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Grooming Sporting Group

Retrievers, spaniels, setters and pointers bred to work with a gun.

A Golden Retriever, a Springer Spaniel and an Irish Setter, all carrying the feathering that mats first

What these breeds have in common

The Sporting Group holds the breeds developed to work alongside a gun: retrievers, spaniels, setters and pointers. Golden Retrievers, Labradors, English Springer and Cocker Spaniels, Irish Setters, Vizslas, Weimaraners and Chesapeake Bay Retrievers all sit here.

As a grooming category it is one of the more coherent groups, because the work these dogs were bred for shaped the coat directly. Most of them carry a water-resistant double coat with long feathering on the ears, chest, belly and the backs of the legs, and that feathering is where essentially all the trouble is.

The exceptions are the short coated pointers. A Vizsla or a Weimaraner has almost nothing to groom and belongs with the smooth coats.

What this group means for grooming

Mostly water-repellent double coats with heavy feathering on the ears, chest and legs. Feathering is where the mats form.

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.

The feathering is the whole job

The body coat on a Golden Retriever or a Springer Spaniel is short, dense and largely self managing. The feathering is not. It is longer, finer, softer hair with far less guard hair in it, and soft hair mats where coarse hair does not.

It grows exactly where the dog moves most and where things rub. The ear fringes swing constantly and lie against the head. The chest feathering catches on undergrowth. The armpits and the back of the front legs work against the body with every stride. The trousers on the back of the thighs rub against each other. The belly and groin pick up wet grass and stay damp.

Any groomer working on this group starts there, and any owner keeping one on top of it can do the same in a few minutes a week. A comb, not a brush, through the ear fringes, the armpits, the trousers and the tail. The body coat needs a rake occasionally and very little else.

Feathering is also the part that gets trimmed rather than clipped. Tidying the length on the ears, feet and trousers reduces what collects in them without touching the working coat, and it is the standard tidy for this group.

These are water coats, and they are not clipped

A retriever coat is built to get wet and keep the dog warm while it is. It carries natural oils that make water bead and run off, a dense undercoat underneath for insulation, and guard hairs on top that carry the oil and shed the water.

Clipping it takes off the guard hairs and leaves the undercoat, which is the same mistake as on any other double coat and carries the same risk of a patchy, woolly regrowth that never quite recovers. It also removes the water resistance that made the coat worth having. A shaved retriever gets soaked to the skin in weather that would previously have run straight off it.

The full explanation, and what to ask for instead when a dog is struggling in the heat, is on the double coat page.

One related point specific to this group: over bathing strips those oils faster than the dog replaces them. A working retriever that swims regularly needs rinsing far more often than it needs shampooing.

Ears, and why this group gets infections

Sporting breeds have a high rate of ear problems and the reason is structural rather than bad luck. A long drop ear lies flat against the head, seals the canal, and stops air moving through it. Add hair inside the ear, add a dog that swims, and you have a warm, dark, damp canal, which is what a yeast or bacterial infection needs to get going.

Cocker Spaniels are the breed most associated with it and Springers, Goldens and Setters are not far behind.

What helps is routine rather than treatment. Dry the ears after every swim and after every bath, which means actually drying inside the flap rather than toweling the outside. Ask the groomer to keep the hair short on the inside of the ear flap and around the canal opening, which is a standard part of a groom for this group. Check weekly by lifting the ear and smelling it, because smell arrives before anything is visible.

Head shaking, scratching at one ear, a tilt, a smell or a dark discharge is a veterinary matter and not a grooming one. A groomer can keep an ear clean; they cannot clear an infection, and cleaning an already inflamed ear makes it worse.

Breeds in the Sporting Group

31 breeds in this group, page 1 of 2

An American Water Spaniel, a waved oily coat built to shed water

American Water Spaniel

A waved oily coat built to shed water, which frequent bathing takes straight off

American Water Spaniel
A Barbet, a woolly curly coat with a beard that soaks up every drink

Barbet

A woolly curly coat that mats to the skin, with a beard that goes in the water first

Barbet
A Boykin Spaniel, a compact brown working spaniel with waterproof coat

Boykin Spaniel

A compact brown water spaniel with light feathering and a serious ear problem

Boykin Spaniel
A Bracco Italiano, whose ears and jowls are the whole grooming job

Bracco Italiano

A five minute coat under the longest ears and the loosest jowls of any pointer

Bracco Italiano
A Brittany, a sporting coat with far less feathering than a setter

Brittany

A sporting coat with a fraction of the feathering, and that is deliberate rather than accidental

Brittany
A Chesapeake Bay Retriever, an oily harsh coat that must not be washed out

Chesapeake Bay Retriever

An oily harsh coat where the oil is the waterproofing, so washing it out is the mistake

Chesapeake Bay Retriever
A Clumber Spaniel, the heaviest spaniel and the most feathering

Clumber Spaniel

The heaviest spaniel, with the most feathering, the most drool and deep set eyes

Clumber Spaniel
A Cocker Spaniel, where the ears and feathering are the whole job

Cocker Spaniel

The ears are the breed, and they are also the problem

Cocker Spaniel
A Curly-Coated Retriever, a curl that is wetted rather than brushed

Curly-Coated Retriever

Tight crisp curls that brushing destroys, and the fix is water rather than a comb

Curly-Coated Retriever
An English Cocker Spaniel, longer in the muzzle and lighter in coat

English Cocker Spaniel

A working spaniel with far less coat than the American, and a different trim

English Cocker Spaniel
An English Setter, long silky feathering over the distinctive belton ticking

English Setter

The most heavily feathered setter, on a white base that shows every stain

English Setter
An English Springer Spaniel showing the heavy ear and leg feathering

English Springer Spaniel

The ears are the appointment, and the show and working coats are two different dogs

English Springer Spaniel
A Flat-Coated Retriever, a flat glossy coat with heavy feathering

Flat-Coated Retriever

A flat glossy coat with heavy feathering, and a breed where the weekly check matters

Flat-Coated Retriever
A German Shorthaired Pointer, a short harsh coat built for water

German Shorthaired Pointer

A short harsh coat built for cold water, that sheds far more than it looks like it should

German Shorthaired Pointer
A German Wirehaired Pointer, a harsh weatherproof jacket with a full beard

German Wirehaired Pointer

A wire coat that is a tool rather than a style, and is tidied rather than sculpted

German Wirehaired Pointer
A Golden Retriever showing the feathering and dense double coat

Golden Retriever

A coat that needs deshedding rather than cutting, and must never be shaved

Golden Retriever
A Gordon Setter, the heaviest setter under the most feathering

Gordon Setter

The heaviest of the setters, under the most feathering of the three

Gordon Setter
An Irish Setter, a fine silky coat with heavy feathering everywhere

Irish Setter

A fine silky coat with feathering everywhere, on a dog that wants to run through everything

Irish Setter
An Irish Water Spaniel, ringlets everywhere except a smooth rat tail

Irish Water Spaniel

Crisp ringlets over the whole dog except the tail, which is bare by design

Irish Water Spaniel
A Kooikerhondje, whose black eartips are a breed feature and not dirt

Kooikerhondje

Black eartips that are a breed feature, and a gene pool small enough to matter

Kooikerhondje
A Labrador Retriever, a short coat over a full undercoat

Labrador Retriever

A short coat with a full undercoat under it, and the shedding to prove it

Labrador Retriever
A Lagotto Romagnolo, a woolly working curl that is scissored rather than brushed out

Lagotto Romagnolo

A working curl that is kept short and left in ringlets, which is the opposite of a Poodle

Lagotto Romagnolo
A Toller, a water repellent double coat that over-bathing strips

Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever

A water repellent coat that frequent bathing strips, on the smallest retriever

Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever
A Pointer, one of the shortest and easiest coats in the sporting group

Pointer

One of the shortest coats in dogs, and a weekly session that is really a health check

Pointer

The other dog groups

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

Hound Group

Scent and sight hounds bred to track and chase.

Hounds
A Newfoundland, a Bernese Mountain Dog and a Husky, heavy double coats on large frames

Working Group

Guardians, haulers and rescue dogs bred for size and strength.

Working
A Schnauzer, a Westie and an Airedale, the home of the hand stripped wire coat

Terrier Group

Earth dogs bred to go to ground after vermin.

Terriers
A Pomeranian, a Yorkshire Terrier, a Maltese and a Chihuahua, all under about fifteen pounds

Toy Group

Companion breeds under about fifteen pounds.

Toy
A Bichon, a Poodle, a Bulldog and a Dalmatian, the group with no single coat type

Non-Sporting Group

The group that holds everything the other six do not.

Non-Sporting
A Border Collie, an Australian Shepherd, a Rough Collie and a Corgi, weather-resistant coats built to sit outdoors

Herding Group

Breeds that move livestock.

Herding
A Goldendoodle, a Cockapoo and a Bernedoodle, the highest maintenance coats in grooming

Crossbreeds and Designer Dogs

Deliberate crosses such as the Goldendoodle, Cockapoo and Puggle.

Crossbreeds

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