How rude!

[Juicy]

So in my quest of finding a place that knows how to cord I called this one place and they asked me what breed he was, I told them a shih tzu mix, and she was like a shih tzu?! No, no, no thats crazy! You can't do that!...I was going to ask her why you couldn't do that on a shih tzu, but she hung up!

Anywho I might of found a groomer that could do it, she jsut has to see if she could work with Valentino's hair, since I guess its suppose to work best on curly poodle coats. I would do Pepe, but his coat is far too short. So here's hoping!

[animalcraker]

Just curious why you want to keep your mix in cords? To my knowledge you have to let your dog grow the cords, i.e. you cant take a groomed long haired dog and then try to cord it afterwards. A corded coat is just controlled mats, you have to allow the coat to mat and then carefully separate and organize them as the hair grows.

[Juicy]

Well to my knowledge you could cord a havanese, and his coat is similar to their coats. If he has to be shaved to a short coat to start the process, that'll be fine. But I know with dreadlocks, you need atleast 3 inches of hair to start dreading.

I just want to do something different, I'm always doing some sort of creative grooming with my dogs, and just want to have a corded coated dog, if anything the cords could be shaven off if it becomes too hard to maintain.

[duncan15]

But I know with dreadlocks, you need atleast 3 inches of hair to start dreading

The biggest mistake people make with corded dogs is they think its the same as dreadlocks. it isnt. it is completely different.

Animalcracker is right about the cording. you cant take a coat and make it cord. it does so naturally on its own. While havanese can be corded, it is a style that takes years to develop, and takes more maintenance than a regular coat. there is no way a groomer could magically cord your dog, it takes a lot of time. So much so, that if a fully coated puli was shaved halfway through its life, the dog wouldnt be alive long enough to grow the coard back out.

If you do want to try a corded look, then shaving the coat would be the best start. you have to pretty much let the coat matt, and seperate the matts, so that the dog doesnt start to get pelted. you want every cord to be seperate from the others, and you want to see skin between each one. then, pretty much everyday, the matts need to be split and seperated. its a lot more work than it seems. plud, bathing and drying a corded dog is extremely difficult, and an all day thing is you dont have the proper equipment.

As far as the coat, that would deoend on your dog. havanese have very different coats from shih tzus. Havs have a much tougher coat, while shihs are softer. it may or may not work on your dog, b/c most shih coats are prone to becoming a big pelt, and the hair is usually too fuzzy for coards to form.

[Juicy]

Originally Posted by duncan15

The biggest mistake people make with corded dogs is they think its the same as dreadlocks. it isnt. it is completely different.

Animalcracker is right about the cording. you cant take a coat and make it cord. it does so naturally on its own. While havanese can be corded, it is a style that takes years to develop, and takes more maintenance than a regular coat. there is no way a groomer could magically cord your dog, it takes a lot of time. So much so, that if a fully coated puli was shaved halfway through its life, the dog wouldnt be alive long enough to grow the coard back out.

If you do want to try a corded look, then shaving the coat would be the best start. you have to pretty much let the coat matt, and seperate the matts, so that the dog doesnt start to get pelted. you want every cord to be seperate from the others, and you want to see skin between each one. then, pretty much everyday, the matts need to be split and seperated. its a lot more work than it seems. plud, bathing and drying a corded dog is extremely difficult, and an all day thing is you dont have the proper equipment.

As far as the coat, that would deoend on your dog. havanese have very different coats from shih tzus. Havs have a much tougher coat, while shihs are softer. it may or may not work on your dog, b/c most shih coats are prone to becoming a big pelt, and the hair is usually too fuzzy for coards to form.

Well I'm not going to be doing the beginning process, just the upkeeping of the coat. And my dog is a mix, so his coat is 100% shih tzu. As for the bathing and drying, I could always go to the groomer. And I found someone experience in cording shih tzus and lhasas!! Woohoo!!

[duncan15]

I understand what you are saying, but im trying to get the point across that there is no real beginning process. it is something that is done slowly over time, and has to be maintained everyday to avoid pelting. You are not going to take the dog to a groomer, and have him come back with cords. It is something the owner has to do, if it is a style you want. first the coat has to be allowed to matt, but you have to continuously seperate those matts, sometimes multiple times a day.

It will probably take up to a year for the cords to really form (since the hair is matting it takes longer to grow) into a length that is easier to take care of. if the cords are less than a few inches, it is a daily process keeping those cords from pelting to each other.

As far as grooming the dog, you can take it to a groomer for bathing a drying with cords, but be prepared to pay more. i used to do a full coated puli with cords tyo the floor, and that dog never cost them less than 100 bucks, and never took me shorter than 3 hours. this was even when the dog was pretty well maintained. but these owners also had periods of not seperating the dreads, and it was always really hard to groom the dog.

Another thing to think about is the smell. corded dogs get stinkly real fast, those cords hold everything in. Your dog being a boy is also a problem, as the pee gets in the cords and start to just smell. Even with trimming and a sanitary area, these dogs usually start to smell after about 2 weeks or so.

im not trying to sway you from the syle, but if you havent had a corded dog before it is kind of hard to imagine how difficult it is to keep up with it.

[Juicy]

Thanks for the tips/advice. I'm going to buy a spray for the smell/coat. His coat isn't too the floor, nor does he have that much coat, but I'll accept the extra spending on getting him groomed

[Juicy]

Question, Valentino is a waterfreak, he loves to swim. Would cording him mean I would have to keep him away from water for a while?

[dogsarebetter]

as a groomer i dont think you could pay me enough to cord a dog.

good luck!

[duncan15]

Question, Valentino is a waterfreak, he loves to swim. Would cording him mean I would have to keep him away from water for a while?

Yes it would. basically, with a corded dog, if he gets wet, he needs to be dried thoroughly in order for the cords to stay clean, and not have a buildup of mildew. no water play for a corded dog unless you want to spend the time to dry him.

the drying process is a lot of work. just bathing a corded dog takes over an hour, and drying can take upwards of 3-5 hours. most wrap the dog in towels (or tshirts) and put them in a cage dryer with a lot of ventilation. every half hour or so, you have to take the dog out and soak up the water with a towel. force drying is not recommended b/c it will loosen the cords.

as a groomer i dont think you could pay me enough to cord a dog

Like i said, you wouldnt have to do the actual cording, you cant put cords on a dog. but most groomers do not have the time, energy, or resources to do these dogs. The only place i groomed corded dogs was at a boarding facililty, where i had more time to do the grooming than in a salon. a groomer in a salon, doing more than 10-20 dogs a day, just cannot do a dog like this without charging a hefty price.

Also, juicy, be very careful about choosing a groomer. most pet groomers have no experiance with corded dogs, most have never even touched one before. the puli i used to do went to a petsmart, and the inexperianced groomer ended up shaving a lot of the dog (his tail, backend, neck and face) b/c of the "matting", not realizing that she could have split the matts up and kept the cording. instead, the dog had shaved areas and it was even harder to cord (having uneven hair makes matting occur, and makes cording harder). so really talk to the groomer, find out how much experiance they have. even if they dont have that much (since i highly doubt you will find a groomer with a lot fo experiance with this), if they are willing to research and find out more information, then that would be enough for me.