Grooming Hound Group Breeds: Sloughi to Whippet (page 2 of 2)

A Beagle, an Afghan Hound and a Dachshund, a group that splits between almost no grooming and the most of any breed

What these breeds have in common

The Hound Group holds the breeds built to find and follow quarry, split between scent hounds working with their nose to the ground and sight hounds running it down. Beagles, Basset Hounds, Bloodhounds, Dachshunds, Greyhounds, Whippets, Afghan Hounds, Salukis and Rhodesian Ridgebacks are all here.

It is the least useful group for predicting a grooming appointment, and it is worth saying so plainly. The dogs were grouped by what they do, and what they do says almost nothing about the coat. This group contains both the lowest maintenance coats in dogs and one of the highest.

So read the coat rather than the group. There are effectively two hound grooming articles and they have nothing in common.

What this group means for grooming

Splits hard: short smooth coats that need almost nothing, and long silky coats such as the Afghan that need more work than any other breed.

What actually decides the grooming

The coat type, not the group. It sets the tools, the interval and the price, and two dogs in this group can need completely different appointments.

Short coats still need ears and nails

A Beagle, a Greyhound, a Whippet, a Rhodesian Ridgeback or a smooth Dachshund has a short flat coat with nothing to cut and almost nothing to mat. A rubber curry brush, a bath a few times a year and a deshed is the entire coat routine.

The trap is that owners of these breeds correctly conclude they do not need a haircut and incorrectly conclude they do not need a groomer. Smooth coated dogs are the ones that arrive at a veterinary appointment with nails long enough to have changed the shape of the foot, because nothing else ever prompted anybody to look.

Nails are the main event. A hound walked on grass rather than pavement does not wear them down, and the blood supply inside the nail grows longer the longer the nail is left, so getting back to a correct length takes several sessions rather than one. Ears matter for the drop eared scent hounds. Anal glands and a look over the skin round it out.

The full version of what a short coated appointment is for is on the smooth coat page.

The long coated exceptions, which are the opposite extreme

The Afghan Hound carries a full length silky coat with no undercoat, and it is among the most demanding coats in grooming. It needs brushing to the skin in sections every day or close to it, plus a bath and a full blow dry weekly, because a silky coat that is left mats and a matted silky coat cannot be brushed back out. The Saluki and the Borzoi carry lighter versions on the ears, tail and legs, and the long coated Dachshund and the Basset Griffon Vendeen have their own.

None of that is optional or exaggerated. An Afghan kept properly is a genuine time commitment and the people who keep them that way plan around it. An Afghan not kept properly ends up clipped off, which works and grows back true but is not what most people bought.

The technique, which is line brushing in layers with a comb to prove each section, is on the silky coat page.

Long ears, loose skin and the folds nobody checks

Several of the scent hounds carry structural features that need attention even though the coat does not.

Basset Hounds and Bloodhounds have extremely long, heavy, low hanging ears that were bred to sweep scent toward the nose. They trail through grass, food and water, they seal the canal completely, and they are among the most infection prone ears in dogs. They need checking and drying weekly rather than occasionally, and the underside of the flap needs cleaning as well as the canal.

Both breeds also carry loose facial skin in folds, and a Bloodhound's wrinkles behave exactly like a Bulldog's: warm, dark, damp and prone to yeast if they are not wiped out and dried. The same applies around the eyes on breeds with heavy haw.

Dachshunds have a different problem, which is ground clearance. A dog with that little distance between its belly and the grass picks up everything, so the belly, the chest and the front of the legs need checking more often than the shape of the coat suggests.

Breeds in the Hound Group

27 breeds in this group, page 2 of 2

Sloughi

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

Sloughi

Treeing Walker Coonhound

Ears longer than the muzzle, which is a design decision with a running cost

Treeing Walker Coonhound

Whippet

The least coat on the site, over skin thin enough to tear on a bramble

Whippet

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