Longcoated Dog Breeds

Our longcoated dog breeds require a little more grooming than a dog with a shorter coat. Thorough grooming of this coat type is essential.

Start with the undercoat. Most herding dog breeds have a double coat. It is long to medium outer hair and a soft thick undercoat.

Use an undercoat rake and gently brush it from rear to front. You will find that a couple of times during the year, your dog will shed his undercoat profusely or "blow coat". This is normal.

When you are finished raking, you will find you have another whole dog out of the undercoat alone.

You see what I am talking about with this picture of our Shetland Sheepdog, Kelsey "blowing coat". The undercoat on the table in the foreground is just from his back end! By the time I was finished, I had two dogs' worth of hair and was wearing another one.

You don't need a lot of combs and brushes for your longcoated dog breed.

We've always used an undercoat rake, mat comb, graduated tooth comb and a slicker brush. Oh yeah, scissors for "neating" him up around the ears, forelegs (feathers) and hind legs (pants).

After you have all the undercoat raked and dematted, you can start on the outer coat with a slicker brush. Again, start from the rear and work your way up to the head and chest.

When our dogs are finished, I go over them with the comb to make sure there aren't any mats. You should do this before you bathe your pet.

If you don't, then the mats become tighter and will be hard to get out. And if you miss any mats, they won't allow air to circulate around the area and can cause sores and other skin problems.

When you give him a bath, make sure you wet him down thoroughly with warm water, getting the undercoat completely wet. Shampoo, condition (if needed) and towel dry. Yes, you will get wet when your dog shakes off the water.

Blow dry your dog and use the slicker brush to fluff underneath. When completely dry, brush him all over so the hairs lay flat, starting with the undercoat.

You should only need to give your dog a bath every couple of months. Keeping him brushed every week is the best thing between baths to keep his coat healthy.

Popular longcoated dog breeds are found in the herding and working dog groups. A few are:

Collie

Border Collie

Australian Shepherd

Shetland Sheepdog

St. Bernard

Bernese Mountain Dog

Old English Sheepdog

You can find more information on these dogs in the section Best Dog Breeds on this website.