. Is this what's happening? And how often does it happen?
Thanks in advance
Brid.

hi--a couple of months ago, i started a thread with the same subject. all of a sudden zack, who was about 6 months old then, started shedding heavily where he had not been before. I thought it was because it was summer but karlin said he was losing his puppy fur, a natural change, and that it wouldn't last very long, and it didn't . Less than a week.

Some of the breeders here can probably give the most insight if any of them see this thread!

I've always understood that dogs can 'blow' their coat at various times; the first is generally losing their puppy coat which can be pretty dramatic for some dogs, but it an happen for other reasons too including hormonal changes (eg pregnancy I know is one case; maybe after dogs go in season? A breeder could answer that better than I).

She may just be shedding her winter coat as well given the recent warm weather. My cats are shedding like mad at the moment and it is hairball city :yuk: . This tends to wind down by the end of June.

My two cavaliers have never really shed much and never lost their puppy coats in any dramatic way (they were just gradually replaced; they seem to have very slow-growing coats and not very heavy coats either) so from that point of view I can only pass on what I have heard from others.

Cailean is shedding like crazy at the moment.

I'm thinking of keeping his fur and getting a spinning wheel . Then I could make everyone Cailean-scarves for Xmas

King was kinda like that when he was younger...but it wouldnt happen when he'd shake....usually i only notice it when he's laying on some1 (which is practically all the time :lol: ) but its not a lot..plus we brush him almost everyday (or try to sometimes we 4get...)

I bought a furminator at that huge huge pet store tonight on my way home from Darby's checkup and the man who owns the store tried it out on Darby and I was shocked at what he got of him.

But my Vet said that Darby is doing excellent and blowing his puppy coat already.

That furminator got a lot of hair of but you can only use it every 5 to 6 weeks.

Linda said:

That furminator got a lot of hair of but you can only use it every 5 to 6 weeks.

Click to expand...

Linda--i got a furminator back when zack was shedding. not much came off to my surprise. since then i use it almost every night, and only a little hair comes off on it but it's easy to hold and it works good on his ears, for tangles. i didn't know you can only use it every 5 to 6 weeks. yikes. have i done damage?

Judy, you've probably taken out a lot of his coat so you might want to either leave it to those longer intervals or consider keeping him professionally trimmed with a short coat, if the hair really bothers you. The Mars Coat King for example would only be used every 6-8 weeks (same intervals as a grooming appt) or so at most. These things remove masses of coat and are really more for thinning coats. A good daily brushing with a pin brush is going to take out the dead hair.

OK, below are two responses from a different board. The answers are cached on Google hence anyone can go read this thread though technically you are supposed to be a board member to gain access (goes to show Google reaches places the others don;t 8) ).

www.dogclub.co.uk/forum/index.php%3FPHPSESSID%3Db4323af8976c6b3eaa887f2d954cbe46%26topic%3D1165.msg8959+using+a+furminator&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&client=safari]Click here for Furminator link[/url]

The general point is that this is a tool that should only be used in moderation, if people want to use it. One pro groomer feels it is an expensive gimmick and permanently damages the coat. Someone later on says it isn't but basically should be used sparingly -- as in once to take out some of the hair and then the coat can be occasionally maintained wit this tool but rakes and pin brushes are the day to day tools, not a stripping tool like this. Note that cavaliers do NOT HAVE A DOUBLE COAT so such tools are not taking out the undercoat (the shortish fluffy hairs under the topcoat) but the actual coat. My feeling is this tool could potentially damage the coat by taking out masses of hair which may grow back cottony and curly or not come back in the same at all. Not all dogs have problems with hair regrowth but I know from seeing a lot of before and afters, that some do. I know of people who have made cavalier coats look terrible by overenthusasitc use of a Mars Coat King. These things really remove a LOT of coat!

I've used a stripping tool on Lily and they cannot possible be removing only dead undercoat; they are definitely stripping out hair in much the same way as those razor blade thinning tools take out hair when you have a haircut.

Furminator claims it does only pull out dead hair though.

The company itself recommends using every 4-6 weeks.

Explanation of dog coats from Wikipedia:

A dog's coat is its fur. A dog can be double coated—that is, having both a soft undercoat and a coarser topcoat. Some dog breeds are single-coated—having only one type of coat or the other, more often only the topcoat. The state of the coat is considered an indication of the animal's breeding and health.

Most dogs shed their undercoat each spring and regrow it again as colder weather comes in; this is also referred to as blowing the coat. Many domesticated breeds shed their coat twice a year. In many climates, the topcoat and undercoat might shed continuously in greater and smaller quantities all year.

Click to expand...

Cavaliers are a single coated breed.

karlin said:

Judy, you've probably taken out a lot of his coat so you might want to either leave it to those longer intervals or consider keeping him professionally trimmed with a short coat, if the hair really bothers you. The Mars Coat King for example would only be used every 6-8 weeks (same intervals as a grooming appt) or so at most. These things remove masses of coat and are really more for thinning coats. A good daily brushing with a pin brush is going to take out the dead hair.

Click to expand...

eeek. i hope i didn't ruin his coat. I don't know anything about what cavalier coats are supposed to be like, he and belle are the only ones i know. He has an unruly coat, compared to Belle. His top coat hairs go in all directions.





Crazy hair. :badgrin: I think it looks fine but maybe it's not, it's getting longer and longer, he gets hairier every day. and there is definitely a difference between the top hair and some of the other hair, especially on his sides near his abdomin--that hair is sooooo soft, it's like a baby duck, kind of downy, i love touching it, it's pure white and ultra soft.

the weird thing about the furminator is, from the first day i used it, it didn't do what it's supposed to do. I've been to the website and i see the photo on the wrapper it comes in--they claim that piles of hair come off the first time, and i think Linda said she got a lot of hair off of Darby. I hardly got any, even the first time, and every other time. only a little bit of hair comes off and is stuck on the comb itself. There are no mounds of hair, it's nothing like the photo on the wrapper or the website. So i wonder if i'm doing it incorrectly.

So maybe i didn't damage his coat because i have definitely not gotten much hair off him with it. i don't know whether his coat is too thin, dont' know what to compare it to.

i like his hair, i only had a problem when suddenly he was shedding heavily and there was hair all over everything, but that stopped as suddenly as it began. But i might get a shorter hair cut on him for the summer if it gets hot enough and he seems uncomfortable. So far the summer hasn't been very hot.

From now on, i'll go back to using the brush and pin comb on him, and avoid the furminator except every 6 to 8 weeks.

I'm so surprised that your doggies only shed at certain times. Poor Wrigley sheds ALL the time and we don't have dust bunnies anymore, but "fur bunnies" floating around on our floors. He hates being brushed, but I try to do it anyway. Any good advice on my hairy dog?

Kristen,

It's OK, Wrigs isn't 'different' - my two shed loads too. Maxx isn't too bad but Charlie sheds so much I'm surprised he's not bald!

We have wooden floors and woollen rugs & I still get big balls of fluff even though I vacuum every day and sometimes twice a day - this is why I keep telling hubby that three Cavs would be no more work than two :lol: