“WHERE THERE IS HAIR, THERE IS JOY” (OR THE HAIRCUT IN THE POMERANIAN)
It’s been a while since we last posted on the blog, to be exact since last December when we told you about our getaway in La Gomera island. Click here to read that post if you missed it:
But we have decided to write in the blog only about those topics that require a more detailed and in-depth explanation, leaving more trivial topics and Colette’s daily life for our more dynamic posts on our Instagram account @pompomdog.
Without wanting to go into great explanations, with the main title of this publication, which originally refers to an expression from Spanish proverbs, from Pompomdog we wanted to extrapolate it and apply it to the subject of the Pomeranian’s coat and haircut.
Now that heat is approaching, at least in Spain, it is the moment when some people will start asking me why I don’t trim Colette’s fur.
Before explaining in brief the characteristics of the coat of Pomeranian dogs and the reasons why you should not cut their fur too much, we will tell you our personal experience.
When Colette was a puppy, we decided it was time to take her to the groomer to get her hair cut. We confess that our idea was to give her a the “Boo style” haircut, that is to say, teddy bear style, imitating the famous Boo, the Pomeranian, who became famous thanks to social networks, reaching during his life almost 16 million “likes” on Facebook. Fortunately, Silvia from the grooming salon “Pets & Poms”, explained us about the serious disadvantages that this style would have for Colette if we decided to cut it like this. (Spoiler: we have never cut Colette’s hair in “Boo style” ?).
- Pomeranian’s coat characteristics: If there is something that characterizes the Pomeranian is its luxurious and voluminous coat made up of two layers:
- The undercoat, dense, with short and woolly fur. It is precisely the thickness of this undercoat what makes the coat “stand off” from its body.
- The outer layer, with a long and smoother coat.
It is precisely this double layer what protects and isolates them, especially from the heat. For the cold, we are in favour of Colette wearing a cloth coat for the reasons we explained in this post, which you can read by clicking here.
On the rest of its body, its coat is heavier around the neck, shoulders and forepart of the chest, in its characteristic bib. It is shorter on the head and legs. Its tail, which lies straight and flat on the back, is covered with long, harsh, straight hair.
- Pomeranian’s haircut: Taking into account the particularities of the Pomeranian’s coat, the haircut should not be excessive and always done with scissors: only rounding its body, bib, ears and paws. It should never be shaved for aesthetic reasons or following trends. It is a different matter if your Pomeranian has to be shaved at the vet for medical reasons.
Shaving can most likely cause alopecia, that is, its fur will not grow back. Studies show that this is because, after shaving, the blood vessels that feed the hair follicle are constricted by the temperature change in the skin when the fur is cut, causing the skin to thicken (hyperkeratosis) and preventing normal fur growth. This type of alopecia is different from “alopecia X”, which also affects Pomeranians a lot and its causes are not very clear either.
If you don’t want to have furballs rolling around your home during shedding seasons or little hairs on your clothes, this is not your breed ? In the same way, we recommend you to go to dog grooming salons that know Pomeranian breed and are specialized in their haircut. And if you don’t want to have any unpleasant surprises when going to pick it up at the groomer’s, don’t hesitate and ask beforehand how they are going to cut its hair, or indicate how you would like it to be cut, and remember, always with scissors, never with a machine.
In short, a Pomeranian with fur is a happy and, above all, healthy Pomeranian ?.
You can complete the reading of this post with the two posts published on the types of shedding and care during this stage, we leave you their links here and here.
How was your experience with your dog’s haircut?
We’d love to hear about it in the comments of this post below. In this way we all learn from everyone’s experience.
Thanks so much for reading us! ^_^
