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Advice please on removing snow balls from the dogs fur?

waldor

waldor

Well-known member
I am at a loss. :lpy: We've got snow again, unusual in itself for our area, and Sophie comes back into the house looking like a pom-pom lampshade, with balls of snow hanging from the feathers on her chest, tummy and front legs. Some are up to 4 cm in diameter and I can pinch them off more easily than the hundreds of smaller ones.

Is there a better way to remove them than using a warm blow dryer with the dog on a towel? I would truly appreciate any tips.
 
Yes, soaking them in a bowl of warm water and they melt quickly, then towel dry and blow dry. It can burn them trying to blowdry the balls so they melt as I learned by burning my hands with the hairdryer!

I start by gently pulling what I can off -- you have to grasp gently, sort of rounding your hand around the ball and often it will pull away.
 
Why is it that Cavie coats are so prone to getting snow balls?!? It is so funny when they come back in and look at you like.... "help me!"

So far with Coco in the snow I can pull them off since she doesn't have too much hair yet. Looking forward to when her full coat comes in :biggrin:
 
Zumie05 said:
So far with Coco in the snow I can pull them off since she doesn't have too much hair yet. Looking forward to when her full coat comes in :biggrin:
Click to expand...

Just wait until next year. LOL Last winter, Sophie was a little over 13 months old and we didn't have this problem. Now she has a full coat . . . :lpy::lpy::lpy:



KARLIN - Thank you for the tip. Please don't worry, I always use the Medium heat setting, as my hands are there, working the ice. I had lots of practice with blow dryers, bathing our Shih Tzu for 16 years. :biggrin: He hated the snow, and had a puppy cut, so I never had the snowball effect with him,,,the few and rare times it snowed.
 
The odd thing I've noticed about our snow in Ohio is that it only sticks to the dogs when it's freshly fallen, thank goodness (or I would have to move to the equator)!!

I use a small mixing bowl of warm water to dip each dog's foot in, then blot dry with a towel. Sometimes their ears and chest hair needs to be dipped in warm water, too, but not very often. We put a few towels on the floor and keep the dogs in the kitchen until they're completely dry. I figure the evaporating moisture can only help humidify the dry air, which is overly dry from running the forced hot air furnace 24/7.

It is very tiresome to do this on 12 paws several times a day in winter, that's why I love it when the temperatures drop low and it's too cold for snowfall! :)
 
So funny b/c I was thinking same thing. Never snows like this and Ella looked like a goof ball

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk
 
Being in the Southern hemisphere it is funny reading this thread about snow balls in the dogs hair! We have just had a heat wave and had to hose down the cavs a couple of times a day to prevent them getting heat stroke! :lpy:

At the moment, the snow sounds really nice and cool! :wink:
 
waldor said:
I had lots of practice with blow dryers, bathing our Shih Tzu for 16 years. :biggrin: He hated the snow, and had a puppy cut, so I never had the snowball effect with him,,,the few and rare times it snowed.
Click to expand...

You were very lucky - this was my Shiddy last year!

Lucysnowbobble.jpg
 
My mother has an English Cocker and she puts him in the kitchen sink to let some of the snow melt. Then uses warm water and comb to bush them out.
 
Timely thread since we are also expecting snow here this evening! Lucky's hair is still very short, so the only thing I really need to worry about is his paws. I love the warm water tip -- seems like common sense, but I don't think I would've thought of it right away! :p
 
I asked for suggestions on my Facebook Irish Cavalier Rescue page! I think Nicki first recommended warm water and she has to do lots of cavaliers with lots of snow balls.

I only found out the hard way how hot the dryer can feel when I tested on myself first! :eek:

It is the new snow that is definitely worse, Cathy; learned that in our unprecedented snowfalls here!!! I finally understand what a headache it is to have cavaliers in snowy regions. Doing one is OK, doing 5 really time consuming and annoying. I used the lycra drying suits I have on Jaspar and Leo (actually meant for outdoor weather like that) and they kept off 90% of the balls. I ordered seconds: http://www.k9topcoat.com/product.asp?specific=96

They are GREAT for letting dogs dry after a bath -- can leave them on for hours and coat ends up nice and flat. Also nice for cold young or oldies. I put them on under a fleece coat on the really cold days. But they do all these: http://www.k9topcoat.com/search.asp?mode=results&srch=snow
 
I've been putting Abigail in a sink full of warm water since her collection of snow balls is all over her chest and belly as well as her paws. She looks like the pictured shih tzu:sl*p:

Heather R
 
There was a lady from Battersea home on Daybreak last week and one of the presenters has a spaniel and was saying the snowballs were a problem. She recomended vasaline on the coat to prevent it. Obviously not a huge amount but light rub through.
 
Those drying suits are really nice, Karlin. They remind me of long johns. The thing is, we can go for ten years without snow, and then have a winter like this one. Well,,, the last two. Or three. Maybe I need to get one for Sophie.
 
I ordered some Chris Christiansen Ice on Ice -- I wonder if that might also help keep the snow from sticking? I'll let you know once I try it.
 
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