Spanish Water Dog Grooming

About the Spanish Water Dog

The Puli is the other coat you must not brush, and the two reasons are different, so it is worth being clear which one you are dealing with.

A Puli is separated by hand into cords that are kept for the life of the dog. A Spanish Water Dog is not separated, not brushed and not styled at all. The coat is shorn down to one even length once or twice a year, like a sheep, and then simply left to grow.

As it grows it curls, and on many dogs it forms loose natural cords by itself. That is correct and expected. The breed standard asks for the coat never to be brushed or scissored to shape, and a groomer who tidies it into an outline has done the wrong job with the best intentions.

The shear, and the year in between

The routine is unlike anything else here. Once or twice a year the whole dog is clipped down to a single even length, head, body, legs and tail together, with no shaping and no attempt at an outline. Many owners do it in late spring.

After that, nothing. The coat is not brushed, not combed and not scissored. It grows, it curls, and on most dogs it begins to form loose cords on its own somewhere over the following months.

What you do instead of brushing is check. Run your hands over the dog weekly, feel for anything packed tight against the skin, and pull apart by hand anything that is felting into a solid sheet rather than separating into cords. That is a few minutes, not an hour.

Keep the working areas clear year round with scissors or clippers: the pads and between the toes, the sanitary area, around the eyes if the coat is dropping into them, and inside the ear opening.

A single coat that is never brushed sheds almost nothing into the house, which is the payoff.

The length you shear to is a practical choice. Shorter is easier and needs doing more often; longer looks more characteristic and takes more checking.

Why brushing is the wrong instinct here

Every reflex a groomer has says a curly coat mats and a matting coat needs brushing, and on a Poodle or a Bichon that is exactly right.

The difference is what the coat is for and what it is meant to become. A Poodle coat is brushed out and scissored into a shape, and the whole point is a uniform even texture. A Spanish Water Dog coat is meant to be a rustic curled or corded jacket, and brushing it out destroys the curl, breaks the forming cords and leaves a frizzed coat that neither cords nor sits properly.

It also makes the coat mat worse in the medium term, because a broken curl tangles into its neighbors instead of separating cleanly.

So say it at the booking and say it again at drop off: no brushing, no scissoring, no shaping. Shear to one length or leave it alone.

The failure to watch for is a groomer who takes the dog, tidies it into a rounded outline like a doodle, and hands it back looking smart. It is not damage in a lasting sense, since it grows back, but it undoes a year of coat.

The other failure is the opposite: a coat left so long that it felts into a solid mat at the skin. The weekly hands-on check is what prevents that, and once a coat is pelted the only humane answer is to shear it off early.

Water, drying and the smell

The name is accurate. These are working water dogs, they will swim given any opportunity, and the coat is built for it.

A woolly single coat holds water, and a corded or curled coat holds a great deal of it. That has two consequences.

The first is drying. After swimming or a bath the dog needs drying properly rather than being left to drip, particularly at the skin under a longer coat. A damp woolly coat at skin level is where the classic smell comes from, and left long enough it becomes a skin problem rather than an odor one.

Squeeze water out by hand, towel hard, and use a dryer on cool or warm air, working your fingers through rather than brushing. On a long coat allow real time.

The second is rinsing. Sea water, chlorine and pond water all sit in a woolly coat and irritate skin, so rinse with fresh water after swimming even when you are not bathing.

Bathe every eight to twelve weeks with a plain shampoo, work it into the coat rather than lathering the surface, and rinse until the water runs clear. Residue trapped in a curl irritates the skin underneath.

The ears, and the rest of the routine

The ears are drop ears on a dog that swims, which is the combination most likely to produce infection.

Water gets in, the coat holds it there, air does not circulate, and a warm damp canal grows yeast. This is the commonest health complaint in the breed and it is largely preventable.

Dry the ears after every swim and every bath. Keep the hair around the opening clipped short so air reaches it. Lift the flap weekly, look and smell: healthy smells of nothing, and yeast is sweet and musty and unmistakable once you have met it.

Head shaking, scratching at an ear, a tilt, redness or dark discharge means a veterinarian rather than a cleaner.

Nails every three to four weeks, and the pads kept clear, since a working dog with hair between the toes collects grit and mats there.

Teeth as for any dog.

These are intelligent, biddable, high energy working dogs that take handling well if it starts early, and the annual shear is much easier on a dog that has been handled since puppyhood.

What to tell your groomer

Say the coat is never brushed, never combed and never scissored to a shape, and say it twice.

Ask for one even length all over, head, body, legs and tail, with no outline and no rounded doodle trim.

Give the length in numbers, and say whether this is the annual shear or a tidy of the working areas only.

Ask for pads, sanitary, around the eyes and the hair around the ear opening kept clear whatever else happens.

Ask for the ears dried thoroughly and checked, since this is a drop eared dog that swims.

Say that drying needs to reach the skin, and allow the time for it on a long coat.

Keeping the coat between grooms

Common Questions About the Spanish Water Dog