Catahoula Leopard Dog Grooming

About the Catahoula Leopard Dog

A Louisiana working dog with about as little coat as the site carries: short, single and close lying, sometimes almost smooth and sometimes a little coarser, with no undercoat worth the name.

Ten minutes a week with a rubber mitt is the whole coat routine, and nothing is ever cut.

What makes this page worth writing is the merle. The mottled leopard patterning the breed is named for comes from the merle gene, and merle does more than color a coat: it affects pigment cells that also do a job in the inner ear and the eye.

A single merle is simply a color. Two copies is a different matter, and that is where deafness and eye defects come from.

It is worth a groomer knowing before they approach a dog from behind with a dryer.

Merle, and what two copies does

Merle is a dominant gene that dilutes patches of pigment, producing the mottled leopard coat and often pale blue or glass eyes.

One copy is just a coat color and the dog is fine.

Two copies, which happens when two merles are bred together, is a different animal. Double merle dogs are typically largely white and frequently deaf, blind or both, because the same pigment cells the gene affects are also required in the inner ear and in the developing eye. Each puppy from a merle to merle mating has a one in four chance of it.

Catahoulas are bred merle to merle more often than most breeds, partly because the pattern is what buyers want, so double merles turn up.

What that means practically at a salon is simple and worth doing regardless: approach a largely white or heavily merled Catahoula where it can see you, never surprise it from behind, and introduce a dryer in its line of sight.

A deaf dog that is startled from behind reacts, and it is not the dog's fault.

A clap test at home is unreliable because dogs respond to air movement and vibration. If it matters, ask a veterinarian.

Pink skin under a mottled coat

The other consequence of merle is unpigmented skin, and it shows up in patches under the pale parts of the coat.

Those patches burn, and this is an outdoor working dog in a hot climate.

Use a dog formulated sunscreen on the nose, ear tips and any thinly coated pink areas before extended sun, never a human product containing zinc oxide, and provide shade in the middle of the day.

Repeated burning over a working life is a real skin cancer risk.

A short single coat also hides nothing, which is an advantage: check the dog over weekly for scrapes, ticks and lumps and you will find them.

Catahoulas can have skin allergies, and the pattern is the usual one: chewing feet, rubbing the face, recurrent ear trouble. That needs a veterinarian rather than a shampoo.

Bathe every ten weeks or so with a plain shampoo. There is nothing between the product and the skin.

The coat, in ten minutes

Go over the dog once a week with a rubber curry mitt or a hound glove, working against the lie of the coat and then with it. It lifts the dead hair and spreads the skin oils.

Catahoulas shed moderately and steadily rather than seasonally, and the short stiff hairs work into fabric.

There is no clipping, trimming or styling on this breed at all beyond nails and keeping the pads clear.

Dry properly after a bath or a wet day. A single coated dog with no undercoat chills faster than it looks like it should.

Nails every three to four weeks, and check the feet after work, since this is a dog that covers hard ground.

Ears are drop ears, so lift weekly, look and smell, and dry after swimming. Catahoulas are strong swimmers and were used on water as well as in scrub.

Use the weekly session as the hands-on check, which on this breed is the whole point of having a routine.

A hard working dog with opinions

Catahoulas were bred to work wild cattle and hogs in Louisiana scrub, independently and at a distance, and that is the temperament: serious, independent, territorial and not naturally biddable.

Many are reserved or wary with strangers, and a Catahoula that has decided it does not want to be handled is a seventy pound problem.

Handling has to be established in puppyhood and kept up, because these are not dogs that tolerate novelty well as adults.

Choose a groomer who will meet the dog first, be honest at booking, and ask for a quiet slot.

They are also strongly dog selective and many do not do well in a busy salon with loose dogs, which is worth saying rather than discovering.

An under-exercised Catahoula is considerably harder to handle than a worked one.

Nails may well need two people, and starting that in puppyhood is the difference.

What to tell your groomer

Say if the dog is deaf, or is largely white or heavily merled and untested, so nobody approaches it from behind or surprises it with a dryer.

Say if it has pink skin patches, which is a sunburn risk rather than a grooming one.

Ask for a bath, a curry, nails, ears and a skin check. There is no haircut on this breed.

Ask for a plain unscented shampoo, since there is nothing between the product and the skin.

Say how the dog is with strangers and other dogs, and ask for a quiet slot and a meeting first.

Ask them to check the feet and ears, since this is a working dog that swims.

Keeping the coat between grooms

Common Questions About the Catahoula Leopard Dog