Tibetan Terrier Grooming

About the Tibetan Terrier

The name is wrong and it is worth clearing up first, because it sets the wrong expectation. A Tibetan Terrier is not a terrier. It has no terrier ancestry, it was never bred to go to ground, and its coat is nothing like a terrier jacket. European travellers named it for its size and nothing else. It was a companion and watchdog in Tibetan monasteries.

The coat is long, profuse and double: a fine woolly undercoat under a long straight or wavy outer coat, falling over the eyes and reaching the ground on a show dog.

That combination puts it firmly in the high maintenance group with the Old English Sheepdog and the Bearded Collie, and it has their coat change problem too.

The feet are the thing nobody expects.

The snowshoe feet

Tibetan Terriers have large, flat, round feet with hair growing between the toes and well furnished pads, and the feet are noticeably big for the size of the dog. They evolved to spread weight on snow, and the breed standard requires them: flat and round, producing a snowshoe effect, with no arching between the toes.

That is not decoration and it changes how the feet are trimmed.

On most long coated breeds a groomer clears the hair between the pads and tidies the foot into a neat rounded shape. On a Tibetan Terrier the hair between the toes is part of the structure and should not be shaved out, and the foot is not meant to be rounded into a ball.

What is correct is to trim the hair level with the pad underneath so the dog is not walking on a mat, leave the hair between the toes on top, and tidy the outline only lightly.

The practical consequence is that this foot collects a great deal: snow balls up in it, mud packs into it, and grass seeds work in between the toes. Check and clear the feet after every walk, and dry them.

A mat forming under the foot between the pads makes the dog walk oddly and is easy to miss.

The coat, and line brushing

The coat is double: a fine woolly undercoat under a long outer coat that is straight or wavy but never curly. It grows continuously and sheds very little, which is the standard low shedding trade, and it means the dead undercoat stays in the dog and felts.

Line brushing is the only method that works. Lay the dog on its side, part the coat in a horizontal line low down, brush the hair below the parting to the skin with a slicker or long pinned brush, move the parting up an inch and repeat. Then prove the whole dog with a metal comb.

Every two or three days, and expect forty five minutes done properly on a full coat.

Sweeping a brush over the top achieves very little, because the long outer coat lies back down looking immaculate over felt.

The places that fail: behind and under the ears, the armpits, the chest, the britches, around the tail, under a collar or harness, and between the back legs.

Comb out completely before any bath, always. Water tightens felt and a matted coat that is bathed cannot be saved with a brush.

The coat change, and the year it happens

Between about nine and eighteen months a Tibetan Terrier changes from puppy coat to adult coat, and it is as brutal as the Bearded Collie version.

The soft puppy coat sheds out while the adult coat comes in, and because the dog barely sheds, the dead puppy coat has nowhere to go. It stays in among the new growth and felts fast, and a routine that worked comfortably for a year suddenly cannot keep up.

Brush daily through that period rather than every two or three days, and expect it to take twice as long. Many owners move to a four week grooming interval instead of six or eight for those months, and it is money well spent.

It is also when a great many Tibetan Terriers get clipped down, usually as an emergency rather than a decision.

If you want to keep a long coat, this is the stretch you have to get through deliberately. If you do not, it is the natural and honest moment to choose a shorter trim and keep it.

Clipping does change the coat: with an undercoat present it comes back softer and denser, which mats more readily than what it replaced. That is a real cost and still much better than a pelted dog.

The fall over the eyes, and the rest

The standard has a long fall of hair over the eyes and the breed sees through it perfectly well, so there is no welfare reason to cut it. Plenty of pet owners trim it back or tie it up anyway and the dogs are fine.

What matters is saying which you want, because a groomer who knows the breed will leave it by default and one who does not will cut it off.

Hair actually resting on the eye surface is different and does need keeping clear, since it irritates and eventually scars.

Ears are drop ears under a heavy coat: lift weekly, look and smell, and keep the hair around the opening trimmed.

Bathe every six weeks or so, comb out first, and dry with a dryer while brushing so the coat dries straight rather than in a tangle.

Tibetan Terriers are long lived, often fifteen or sixteen years, which is remarkable for the size, so a routine set up in the first year runs a very long time.

The breed has inherited eye conditions including retinal degeneration, so a dog hesitating in dim light needs an eye examination rather than a haircut.

What to tell your groomer

Say the feet are flat snowshoe feet: trim level with the pad underneath, leave the hair between the toes on top, and do not round the foot into a ball.

Say whether the fall over the eyes is to be left or trimmed back, since both are defensible and the default varies.

Ask for line brushing with a comb check to the skin, not a surface brush.

Say the dog must be combed out before the bath, never bathed while matted.

Say if the dog is between nine and eighteen months, because the coat change needs a longer appointment and a shorter interval.

Give a length in numbers if you want a shorter trim.

Keeping the coat between grooms

Common Questions About the Tibetan Terrier