No puppy cut for this Coton ...Dakota

by Larry
(Ontario Canada)

I have decided to leave him in full coat. I have the time to take care of his grooming needs. I am not paying a groomer $75 to groom him every 6 weeks or so. I have one greyhound comb, and a Safari dematting tool, a Chris Christensen oval pin brush and a slicker.

I have spent countless hours grooming out his puppy coat and the matting. I was getting extremely frustrated with the mats and thought they would never end. Now at 10 months a lot of the puppy undercoat has been brushed out I hope. He does need to be combed pretty much every day for a neater appearance otherwise he can look a little haggard.

I also bought two very good quality scissors, Hashimoto...one straight 8 inch and the other, thinning scissors. I use these to trim his face and for a sanitary trim. I was also pulling the hair out of his ears, until I just read that it is not necessary and may cause other problems. I clip his nails, but it is difficult for the nails that are black...can't see the Quick.

I also sometimes do a thin clip of the hair around his mouth but just maybe 1/4 inch to get rid of some of the hair that goes in his mouth as you can see there is a fair amount of brown hair around his mouth. I have looked into that, but there isn't much you can do that is safe to make it white, other than cleaning his mouth with a cloth after he eats.

I use a dog shampoo for now about once per month and up until now used human conditioner. There does not seem to be any issue. I also use a human detangler L'Oreal Total Repair watered down and Aragan Oil as a spritz sometimes when brushing. Finally, brushing his teeth once in a while with a regular tooth brush which isn't that great as he just licks all the toothpaste as fast as I apply it....maybe a finger brush would be better.
Regards.\
Larry