[Dawn125]

Jewels was full of matts one time and My groomer got them all out. She charged me extra but she got them out. They dont have too shave them down. I think they do that out of laziness

There are lazy groomers out there, sure. I also agree that no groomer should ever shave a dog without an owners permission. However, when an owner brings in a matted dog and tells me "Don't shave her. I don't care what it costs, just brush her out." What I am hearing is "Don't shave her even though I don't brush her properly and she is a mess but I don't care how much you have to torture her as long as she looks pretty when she's done!" Time after time people bring in dogs and insist they brush it and it's not matted. Often they do, in fact, look brushed on the surface. But underneath they can be matted to the skin. Being matted is painful for the dog. You know when you wear a tight ponytail when not used to it and your scalp gets sore? Imagine that over your entire body. I have brushed out lots of matted dogs. I have only run across a couple yorkies that I couldn't brush out. In those cases I did clip them short with the owners permission. In a couple cases where a dog (not a yorkie) was too matted to brush out and the owner refused a short cut we have sent the owner home with their pet to try to brush it out themselves. They usually see how unreasonable it is and bring it back and say ok clip it short. I remember one lady with a standard poodle that insisted it could be brushed out so she took it home and spent 10 hours brushing the dog. She returned the next day with a dog with red raw skin and chunks of fur literally ripped out. Poor thing looked beautiful after her hair cut. A month later she returned as matted as the first time.

Anyway, my point is that while groomers can often brush out somewhat matted dogs, sometimes there is a point where it is in the best interests of the dog to just accept that you need to start over. Also, all groomers are not created equal. The big PetSomething places tend to be more about quantity so they will rarely spend any time dematting. It's a corporate thing. Often the corp. groomers are not even allowed to spend time brushing it out if it would be quicker to shave it. I have noticed that if you hang around a corp. grooming salon most of the dogs come out just short all over with no style whatsoever. So be careful of who you ask to groom your pet. Also some advice...get a metal grooming comb and after you brush your dog run a comb thru it to make sure you are getting it completely brushed out. A comb will find knots that the brush misses.

Does anyone have any idea on how long it will take for his hair to grow back?
I want my furry Jack back!!

About 1/2" per month grown out time

Sorry for the rant...haven't had my coffee yet this morning. Be glad you chose to be yorky owners instead of of maltese...now those little babies really do matt up horribly. In yorkies we have silky coated dogs that don't matt easily and cotton coated ones that do matt easily. Maltese are all pretty much cotton coated and very thin skinned so dematting is almost impossible!