A Journey of Personal Learning

Introduction

. Welcome to my revised and updated article on grooming. I will apologise in advance for the fact that many of the points I make in these articles go against time honoured traditions, but I believe that I provide the necessary facts to justify my opinions. Although my ownership of Duurstede® Grooming Products may suggest personal bias, I have made every effort to present all the facts in order that you can draw your own conclusions. Should you wish to respond to me personally, my address is: W. R. Van Wyck, 905 Seventh Street East, Owen Sound, Ontario, N4K 1K3 or you can e-mail me at info@duurstede.com.

I titled this A Journey of Personal Learning as my degree is in Philosophy and Religious Studies and until we acquired our Gordon Setter 'Harry' (BIS BISS Can/Am Ch Sandpiper's Blockade Runner CD) coat care and coat care products were of little importance to our sporadic showing. Harry quickly changed all that! He is, in every sense of the word, a 'coat-machine'. Challenging 'new' grooming styles and products (usually hopeless mistakes) when attempted one week had fortunately grown out by the next. His rapid coat growth hid the hundreds of 'beginner' clipper divots, the 'Who left the #15 blade in the clippers!' and my favourite, the 'Who put the new blade in the shaping razor!'

Recognising my inadequate knowledge of coat and skin care, I began supplementing every available article and book with conversations with board certified veterinary dermatologists. One of the first things I realised was that there is very little scientific material written on canine skin and coat! Even the texts and training given to veterinarians concentrate on the identification and treatment of specific skin/coat problems, but little if any time is spent on its proper care and maintenance. I was surprised at the blank looks I received from experts when I asked what I thought were simple, straight-forward questions: 'What is the pH of canine skin?'; 'Is it breed specific?'; 'Could there be a variance in pH between the skin of two Gordon Setters?'; 'Can frequent use of products pH balanced for humans be harmful to a dog's skin and coat?'; 'Can the scraping away of the hair cuticle caused during stripping of a coat cause the hair shaft to weaken and lose its reflectiveness?'

Well, after five years, I have answers only to some of these questions. But for you to understand my conclusions, I need to take you back to school for a brief but essential course - Canine Coat and Skin 101.

Canine Coat and Skin 101

. Overview

A dog's skin is the largest organ of its body and the structural and living barrier between a dog and its environment. It provides protection from physical, chemical, and microbiologic injury, and its sensory components perceive heat, cold, pain, itching, touch, and pressure. In addition, the skin is synergistic with internal organ systems and provides a window into overall health. The skin, hair, and subcutis of a newborn puppy represent 24 per cent of its body weight, but by maturity, these structures constitute about 12 per cent of body weight.

How does hair evolve?

Hair 'seeds' or germs initially consist of an area of crowding in the skin. Subsequently, the areas of crowding become buds that protrude into the skin. Beneath each bud lies a group of cells from which the hair papilla is later formed. The hair papilla is the cone-shaped bump located at the bottom of the hair follicle, which is rich in blood and contributes to the growth and regeneration of the hair. It can be considered to be the 'mother' that feeds the hair. As long as the papilla is not destroyed, the hair will grow.

As this hair germ lengthens and develops into a hair follicle and hair, three distinct bulges appear. The lowest (deepest) of the bulges develops into the attachment for the arrector pili muscle which pulls the hair shaft up as in 'making one's hackles rise' or 'goose-bumps'; the middle bulge develops into the sebaceous gland which produces sebum - a greasy (in fact waxy) secretion that coats the hair before it reaches the skin's surface; and the uppermost bulge evolves into the apocrine sweat gland whose function is a significant area of debate.

The haircoat varies in density, texture and length among breeds, and among individuals within a breed. It may also vary from one area to another on the body, and in accordance with age and sex.

The pH of normal canine skin has a reported range from about 7.0 to 7.4. Allerderm®, a respected manufacturer of veterinary dermato-pharmacological products suggests an average pH of 7.5. The precise neutral point on the pH scale is 7.0, therefore canine skin should be considered mildly alkaline. Human skin, by contrast, has a pH of approximately 5.5.

What makes up a hair shaft?

The hair shaft is divided into medulla, cortex, and cuticle. The medulla is the innermost region of the hair and could be considered the 'marrow' of the hair shaft. The medulla is composed of longitudinal rows of cells flattened from top to bottom. The cell layers are solid near the hair root, but the rest of the hair shaft contains air and carbohydrate pockets. The cortex, the middle layer, consists of completely cornified, spindle-shaped cells, whose longitudinal axis is parallel to the hair shaft. This layer gives the hair its strength and elasticity and is made up of a fibrous substance formed by elongated cells. These cells contain the pigment that gives the hair its colour. The colour of a hair depends on the type and amount of pigment granules it contains. These pigment granules are formed in the melanocytes (pigment producing cells) of the hair follicle, are found to be oval fairly smooth particles, and are injected into the hair cells as they grow. Black hairs contain black pigment granules, composed of eumelanin, which are densely packed into the medulla and cortex of the hair. Pigment present in the medulla has little influence on the colour of the hair shaft but the dense packing of eumelanin granules may make them both stiff and thick. Tan hairs contain phaeomelanin granules that are not only lighter in colour, but are packed less densely into the hairs. Under the microscope these granules look much finer, almost dust-like. Even if a tan hair was the same diameter as a black hair, it would be more flexible, because the pigment granules are finer, smoother, and allow for the hair to bend more easily. However, pigment granules comprise a large component of the total hair structure, so tan hairs also tend to be finer in diameter. In general, the cortex accounts for one-sixth to one-third the width of the hair shaft and, as previously stated, contributes the most to the mechanical properties of the hair. The cuticle, the outermost layer of the hair, is formed by flat, transparent, overlapping, protective scale-like cells arranged like slate on a roof, with the free edge of each cell facing the tip of the hair.

What makes up the hair follicles?

Hair follicles are usually positioned at a 30 to 60 degree angle to the skin surface. Dogs have a compound hair follicle arrangement. In general, a cluster consists of two to five large primary hairs surrounded by groups of smaller, secondary hairs. One of the primary hairs is the largest (central primary hair), and the remaining primary hairs are smaller (lateral primary hairs). Each primary hair has sebaceous and sweat glands and an arrector pili muscle. Secondary hairs may be accompanied only by sebaceous glands. Secondary hairs have a narrower medulla and a more prominent cuticle than do primary hairs. The primary hairs generally emerge independently through separate pores while the secondary hairs emerge through a common pore. From five to 20 secondary hairs may accompany each primary hair. Hairs are present in groups of 100 to 600/cm2 (645 to 3870/in2) in the dog, with two to 15 hairs per group.

Both primary (outercoat, guard) and secondary (undercoat) hairs are medullated in dogs. In general, the shape of the hair follicle determines the shape of the hair fibre, with straight follicles producing straight hairs and curly follicles producing curly hairs. In general, no new hair follicles are formed after birth.

The hair cycle

Hair does not grow continuously but rather in cycles. Each cycle consists of a growing period, during which the follicle is actively producing hair, and a resting period, during which the hair is retained in the follicle as a dead (or club) hair that is subsequently lost. There is also a transitional period between these two stages. The relative duration of the phases of the cycle varies with age, region of the body, breed, and sex. It should be remembered that it could also be modified by a variety of physiologic and pathologic factors.

The hair cycle, and thus the haircoat, is controlled by light, ambient temperature, nutrition, hormones, general state of health, genetics, and other poorly understood intrinsic factors. Hair replacement in dogs is mosaic in pattern because neighbouring hair follicles are in different stages of the hair cycle at any one time. Replacement responds predominantly to light and, to a lesser extent, to ambient temperature, and is unaffected by castration (male dog neutering). Dogs in temperate latitudes such as ours in Canada may shed noticeably in the spring and fall. Hair follicle activity, and thus hair growth rate, is maximal in summer and minimal in winter. Up to 50 per cent of hair follicles may be resting in the summer while this proportion may increase to 90 per cent in the winter. Transitional hairs always constitute a small proportion of the total number of hairs, usually 4 to 7 per cent of the total. Many dogs exposed to several hours of artificial light (e.g., animals housed indoors) shed, sometimes profusely, throughout the year.

Hair grows until it attains its preordained length, which varies according to body region and is genetically determined. It then enters the resting phase, which may last for a considerable amount of time. Each region of the body has its own ultimate length of hair beyond which no further growth occurs, a phenomenon responsible for the distinctive coat lengths of various breeds. Investigators have reported daily hair growth rates in dogs of 0.04 to 0.18 mm in Greyhounds and 0.34 to 0.40 mm in Beagles.

Because hair is 95 per cent protein, with a high percentage of amino acids that contain sulphur, nutrition has a profound effect on its quantity and quality. The normal growth of hair (the sum of growth in all follicles being up to 100 feet per day) and the keratinization of skin require 25 to 30 per cent of the animal's daily protein requirement. Poor nutrition may produce patchy areas in which hairs become thinner (alopecia), rough, dry, dull, and brittle. They are easily broken and grow slowly while shedding is prolonged.

Under conditions of ill health or generalised disease, the hair growth cycle may be considerably shortened; accordingly, a large percentage of body hairs may be dormant at one time. Because dormant hairs tend to be more easily lost, the animal may shed excessively. Disease states may also lead to faulty formation of hair cuticle, which results in a dull, lustreless hair coat. Severe illness or systemic stress may cause many hair follicles to enter concurrently and prematurely into the dormant phase. Shedding of these hairs thus occurs simultaneously, often resulting in visible thinning of the coat.

Hair colours and types

Although hair types in dogs are extremely diverse, one must recognise that this diversity is in appearance - not in its basic composition or structure. Various authors have attempted to classify canine hair on the basis of colour, length, type of bristle, and characteristics of the medulla and cortex. The consensus is that hair types among dogs can be divided into normal (intermediate length), short, and long coats.

Normal Coat. The normal coat is typified by that seen in the German Shepherd Dog, the Welsh Corgi, and wild dogs such as wolves and coyotes. It is composed of primary hairs (coarse guard hairs or bristles) and secondary hairs (fine hairs or undercoat). High proportions of the hairs, by number but not by weight, are secondary hairs.

The next two classes of hair coats are also made up of primary and secondary hairs, but the relative sizes of the hairs and their numbers vary markedly from those of the normal coat.

Short Coat. The short coat can be classified as coarse or fine. The Rottweiler and many of the terriers typify the coarse short coat. This type of coat has a strong growth of primary hairs and a much lesser growth of secondary hairs. The total weight of hair is lower, and the secondary hairs, especially, weigh less and are fewer in number than those in the normal coat. Boxers, Dachshunds, and Miniature Pinschers exemplify the fine short coat. This type of coat has the largest number of hairs per unit area. The secondary hairs are numerous and well developed, and the primary hairs are reduced in size as compared with those of the normal coat.

Long Coat. The long coat can also be arranged into two subdivisions: the fine long coat and the woolly or coarse long coat. The fine long coat such as found in the Setters, the Pomeranian, and the Chow Chow has a greater weight of hair per unit area than does the normal coat, except in the toy breeds (in which the weight of the hair may be less because it is finer). The woolly or coarse long coat is found in breeds such as the Poodle, the Bedlington Terrier and the Kerry Blue Terrier. Secondary hairs make up 70 per cent of the total weight of these coats and 80 per cent of the number of hairs. Compared with other secondary-type hairs, these are relatively coarse. The three breeds mentioned have fewer tendencies to shed hair than do many breeds.

The genetic aspects of coat colour in dogs constitute a complex subject. Pigmentation in individual hairs may be uniform throughout the length of the shaft, or it may vary. Pigment cells in the bulb of the hair deposit pigment in or between the cortical and medullary hair cells. The amount of pigment deposited in the hair and its location there, produce different optical effects even though there are only two types of pigment. The black-brown pigment is called eumelanin, and the yellow-red pigment is called pheomelanin. With black hair, as on Gordons, pigment production remains consistent throughout the growth period. German Shepherd Dogs and Norwegian Elkhounds have varying deposits as demonstrated by the fact that the tip is white or light, the heavy body is pigmented brown or black, and the base is a light yellow or red-brown.

Shampoos and Shampooing

. I think you will find that which follows more enjoyable than wading through the technical first section. In this section, we will discuss shampoos and shampooing. I have reduced the technical jargon as much as possible to increase readability and to that end have taken some liberties with terms - so you chemists out there, please excuse some of the generalisations!

I thought that I would break this chapter into a short theory lesson and practical section.

This short theory lesson deals with how shampoos work. To answer this we must ask - how does a coat get dirty? Quite simply, the sebum covered surface of the hair coat and grooming products, from shampoo to hair sprays, attract and hold foreign matter.

Shampoo molecules are very large molecules that are composed of a 'head' and a 'tail', each with its own function. The tail of the shampoo molecule has an attraction for dirt, debris, and sebum but has no attraction for water. Technically it is called lipophilic (oil loving). The head of the shampoo molecule has a strong attraction for water but does not like the dirt, debris and sebum. It is said to be hydrophilic (water loving). When shampoo is applied to the hair coat, the tails of the shampoo molecules are brought into direct contact with the dirt, debris and sebum. Since they have an affinity for these items, they grab on. When water travels past these molecules, the water-seeking heads try to 'leave' with the water and this causes the molecule to pull away with the sebum and debris. This defines the true 'art' of developing a great shampoo molecule. If your molecule is 'tail' heavy, it will bond to the sebum but not rinse out. If your molecule is 'head' heavy, it will not pick up enough sebum and debris before racing away with the rinse water. You want one whose tail will bond aggressively with the sebum and debris but at the same time it must have a head that readily seeks water in order to rinse easily. We call these actions - 'rolling up'. These ball-like globules have hydrophilic heads around the outside, while their lipophilic tails have a firm grip on the excess sebum that carries the foreign matter. This is why it is very important to alternate shampoo with water during the bathing process. If you only add shampoo, the rolling up will only occur when you rinse and this will dramatically increase your rinsing time and the chance of leaving 'unused' shampoo which will dull the coat and act as a magnet for passing dirt. This is a very superficial but sufficient overview of what takes place.

Now with the theory over, let's move on to the practical section of this chapter and start by taking a look at a recommended pre-bath protocol:
1. Clip the nails and grind down any sharp edges. At this time, check between the pads for foreign objects and remove any knotted-up hair. I prefer to use a #10 clipper as a quick jerk of the paw when trimming with scissors can produce a stubborn laceration. Try to go with the grain as I have seen many instances of backclipping producing irritations that caused abnormal movement in the ring!

2. Clean the teeth with C.E.T.® or similar product with those nifty finger brushes. You should not use human toothpaste if you clean your dog's teeth with any regularity. Human toothpastes are designed to be spit out and there is concern with ingestion of excess bicarbonate and fluoride.

3. Tidy up around the ears and clean if necessary. Most ear products contain ceruminolytics that lift and release ear wax build-up but leave a greasy residue. The bath will clean up the residue.

4. Brush out the coat and remove any mats. As hair swells dramatically when wet, any existing knots will only get tighter. Hair is also more fragile and will break more easily if combed out when wet. What actually happens is the hair absorbs an enormous amount of water in the bathing process. Normal hair will have about 10 per cent moisture but this will increase to around 30 per cent when bathed. The cortex of the hair shaft is far more elastic than the hair coat's outer cuticle. With the added weight of the water, the cortex stretches even more than if combed when dry and the cuticle breaks its bonds with the cortex. The hair is now weakened at each of those breaks and will eventually break off entirely. So brush out when the coat is dry and try to do a minimum of combing when the coat is wet to reduce hair coat breakage.

5. Historically it was thought that applying an ointment or oil to the eyes as protection against the irritating effects of shampoo was good practice, but recent opinion indicates that these make rinsing any stray shampoo from the eyes more difficult.

6. Express anal sacs, if necessary. This allows the bathing procedure to remove any excessive odour and there will be excessive odour!
Now it's time to hit the tub. Hopefully you will have reasonably soft water as hard water can deposit minerals onto the coat and reduce its reflectiveness. Hard water also requires additional shampoo to overcome these minerals. If you have hard water, you should look for a shampoo with chelating agents. Chelating agents bond to the minerals to keep them from bonding to the hair shaft.

Always use lukewarm water in the bathing process as hot water can shock the hair and cold water does not do as good a job of penetrating the hair shaft. One of the most common mistakes we make when bathing a dog (and our own hair for that matter) is not wetting the hair down thoroughly enough. Remember that water is the dispersing agent for your shampoo - it distributes your shampoo. As mentioned before, water also swells the hair shaft. This swelling helps open the cuticle to allow better penetration of the shampoo. Therefore, wet the coat, wait for a couple of minutes and wet again. Use this time to get any excess mud and grime out of the feet and legs. A thorough rinsing of the crotch area to reduce the amount of shampoo needed is helpful as some shampoos can irritate these very sensitive areas.

Now we apply the shampoo. This leads us to the whole question of ingredients. Just what are you putting on your dog? There are no regulations to force a manufacturer of dog grooming products to list their ingredients. If they do list them, there are no regulations to force them to show all their ingredients, or to show them by volume. Many times you will find 'in vogue' ingredients shown at the first of an ingredient panel, when in reality they constitute less than 1 per cent of the total product by volume. Many over-the-counter (OTC) shampoos are 90 per cent water with Sodium Chloride (table salt) added as an inexpensive thickening agent. Don't be fooled by simple chemistry - thickness does not necessarily mean concentration! Don't use an inexpensive shampoo, particularly if you bath frequently. Shampooing is like laying the foundation of a house. If you do it correctly and use good products, the end result will be well worth the cost and additional time. And there may not be any additional time, as better quality products tend to be better-balanced products that significantly reduce rinsing time.

Back to applying the shampoo. Apply a small amount to the palm of your hand, rub your hands together to distribute it thoroughly then work into the coat. This allows you to put more product where it is needed rather than using an overall dilution that may be adequate for your dog's topcoat but insufficient for legs and crotch areas. Start behind the head and work down over the dog, alternating shampoo and a squirt of lukewarm water. Try to avoid scrubbing as this only increases the chance of tangling and breakage. Use a squeezing/scrunching movement with your hands to work the product into the coat. This brings us to the question of lather. To me, high lathering or foaming shampoos are unbalanced shampoos. We have been conditioned to believe that 'suds' are good - be it in dish washing liquid or shaving cream. For the life of me, I can't understand what foam on top of dishwater or an inch away from the razor blade that is about to scrape across my face has to do with anything! Given the choice, I would much rather have the cleaning agents (surfactants) stay in the dishwater where they actually clean the dishes than to have foam on top. I would rather pay for higher quality softeners (emollients) that would ensure a close but 'safe' shave than look like Santa Claus. The other problem with high sudsing products is that they do not penetrate well. Trying to get foam to penetrate a dense coat is like trying to push cooked spaghetti. What you really want is a product that penetrates and distributes easily, cleans efficiently without producing excessive lather and then rinses easily. The only reason for lather to appear in a balanced product is to tell you that you have added enough shampoo to complete the cleaning process. This 'starting to lather' state indicates that there is no more cleaning to be done and the shampoo has no other recourse but to bond with water causing foam, as there is no more 'dirt'. At this point no more shampoo should be added and if the product you are using has ingredients beneficial to the skin, it should be left on for 2 to 3 minutes and then thoroughly rinsed with lukewarm water. Now that you understand what the shampoo is doing you can see how important the rinsing process is. We want to make sure we have removed all of the shampoo before moving on to the next step. Once again, remember that the hair is now quite swollen with water and is very fragile and tangleable, so let the water do the work. (N.B. We recently installed a new shower nozzle to the flex line we have in our dog tub. We had been testing some new products and I was not happy with their rinsing abilities. The problem was not the products but the new 'water-saver' nozzle that was restricting the water output to 35 per cent of what we had before 'upgrading!' If you're going to bath dogs, you're going to use water, so get a nozzle that gives you volume.)

Conditioners and Conditioning

.
First, let me express some opinions over the term 'conditioner.' In my opinion, most of today's conditioners (canine and human) are really detanglers. Their primary function is to facilitate comb-out and, to that end, they are acid in composition to close the cuticle of the hair shaft left open from shampooing. Since they quickly close the cuticle, their ingredients' ability to penetrate to the cortex of the hair shaft and 'condition' the coat is questionable. Since most conditioners are acidic, my further question evolves around ingredients. If they have added protein, they are not misleading the consumer to say 'With Added Protein.' Unfortunately proteins are very sensitive to pH. So how beneficial is this 'added protein' to your coat after sitting in acid for several months from date of manufacture? 'Not very!' is my answer. So be careful when purchasing conditioners. Read the ingredients carefully and ask about pH. Is there a date of manufacture on the bottle? The fresher the better! If you want deep conditioning, look for a product that is 'alkaline' that is to say it has a pH over 7. You may have to use a mildly acidic rinse after conditioning to improve comb-out, but at least the ingredients will get to the cortex of the hair where they can be the most effective. It should be noted here that a common misconception is that all alcohols in coat products are 'bad.' Used correctly, certain alcohols are valuable and integral ingredients. 'Fatty' alcohols (like cetyl and lauryl) while carrying the essential elements of conditioners to the coat and skin, actually help preserve vital moisture.

The word 'moisture' triggers the need for another brief theory lesson! This one deals with hair moisture and relative humidity. Hair normally contains 9 per cent to 10 per cent moisture and, even when it looks very dry, it still contains 4 per cent to 5 per cent moisture. This moisture plays an important role in the well being of the hair, as moisture is required to lubricate the cortex. Ideally, we would like hair to have a moisture content closer to the 9 per cent to 10 per cent range.

This is where things get a little confusing. At 30º C (86º F), a volume of air can contain up to 4 per cent water vapour while at 0º C (32ºF) the same volume of air can only hold 0.38 per cent water vapour. When a volume of air at a given temperature holds this maximum amount of water vapour, the air is said to be saturated or has a relative humidity (RH) of 100 per cent. RH is the measure of the amount of water vapour in the air at a particular temperature, compared with the total amount of water vapour the air can hold at that temperature. As the chart below indicates, even on a nice summer day with 20º C (68º F) and a comparatively high RH of 75 per cent, the amount of water vapour in the air is slightly more than 1 per cent or one tenth of what we would like our hair to be. In a Canadian winter where the RH in our homes drops to 40 per cent or less at that same temperature, the amount of water vapour in the air is around 0.5 per cent. Even in the most severe rain forest, the air about us would contain significantly less moisture than we would like for optimum hair and skin conditions.

The above are the key reasons for using some conditioner on all coat-types after every shampooing. When we bath a dog, we remove a certain percentage of the sebum. Sebum is nature's barrier to prevent the evaporation of moisture from the moist hair (9 per cent to 10 per cent) to the environment (0.5 per cent to 1.0 per cent). By applying a conditioner to the coat after bathing, you place a new barrier onto the coat and skin that will dramatically reduce this transfer process. Most conditioners will not start 'conditioning' or softening until several minutes have elapsed. If your desire is to protect your dog's coat and skin from drying, then a short application of a good quality alkaline conditioner should accomplish that without affecting the feel or texture of the coat. On the other hand, if you want both the protection and the conditioning, then a longer application period is recommended. Remember to place extra conditioner on normally damaged areas such as on 'pee-coat' (even healthy urine can have a pH as low as 5 which will strip sebum) legs, paws and ear tips.

One other point we should address is static or 'flyaway' coat. Hair with normal moisture levels maintains electric neutrality. However, even clean hair in a low-humidity environment or when brushed aggressively picks up increased negative charges. The adjacent hairs that are similarly charged repel one another and produce the condition known as 'flyaway.' Conditioners not only reduce evaporation and thereby help preserve normal moisture levels but also, their cationic (positively charged) surfactants and/or amphoteric materials neutralise the charge and eliminate 'flyaway.'



It is important to dry your dog's coat correctly. If you use human hair dryers to dry your dog's coat after bathing, the following article from American Health (June 1994) should sound alarm bells:
"A hair dryer that overheats can cause more than a few bad hair days. Tresses exposed to the too-hot air of a clogged dryer will form gas bubbles ­ cavities in the hair shaft ­ that are actually an early stage of combustion. The result? Kinky, brittle and unmanageable hair. Some doctors initially thought these cases of "bubble hair," as it's dubbed, were caused by trauma to the hair, combined with a genetic defect. "But new research shows that overheating damages the hair shaft, no matter how healthy it is," says dermatologist Susan Detwiler of the University of North Carolina Medical Center at Chapel Hill. Dr. Detwiler had one patient with terrible patches of dry, unruly hair near her scalp. The woman didn't have a perm, swim regularly in a chlorinated pool, or use hot rollers. She did, however, use a hair dryer twice day. When Detwiler examined the styling device, she discovered that it was clogged with matted hair, causing the air coming from it to reach a temperature of roughly 580º, compared with about 300º in unclogged dryers. Detwiler went on to expose hair from 16 adults, a cat and three dogs to high heat. She found that all the samples formed gas bubbles when the temperature climbed above 350º."
To sum up - never expose hair to high temperatures when drying. Not only do you create an environment that causes the problems described above; you increase the chance of tangling. As we learned earlier in this article, hair absorbs a significant amount of moisture when wet. This causes the hair shaft to swell which results in the cuticle opening. By applying heat, further expansion occurs in the hair and the barb-like cuticles, now extremely extended, make combing-out a nightmare. Your best regime is to towel dry in the direction of the coat using a squeezing/scrunching motion, then towel the dog and let Mother Nature (is that politically correct these days?) do the rest. You can knock the remaining dampness out of the coat with a Kool-Dry dryer or similar blower on its very lowest speed as whipping damp hair around at high velocities could create some very unpleasant side effects!

Leave-in products and grooming

. Now that we have a clean, well-conditioned coat, it is time to look at various leave-in products along with grooming techniques and how they affect the coat and skin.

Since leave-in products are not washed-out, it is very important to learn a little about skin reactions. It is known that some dogs are unable to tolerate certain leave-in products. Reactions usually take the form of red, swollen, itchy skin with or without small blisters. Many of us would call these allergic reactions, but irritation rather than allergy cause most. Allergic contact dermatitis is an allergic reaction that occurs when sensitivity develops to an ingredient that does not cause a reaction in most other dogs. In an irritant reaction, the ingredient that has caused the irritation would cause a reaction on the skin of most dogs. Although these reactions may look almost identical, their implications are very different. Some dogs have very sensitive skin. This skin-type becomes irritated by relatively small amounts of a variety of irritating ingredients. In addition, if a dog has eczema or any other condition that causes inflamed skin, it will be much more prone to irritant reactions. Because no single substance causes the problem in an irritation reaction, these reactions are much more difficult to avoid than allergic reactions. Trial and error may be the only way of finding a suitable product if your dog has sensitive skin.

As there are very few studies that involve dogs, I have included the top three causative agents (ingredients) that produced allergic reactions in humans. They are fragrances, quaternium-15 and paraphenylenediamine.

Fragrances, while found in most grooming products, are the most frequent cause of allergic reactions to cosmetics. Some products are manufactured without fragrances and are designated 'fragrance-free.' This is not to be confused with 'unscented' as unscented products usually contain a masking fragrance to reduce or eliminate odours from components used to make the product.

Quaternium-15 is a commonly used preservative. It has recently been found to react in the body with other chemicals to produce nitrosamines that are carcinogens. This should not be confused with polyquaternium (most often -7 and -10) that is an excellent coat and skin protectant.

Paraphenylenediamine (ppd) is found in many permanent and semi-permanent hair dyes. Since none of us would ever dye a dog for show purposes, noting this ingredient is of little consequence! However, if you accidentally spilled some dye on your dog and detected a reaction, you would be wise to stay away from PABA (found in sunscreens) and benzocaine (found in skin anesthetics such as sunburn medications) as they are all closely related.

My last comment on leave-in products and reactions is to note terms like 'allergy-tested,' 'dermatologist-tested' and 'veterinarian-tested'. These adjectives, while increasingly used, are purposeless, as they do not demonstrate how well a product succeeded when it was tested! It may have only received a minimum grade, but it was 'tested'. Another term that annoys me is 'tearless'. There is no such thing as a tearless shampoo. Even straight water poured into the eyes will cause enough irritation to produce tears. A product can be made friendlier to the eyes by using gentler surfactants, but it is still not tearless! Lastly, labelling as a whole can be very confounding. Canadian and American governments have not forced manufacturers of dog grooming products to put their ingredients on their packaging. Further, if a manufacturer wishes, they can put only some of the ingredients on a package and they do not have to be in order of volume. It is to be hoped that as the dog fancy becomes more educated, they will force governments to legislate more informative and relevant labelling. Remember the old adage: Buyer beware!

Now that you have waded through another education session, it is time to look at products. Most of the leave-in products would fall into two categories: texturizers/bodifiers/fixatives and protectants. By their nature, texturizers and bodifiers add texture and volume to the coat. They can have a light holding ability but their main feature is their ability to make the coat look fuller and denser. Fixatives, such as hair sprays, add the ability to style the coat from its natural lay. The only drawback with fixatives is that they tend to be lacquer based and as such are very difficult to wash out. All of the products in this group should be used sparingly as they will tend to build-up on the coat and skin. If you can find products that are water soluble, then you can avoid build-up by reactivating them by just misting with water rather than adding more product. You should also be aware that most of these types of products attract dirt and increase soiling, as they tend to become tacky as humidity rises or if moisture is present.

Protectants are a different group in that they try to save the coat from damage, particularly from the environment. Many people insist on putting their dog's coats in Cholesterol or oils. I am not a fan of this for several reasons. Remember that 'healthy' hair has a moisture content of around 10 per cent. Air has a moisture content of around 1 per cent (at 20º C and 70 per cent relative humidity). Hair that has been stripped of its natural oils (sebum) quickly loses moisture and becomes exceedingly brittle. On the other hand, 'coating' the hair and skin in occlusive agents (oils) can prevent the natural transfer of moisture and will attract and trap organic material ­ including bacteria. This trapping effect is magnified if occlusives are applied shortly after a bath, when the moisture content in the hair can exceed 30 per cent! The advantage of using non-occlusive products that contain Polyquaternium 7 or 10 is that Polyquaternium forms a semi-permeable barrier that actually allows the hair and skin to 'breathe' while at the same time protecting it from environmental damage. The other real problem with oiling a coat is that they become dirt magnets and the constant working of the dirty coat may do more damage than good. Modern protectants have the advantage of providing a healthier environment for the skin while providing superior coat protection.

Now you have all the information to get your dog's coat in order, but what about actual grooming? There are two elements of actual grooming to which I wish to make mention.

I feel very strongly on the issue of stoning. Stop for a minute and think about what you are doing. You are taking a very abrasive substance ­ the pumice stone ­ and pushing it against your dog's coat with enough pressure to pull out 'club' hairs, break off attached hairs and tear cuticle off those that remain. The reason the finished coat looks ­ for the moment ­ so attractive is that the damaged cuticle on the remaining hair coat act like barbs that hold the coat together. This 'knitting' together gives the coat a very manicured look but at what long-term cost? There are two main problems with the coat at this point. First, everywhere the cuticle has been torn away the hair has been weakened. Over a very short period of time, the exposed cortex of the hair will lose essential moisture and breakage will occur. The other problem is that the cuticle, especially one that is tight to the hair shaft, is what helps give the coat its shine. Stoned coats look dull as the missing cuticle reduces reflectivity. I have never used a stone on any of our dogs. Some of you that will read this know our 'Harry' ­ the Gordon Setter Coat Machine. He has always required constant attention or he turns into a Newf. I only use very sharp scissors and thinning shears. Never use dull scissors as they will break or bend the hair rather than cut it. The sharper the scissors and blades the cleaner the cut and the better the reflectivity of the hair. And to that comment ­ do not buy inexpensive scissors! Good scissors will last decades, even with regular use (as long as you do not forget them on a grooming table in Cleveland). If you want to maintain a good edge on your scissors, never use them without bathing your dog first. Nothing dulls even the best blade faster than a dirty coat. I will readily admit that this grooming method takes a long time to master. I am still discovering new 'tricks,' but in my opinion the results are well worth it. When was the last time you saw a hairdresser use a stone or any scraping tool on human hair?

I feel as strongly when it comes to candling or singeing. I used this technique for years, until I talked with a veterinary dermatologist one afternoon. Originally it was thought that candling would seal the hair tips from 'losing' moisture after the hair had been cut. But what is actually happening to the hair when we do this? The heat from the candle expands the gas in the medulla (centre) of the hair to the point that it will explode, literally blowing the end of the hair apart! It's the fastest way to split ends you can imagine. So keep the candles for a romantic evening and save your dog's coat the trauma of being blown apart!

Lastly, no matter what regime we follow, no matter what quality of products we use and no matter how much time we spend on our dog's coat ­ we cannot grow coat. All of the procedures we have talked about are cosmetic fixes. We can only provide an environment that helps maintain the coat our dogs grow. Proper diet and good health are the key to good hair growth. The normal growth of hair (the sum of growth in all follicles being 100 feet per day) and the keratinization of skin require 25 to 30 per cent of the animal's daily protein requirement. Keep your dog on a good diet, pay attention to health issues promptly, utilise the information I have presented and you should be well on your way to a top show coat!

Thank you for taking the time to read these articles. If you have any further comments or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at:
W. R. (Bill) Van Wyck
Duurstede Grooming Products
905 Seventh Street East
OWEN SOUND, Ontario
N4K 1K3
or by e-mail at: info@duurstede.com

References:

Much of the above has been compiled and depalaverized from:
Muller, Kirk, Scott: Small Animal Dermatology IV (1989) and V (1995). W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia.

And

Ryder, M. L.: The Integumentary System.

And

E-mails from Gregory M. Acland, BVSc., Dip. ACVO, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University

Of interest to those who find winters too long:

Comben, N.: Observations on the mode of growth of the hair of the dog. Brit. Vet. J. 107:231, 1951.

Little, C. C.: The Inheritance of Coat Color in Dogs. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, 1957.

Miller, D.: Know How to Groom Your Dog. The Pet Library Ltd., New York.

Moschella, S. L., Pillsbury, D. M., et al.: Dermatology. 2nd ed. W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 1983.

Thoday, A. J., and Friedmann, P. S.: Scientific Basis of Dermatology. A Physiological Approach. Churchill Livingstone, New York, 1986.

W. R. (Bill) Van Wyck is a member of the Gordon Setter Club of Canada. With the assistance of a research and development company in Milan, Italy, he developed the Duurstede® line of canine grooming products. He and Dr. Debbie Boyd have been involved with the showing and breeding of Gordon Setters for over 30 years.

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