Of course it would have to be. She is going to have a dense, beautifull show coat, with lots and lots of undercoat!
Two and 1/2 wks ago she had no under coat. Now she has it in spades! I have just spent 1 hour on one side of her body removing a lot of her undercoat and the associated mats
I need to finish the other side because we are going swimming tomorrow!
I had forlornely hoped she would have the old style coat. The very coarse outer guard coat with little undercoat. But she is going to have undercoat in spades! As of yet her outer coat is still soft and puppyish. And her coat is right now mixed and at an awfull in between stage. Poor gal that means many more hours on the grooming table as we keep her mat free!
Right now she looks like a Black Beauty! With all the brushing and the undercoat removal her hair is gleaming a deep coal black. You see the undercoat grows in as a kind of "greyish" color which dulls down the black outer coat.
Anyhoo, just preparing for the Sept 13th sanction Match, where we need her coat in gleaming condition for the judge!
And for any-one that is interested to show groom a Blackie from start to finish takes at least 3-4 hours and that excludes the previous show cutting of the coat! It is very time intensive.
There is a way to blow dry the coat to enhance their outline or silouhette. And then you can judiciously snip errant hairs to show a neat outline. Their paw pads need to be trimmed so that when they are gaiting the whole paw pad is clearly visible. Their beard needs to be trimmed to enhance the "block" like outline of their head. The coat is trimmed to show off their angulations, but should not be sculpted....
Awh well I go on....