Lakeland Terrier Grooming

About the Lakeland Terrier

A working fell terrier from the Lake District, bred to go to ground after foxes in rocky country, and it carries the standard terrier construction.

A harsh, dense, wiry jacket over the body, which sheds almost nothing and rarely mats. Soft, longer furnishings on the legs, the chest, the beard and the eyebrows, which mat readily.

Those two coats need opposite things, and the reason it is worth saying again is that it is the single most common terrier grooming mistake: owners brush the jacket, which does not need it, and miss the furnishings, which do.

The Lakeland looks very like a small Airedale and is groomed the same way. It is also close to the Welsh Terrier, which is a near identical proposition at a slightly larger size.

Two coats, two tools

The jacket is hard, wiry and weatherproof. It sheds very little, it rarely mats, and brushing it achieves almost nothing. What it needs is stripping: rolling a little every few weeks, or a full strip out two or three times a year.

The furnishings are a different coat entirely. Soft, longer and continuously growing rather than harsh and cyclical, and they mat where nobody looks.

Comb the furnishings with a metal comb every two or three days, working to the skin: the backs of the front legs, the insides of the thighs, the armpits, the chest between the front legs, and the beard.

A Lakeland is a working terrier that goes into hedges, mud and water, and wet furnishings put away damp will felt within a day. Dry the legs after wet walks.

Keep the hair between the pads cleared, since a working foot collects grit and mats there.

The furnishings also need shaping at every groom, whichever route you take with the jacket. On a stripped dog they are scissored and thinned rather than clipped, to keep the leggy columnar look.

Stripped or clipped

Hand stripping keeps the jacket hard and the color deep, and on a fifteen pound dog it is very achievable at home. Rolling is the usual method: take what is loose every few weeks so the coat is always somewhere in the middle of its cycle.

The test is the same on any harsh coat. A dead hair comes away easily between finger and thumb; a live one resists and should be left.

Clipping is what most pet Lakelands get, because far fewer salons hand strip than used to. The cost accumulates: cutting the dead hair off leaves the root, the soft undercoat comes to dominate, and the coat returns softer, thicker and duller with each clip. A rich wheaten or black and tan goes dusty.

The practical consequence rather than the cosmetic one is that a soft jacket starts to mat where a harsh one never did, and it holds dirt and water instead of shedding them.

It is also close to one way in the medium term. A coat clipped for a year or two may not strip back for a long time.

Decide knowingly. The bad outcome is neither, which ends in a shave down.

The beard, the ears and a working dog

The beard goes into the water bowl at every drink and the food at every meal, and being soft rather than harsh it soaks and holds. Comb it daily, wipe and dry after meals, and wash it more often than the rest of the dog. A shallow wide bowl helps, and trimming the hair right around the mouth shorter reduces it noticeably.

Ears are small folded drop ears, better ventilated than a spaniel's but worth a weekly lift, look and smell.

Keep the eyebrows clear of the eye surface rather than cutting them off.

Lakelands dig, hunt and get filthy with enthusiasm, so the after walk check matters: burrs and grass seeds in the furnishings and between the toes, ticks on the ears and neck, mud in the beard.

Grass seeds are the one that causes real trouble, burrowing into the skin between the toes and abscessing.

Bathe every eight weeks or so, since over-bathing softens a harsh jacket and a wiry coat sheds dried mud remarkably well if left alone.

Nails every three to four weeks, teeth daily. Lakelands are long lived, often into their mid teens.

Telling the wire terriers apart

Several small harsh coated terriers look similar and are groomed identically, which is worth stating plainly so the advice transfers.

The Lakeland and the Welsh are close to interchangeable in coat work, the Welsh being slightly larger and black and tan only, the Lakeland coming in wheaten, red, black and tan, blue and grizzle.

The Wire Fox Terrier is similar again with a more sculpted show outline.

The Airedale is the same coat at three or four times the size.

The Norwich and Norfolk are smaller with less sculpting.

What all of them share: a harsh jacket that is stripped, soft furnishings that mat, a beard that needs daily attention, and a permanent softening if you clip. If a groomer knows one, they know enough for the rest.

The exceptions are the Kerry Blue and the Cesky, which are clipped instead.

What to tell your groomer

Ask whether they hand strip before booking, since it decides what the coat becomes.

Say whether you want the jacket rolled, stripped out or clipped, and understand that clipping softens and fades it permanently.

Say the furnishings and beard are what mat, not the jacket.

Ask for the beard washed and dried and the hair around the mouth kept short.

Ask for the eyebrows kept clear of the eye rather than removed.

Ask them to check between the toes for grass seeds after a working walk.

Keeping the coat between grooms

Common Questions About the Lakeland Terrier