German Wirehaired Pointer Club of America

[KYSER]

I know wires are to be stripped but I thought I heard someone that is very knowledgable on GWP'S that they gave them a summer trim. I was told if you trim the beard it may not grow back. Does the same go for the coat?

[trackindog]

HMM - I can't believe just trimming the beard would keep it from growing back. I'll be interested to hear what others have to say.

As far as the summer trim on the rest of the coat, what you would risk is losing the actual wire coat the dogs have. Their hair is similar to the wire coat on a westie that has been properly stripped (in fact I think the westie coat may be harder). I know for a fact that if you groom a westie by cutting down the coat instead of stripping what you end up with is a very soft coat.

GWP'S were meant to have the wire coat for protection so I would think you'd want to keep that.

My westies are groomed and not hand stripped and their coats have turned soft - I wish theirs were hard too but it's too much work to do all 4 dogs so only the GWP get's stripped.

Ann

[dualgwp]

Wires, just like most dogs, will lose their heavy undercoats in the springtime and their coats will be much thinner than in the winter. This may include the beard and eyebrows, body and legs.

In the spring, we strip down all of the dogs to rid them of old dead winter coats and allow their new coats to grow in. Then again in late summer, early fall it gets done again to help promote the new winter coat to come in. I don't believe it's the heat so much that promotes this , but rather the amount of light in the day.

Your dogs beard should come back, but some do not! It's the nature of the beast I'm afraid. To help stimulate new coat growth, brush them a couple times a week with a soft bristle brush, but you have to get that old dead hair out, or new coat can't grow.

Remember, some coats need very little work, some more. A really really good coat will need some neatening, a bit of undercoat removal, but not much else. Softer, longer coats will need more time put into them to keep them neat and in good working conditiion.

[blueblood]

How do you go about stripping a wirehair coat.