Matted Dogs

• Many dog breeds were selectively bred and developed by mankind to have abnormal coat types. These unnatural types consist of curly coats, fine coats, coats with over producing under layers, and doodle coats that are combinations of all of these coat types. They do not shed or grow like a natural coat does. In a natural coat, the lose and dead hair sheds out on its own. In curly, fine, and heavily under layered coats, the lose and dead hair instead gets trapped, tangled, and impacted. Since dogs with these coat types cannot self regulate, they require maintenance and attention from their owners. They should be brushed to the skin, at least 1-3 times a week. And they should be washed and have their undercoat blown out at least every 4-8 weeks. If this preventative responsibility is neglected, the impacted hair turns into mats. Mats can also occur when the coat becomes damp (such as after the dog goes swimming or is left out in the rain) and the hair isn't properly dried and combed out.
  

• Dogs with these hair types absolutely have to be brushed out on a regular basis. Brushing them in between their grooming appointments is like brushing your teeth in between your dental appointments, exercising and eating well in between your doctor appointments, and washing/brushing your hair in between your salon appointments. Daily at home care is apart of routine responsibilities. It is not your dentist's responsibility to brush *your* teeth every day. It is your personal job. Likewise, your dentist is not at fault if you develop cavities because you decided not to brush your teeth every day at home. You can't get mad at the dentist when they have to do hours of extensive work and charge you a high bill for having to fix those cavities. Likewise, it is not your groomer's fault if your dog develops mats and has to be shaved.

• Mats cause extreme pain and damage to your dog's skin. They start at the base of the hair shaft, and over time, they twist and pinch the skin up into knots. Blood and air flow becomes severely restricted from reaching the skin. Additionally, mats trap moisture, feces, and urine in the hair. Mold, mildew, fungus, or bacteria then grows through the skin. Parasites such as fleas, ticks, maggots, and mites also thrive in mats. In severe cases, the mats become so tight around the limbs that they completely cut off blood flow. They can also block sanitary areas and prevent the dog from eliminating.

• It is impossible to wash, dry, and style the coat when it has mats in it. Just imagine trying to wash and style your own hair if it was full of dreadlocks. Or imagine wearing a heavy wool sweater, wool pants, and a wool beanie for months on end. You could never take them off, even when you showered and went to the bathroom. You'd never be able to actually clean your skin, no matter how many times your stood in the shower. In fact, the more showers you took, the more gross you would become. Think about how heavy and irritating it would get when the wool clothing got wet. Think about how it would smell and grow mildew over time. That's what a dog's skin feels like to them when it gets matted. That's how impossible it is to clean a dog when it's covered in mats. In order to clean yourself, you would have to remove that wool clothing first. So in order to clean your dog, the matted hair has to be removed first.

• Once mats form, they can be extremely difficult/impossible to remove with a brush. Attempting to simply brush out mats is not only futile, it would be immensely traumatic, time consuming, and unsafe for your dog. Attempting to brush mats, literally tears the dog's skin into shreds. As you can imagine, that would cause the dog to develop aggression, anxiety, and stress towards being groomed. You wouldn’t be happy either if your skin was being torn apart. Understanding this, you can appreciate just how detrimental and inhumane it is in attempting to brush mats out. In order to avoid your dog experiencing unneeded agony and trauma, shaving is the ONLY HUMANE option to removing mats.

• Despite it being the most humane option, and no matter how careful and experienced your groomer is, shaving out mats can pose inherent safety risks. Because dogs with mats are already in pain, they do not want to be touched. So they are rarely compliant in standing still. A dog that is thrashing around while sharp objects are being used around them can create a dangerous situation. It is rare, however accidents can happen. After-effects of mat removal can include itchiness, redness, self-inflicted irritations, abrasions, hematomas, or failure of hair to regrow. Removing the mats can also expose bruises, infections, and wounds that were caused from the mats themselves. If the mats were cutting off circulation, especially in areas such as the ears, legs, and tail, hematomas may also form if blood supply rushes back to those areas too quickly.

• In some cases, dogs may also exhibit brief behavioral changes after mats have been shaved out - they are feeling air against their skin for the first time in a long time. Imagine wrapping your body in duct tape. It’s so tight you don’t have full range of motion in your arms and legs and you get used to it. When your skin gets wet and bacteria starts to grow under the duct tape, it makes you itchy but you can’t scratch it. You get used to the air never touching your skin. Then you get all that duct tape removed. The air is suddenly hitting your skin making you cold, the trapped bacteria is exposed and washed away leaving your skin tingly, and you now suddenly have full range of motion in your arms and legs - making those unused muscles sore. All of these things happening at once can make you scared or depressed if you don’t understand why it’s happening. Now, do you think it's the groomer's fault for removing the duct tape? Or the owner's fault for allowing the duct tape to be there for so long? Please know your dog's behavior change after being shaved is not an indication that your dog is “embarrassed” by being shaved. That is an anthropomorphic assumption, and does nothing to encourage the dog's health. In many cases, their behavioral change is more a direct reflection of how their owner is reacting to their new appearance than it is to their new sensations. If you act upset, angry, or anxious upon seeing their new hair cut, your dog is going to think they're in trouble/that your anger is directed at them. They don't understand that you're upset about their aesthetic. All they know is that you're upset, and they may cower and act submissive in response to that. Dogs do not have any concept of vanity. What they do understand is emotion and what makes them feel physically and mentally good. So if you treat your dog as you would any normal day - with affection, a smiling face, warm demeanor, and acceptance - they will behave in accordance to that.

• Having to de-mat/shave a dog is not a pleasant experience for your groomer either. It is literally a back breaking process, that requires spending hours in a bent position and manually restraining an unhappy and uncooperative animal. Furthermore, the dirt, oil, and debris trapped in mats can damage expensive grooming equipment ( It can burn out the motor in a $400 pair of clippers in 15 minutes). With that in mind, please know that we do not want your dog shaved any more than you do. We do not want to damage our bodies, destroy our equipment, or have your dog associate us with an unpleasant experience. Rather, we would love your dog keep a long and fluffy coat and associate grooming as something fun and positive. However, that can’t happen if your dog is not provided routine preventative maintenance and becomes matted. When a groomer has to shave your dog, it is not because they are “lazy” or “don’t care”. Groomers shave your dog because they are concerned more about your dog’s health and well-being, than its vanity/subjecting it to hours of torture.

• All of the above is especially crucial to consider when it comes to double coated breeds. Double coats are thermoregulating. Meaning, the coat helps maintain the dog's body temperature and shedding cycles. Double coats require adequate air flow to reach the skin in order to work properly. However, when mats develop in the undercoat, the dog cannot thermoregulate and can quickly overheat in addition to all of the other health issues caused by mats. Unfortunately, shaving mats out of a double coat is a catch 22. The mats have to be shaved out in order to prevent further discomfort and health issues to the dog. However, shaving a double coat can also destroy the top coat and interrupt/destroy the natural shedding process. Ultimately, groomers have to choose the lesser of two evils in these situations and shave the coat.

• After we have shaved out your dog's mats, we will be happy to manually show you what methods and tools to use at home and the best grooming routine to implement in order to prevent mats from forming in the future. We can provide wonderful resources such as how-to videos, links to specific brushes, and techniques to help make at-home care an easy part of your daily/weekly routine. Plus, your dog will greatly appreciate you spending quality time with them and helping them feel good.

• And last but not least, please do not lie and insult the intelligence of your groomer about your dog being matted. We know how mats form. And we know how they certainly don't form. We have heard every excuse in the book from "The mats just appeared over night", "The mats occurred on the car ride here", "We just brushed all the mats out two days ago", "the dog played too hard outside this morning" etc....As professionals who have spent years training, attending seminars, and keeping up to date with the most recent scientific advances in canine health, we understand dog hair. And every choice we make, is always for your dog's best interest and safety.