Why is my puppy's hair so tangled & matted?!!
 

Hey everyone---Cooper is going on 6 months and every time I give him a bath and blow dry him, his hair gets SO SO SOOOO tangled and matted. I used to think..."maybe it's because his puppy hair is growing out," but now, it's so frequent to where I dont know what to do. I got this detangling spray from petsmart called unicoat and when I use it and brush him, the spray doesn't detangle his hair. i give him baths every 10-11 days because he plays outside and stinks pretty bad by then LOL.

PLEASE HELP ME OUT HERE. what am i doing wrong???



-Hannah :)

Does Cooper have short or longer hair? What shampoo and conditioner are you using?

If he is outside and getting really dirty, I would bathe him more often, stay on top of the combing. In my limited experience (first-time, 1-year Yorkie owner), I have found that the better shampoos and conditioners minimize tangles and mats.

I should add an important tip I learned here on YT: get the tangles and mats out before bathing, otherwise they will tighten up and be more difficult or impossible to get out. :)

"Before" you shampoo him, use a slicker brush to get all the tangles out. Water down the shampoo so it isn't so strong. Use a really good conditioner and mix in some vegetable glycerine. His hair is really dry and is why he's matting so much. Blow dryers are terrible at drying the hair too, so make sure you always use lots of conditioner. After the coat is dry, you can add some Pet Silk Liquid Silk. It's what I use on my girls and it's amazing stuff.PetSilk Liquid Silk - PetSilk Products

i've been using baby shampoo LOL. what shampoo & conditioner would you recommend???? also, the comb doesn't seem to work and hurts poor cooper every time i try to comb his hair so i have to pick a tangle and detangle it but separating it lol. what kinds of brushes/combs do you use?

Just a thought and something I learned with my youngest who has very fine silky hair - I dont use anything after a bath - the detanglers will coat the hair and attract dirt - making it stick and then causing tangles. Clean hair is much easier to maintain.....

Everyone seems to be raving about Yorkie Shine shampoo and conditioner. You might want to try these. I was also having a problem with matting and we had him groomed into a shorter cut. I too have a rough and tumble Yorkie who would rather be outside.

Baby shampoo works great for some people, but it doesn't for me. I find it very drying. The trick is finding the product that works best on your dog's coat. I currently use Pet Silk shampoo and conditioner on my boy. Many people rave about Bio Groom, which you can buy at PetSmart, but it is less expensive buying it online. Other popular products include Minksheen (online), Yorkie Splash and Shine (YorkieTalk seller), Jean Paul and Bed Head (Petco).

:thumbup: I have learned this with Maximo.

Lots of good advice here. If you aren't going to show your boy invest in a nice shorter haircut. I say this because keeping a long coat is a whole lot of work. Dang there is a link somewhere here that shows some really cute cuts.

Combs can have pretty sharp ends. Try getting a natural boar bristle brush .. I believe Madan makes some. Or you could go with Chris Christensen wooden pin brush .. one of my favourites. The cost of a good brush is well costly .. but it will last a whole long time and pay you back over and over.

Definitely a clean coat that is brushed daily will in the long run save you lots of time, keep your boy happy, and enjoying his grooming sessions with you.

One mistake I made when I first got a show dog was not letting the detangler rest in the hair before I tried to demat. So that's one piece of advice.

Actually my breeder recommends dematting by hand and then by turning comb on it's side and literally picking apart slowly the mat.

Now with my Yorkie I get to distinct types of problems with his hair. One is a tangle where two or more separate strands of hair have intertwined to create a knot. The other is more like a web or spider like mass.

pick apart the tangle as I described.

For the mass like try using either cornstarch or some conditioner and put onto mass ... Then slowly try to separate out mass.

When you brush or comb his coat. Start from the ends of the hair brush those out then move up the strand of hair to 1/2 brush out 3/4 brush out .. etc until you reach the roots. Separate the hair into a couple inch sections to brush out body of coat.
On the legs: gently cradle your pups paw in your hand -- turn brush / comb on side and gently brush hair. Go up leg to shoulder.

I hope this can help you. I know how frustrating mats can be !!

Alway's have a good conditioner. My yorkie doesn't matt at all but my maltese is a different problem. I learned to shampoo her in the direction her hair is growing instead of shampooing every which way. And like the other's said brush before bathing. Good Luck!!

ahhhh! I LOVE EVERYONE! thanks for the great advice! I don't know what i would do without yorkietalk! happy friday everyone! have a great weekend!

Brand new puppy here and HATES being brushed or combed! I've tried all kinds of brushes / combs and I use conditioners and detanglers so pulling her hair isn't the issue. She squirms and yelps and bites and cries. Anyone else have this problem? Help?

As Gemy described in her post, take very small sections of hair in your hand, and work from the bottom of the hair shaft to the top. In other words, brush the bottom end of the hair first, then brush from a little higher up, and so on.

No matter how much conditioner or detangler you use, you still need to make sure you aren't pulling the skin. Also, make sure you aren't poking the skin with sharp brush bristles or comb teeth.

Go slowly building up your pup's tolerance for brushing, but don't give in to her getting away or getting out of doing it. Try to make grooming time fun, pleasurable together time. I started my guy by using massage and silly, sweet talk. You can also use treats.

You can also train your pup to associate grooming time with something very desirable. For instance, my guy loves his long morning walk and he knows that he has to put in his topknot and get a little brush out before he goes.

Maximo has good suggetions - how old is your pup? Did you get him/her directly from the breeder? It may be that the pup is very young and or had a bad experience with grooming.

You may have to go way back to baby steps. Usually pups are well accustomed to being groomed by the time a breeder places her pups in their forever home.

You can start just by holding her on whatever grooming surface you have been using. Petting her - giving her treats ... Then take a brush let her sniff if - oooohhh she did? good job! treat ...... Next take the back of teh brush and run very lightly along her back and sides. She didn't whimper cry or try to bite... good girl! treat. Then onto the legs - back of brush - good response - good girl! treat. If she shows no signs of stress from this exercise then ... Use brush on just tips of hair one side of body. good response - good Girl - stroke/pet... treat.

Continue on in this manner until you are able to brush her out. It requires a great deal of patience. And not to make a pun - but you should nip that biting right away. There are many good training books at the library which speaks to this. also of course some dog training programs on TV.

Thank you both for your input! I think I found the key, at least to getting her accustomed to brushing.

I figured, since she's a ragdoll that I'm able to do anything with while she's curled up on my lap sleeping ( her favorite thing to do ) I'd try to gently move the brush over her back. At first she was startled, but I spoke gently and encouraging and it seemed to work! I will repeat this each time she's laying with me and hopefully she'll end up enjoy being brushed after bathtime soon! I know she LOVES to be blown dry and runs to me when she hears the blowdryer come on...so it's baffled me as to why she hasn't taken to the brushing. She is 14 weeks old so I'm sure the breeder brushed her. Oh well...as with everything with a new furbaby...everythings new and there's a learning curve, for both of us. Just happy to have found this site! I can't tell you how many times I've referred to it in the past 3 weeks! Thanks again

Your very welcome - good instincts there!

I suffered this same challenge with Hugo. When he was still a puppy it was such an arduous process to comb his hair! I could barely brush it! I called the groomer that the breeder recommended, and she explained to me that his coat was still a puppy and was changing; She recommneded I trim him. I called the groomers references( I alwasy make sure) and Hugo got his first hair cut. After that cut, his coat has been like night and day. Of course his hair gets slight tangles (especially in the armpits) but nothing that I can not manage.

Any suggestions for a cotton coat? I brush every day with a slicker following up with a comb on dampened coat. I use Yorkie Splash and Shine, haven't tried the detangler. The tangles and soft spider web like mats are constant. I have a 9 yr old yorkie also, but her coat is silky, very long and a dream to maintain. I would like to keep my year old cotton coat long, but not sure I can achieve this. Many years ago, I showed Old English Sheepdogs...I feel like I am back in that same routine, only with a much, much smaller dog. GOSH, I hope "YT wise ones" can help me!:confused:

My dog runs from the brush she yelps hollers and youw ould think I was killing her. I did just get all of her hair cut off so shes now bare but all of her tangled matted hair is gone. She is a cotton coat and the groomer told me she had a lot of puppy coat still left whatever that means? I didnt know if anyone could fill me in on that? this is my first yorkie so we are learning together.:D

If I remember your little one is only 5 months old. So, yes, she will still have her puppy coat:)

I would get her used to the brushing gently. Hold her in your lap and brush her as if you were stroking her to get her used to the brushing.
Dampen her coat down with a mist of conditioner (Miracle Coat leave in conditioner is good) before brushing.

I've been using Cowboy Magic and it was a miracle cure for matts on Rizzo. I have to keep him super clean though, more than 7 days without a bath and I start finding lots of matts, espically behind his ears and on his legs. I use both the shampoo and conditioner plus the leave in conditioner. With the leave in, I found that it really weighed his hair down so I mixed it with water (50/50) in a spray bottle and mist him before I brush him after his bath. If he gets a really bad matt I'll put the pure leave in on the matt and pull it apart by hand.
Lots of treats and praise to get them used to it :D

I rescued a 5 week old Yorkie and being a person who has always had VERY large dogs, this has been a total learning experience. I read everything I could and brushed him every day, even at that age. Because he was so little, I had a very soft natural bristle brush and have been using that. He has enjoyed it, but his coat seemed to just twist around itself, even after brushing. I was wrong. The brush never made it through to the skin and what I thought was twisting around itself, was matts forming. I took a stronger brush and then a comb to him today and I'm so distressed. He is totally matted. I got the matts on his back out OK, working from the ends of his hair to the skin, but his thighs seem to hurt him when I work on them. He never nips me and he even nipped me because I was hurting him. I've stopped working on him today, because I don't want to make grooming an unpleasant situation for him (although I really want to go after those matts...and it's taking all the self control I have not to do it until they're gone) and will just do a little every day until they're gone, but I would love some help with any shortcuts I can have if you have them. I've got some human detangling spray but don't want to use it for fear of making matters worse. I've been using a very good tearless puppy shampoo and conditioner when I bathe him and I've read that I should use conditioner on him before I bathe him. The conditioner I have is way too thick to apply on dry hair, so I'll have to get some conditioning spray tomorrow. Will that help me get the matts out? My immediate concern is getting the matts out before I start addressing anything else. Is there ANYTHING I can apply to his hair at this point to help me get these things out? Thanks.