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Dog Grooming by Breed

How often each breed needs a groom, and what tends to go wrong

Dogs of many breeds and coat types being groomed

Grooming needs vary more between dog breeds than almost anything else about them. A Labrador needs a bath and a deshed a few times a year. A Poodle of the same weight needs cutting every four to six weeks and combing to the skin in between, and letting that slip by a month costs real money at the salon.

Coat type is the one that answers the question. Whether a dog needs a haircut every five weeks or a deshed twice a year, whether it can be clipped at all, and what happens if the interval slips, are all decided by the coat and not by the breed name. Two dogs of the same weight in the same group can need completely different appointments.

Size decides the physical side: drying time, whether one person can handle the dog safely, and whether a salon has equipment that will take it.

Every Dog Breed, A to Z

206 breeds, page 8 of 9

A Scottish Terrier, a harsh jacket over a long furnished skirt

Scottish Terrier

A harsh jacket over a long soft skirt, and the skirt is where all the work is

Scottish Terrier
A Sealyham Terrier, a white jacket over a long skirt

Sealyham Terrier

A harsh white jacket over a long skirt that drags through everything

Sealyham Terrier
A Shar-Pei, a harsh prickly coat over deep permanent folds

Shar-Pei

Permanent folds, a genuinely prickly coat, and the narrowest ear canals in dogs

Shar-Pei
A Sheepadoodle in a full fleece coat, a large dog with a doodle coat

Sheepadoodle

The doodle where neither parent was ever easy, and the coat volume shows it

Sheepadoodle
A Shetland Sheepdog, an enormous coat on a surprisingly small dog

Shetland Sheepdog

An enormous coat on a small dog, and the one most often shaved by mistake

Shetland Sheepdog
A Shiba Inu, a spitz double coat that must never be shaved

Shiba Inu

A small spitz with a full northern double coat, and very strong opinions about baths

Shiba Inu
A Shih Tzu in full silky coat with the face hair tied up

Shih Tzu

A floor length coat on a dog that would rather be on your lap

Shih Tzu
A Shih-Poo, a Shih Tzu and Poodle cross with a genuine coat lottery

Shih-Poo

A Shih Tzu and Poodle cross where the coat genuinely is a lottery, unlike the silk crosses

Shih-Poo
A Shorkie, a Shih Tzu and Yorkshire Terrier cross with two silk parents

Shorkie

A Shih Tzu crossed with a Yorkie, so it is silk from both sides and mats from both

Shorkie
A Siberian Husky, the breed most damaged by a summer shave down

Siberian Husky

The coat that shave downs ruin, and the one that needs almost nothing else

Siberian Husky
A Silky Terrier, longer in the leg and coarser in coat than a Yorkie

Silky Terrier

A Yorkie sized coat on a bigger leggier dog, and rather less work than it looks

Silky Terrier
A Skye Terrier, a floor length hard coat parted down the spine

Skye Terrier

A floor length hard coat parted down the spine, on one of the rarest breeds alive

Skye Terrier
A Sloughi, the North African sighthound the Azawakh is mistaken for

Sloughi

The North African sighthound that gets confused with the Azawakh, and is not the same

Sloughi
A Smooth Fox Terrier, a short hard coat with no furnishings at all

Smooth Fox Terrier

The same breed name as the Wire, and about a fifth of the grooming bill

Smooth Fox Terrier
A Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier, the terrier that carries a silky coat

Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier

The terrier that carries a silky single coat, which reverses every rule the group page states

Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier
A Spanish Water Dog, a coat shorn once a year and never brushed

Spanish Water Dog

A curly coat shorn to one length once a year and never brushed or scissored

Spanish Water Dog
A Spinone Italiano, a harsh gundog coat with an enormous beard

Spinone Italiano

A harsh single gundog coat, a very large beard, and a dog that drips everywhere

Spinone Italiano
A Staffordshire Bull Terrier, a terrier with almost no coat at all

Staffordshire Bull Terrier

A terrier with almost no coat, where the skin underneath is the entire subject

Staffordshire Bull Terrier
A Standard Schnauzer, the original of the three and the middle size

Standard Schnauzer

The original of the three schnauzers, and the size where stripping is still realistic

Standard Schnauzer
A Sussex Spaniel, a heavy coat on the lowest and longest of the spaniels

Sussex Spaniel

A heavy feathered coat on the lowest, longest and slowest of the spaniels

Sussex Spaniel
A Swedish Vallhund, a spitz double coat on a low corgi shaped body

Swedish Vallhund

A spitz double coat on a corgi shaped body, and a bobtail that is its own gene

Swedish Vallhund
A Tibetan Mastiff in full coat, before the once a year blow out

Tibetan Mastiff

An enormous double coat that blows once a year and sheds very little in between

Tibetan Mastiff
A Tibetan Spaniel, a mane and feathering on a very small dog

Tibetan Spaniel

A silky mane and feathering on a nine pound dog, and far less work than it looks

Tibetan Spaniel
A Tibetan Terrier, not a terrier, with large flat snowshoe feet

Tibetan Terrier

Not a terrier at all, with a long double coat and large flat snowshoe feet

Tibetan Terrier

Why Cat Size Does Not Change the Groom

Cats have no size index here. Outside the genuine outliers the practical difference between a nine pound cat and a fourteen pound one is close to nothing: the same table, the same equipment, the same appointment. What changes a cat groom is the coat and the temperament.

The one place weight does matter is indirect: a heavy cat cannot reach its own back, sides and base of tail, and the areas it stops reaching are exactly the ones that mat. That is a coat problem with a weight cause, and it is covered on the silky coat and double coat pages.

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