Border Terrier Grooming

Border Terrier‘s have wiry, tough coats that are easy to care for as they look best when they haven’t been primped up. However, like any dog, they benefit from grooming and so knowing how to groom your Border Terrier will let you keep your dog looking and feeling its best without a lot of effort on your part.

Don’t brush your Border Terrier too often

Unlike many other dogs, brushing a Border Terrier too often will ruin the thick overcoat. You’re better off combing weekly and spending more time trimming the longer hairs that develop in the coat. When grooming your Border Terrier for show, you’ll have to hand strip the coat in order to keep it looking top notch. Otherwise, you’ll want to use slicker comb on the undercoat to unknot it and a greyhound and fine comb on the overcoat to straighten it out and get rid of any dead hairs and skin.

Brushing your dog’s coat will wreck its thick, plushy appearance and feel, so avoid the use of brushes. You also should not clip your dog’s fur as this is uncomfortable to your pet and results in a cottony, bumpy looking coat. Instead, hand pluck fur and comb out the dead ones. Grooming a Border Terrier is more labor intensive and time consuming in this way; but it makes up for it by needing only minimal work elsewhere.

Keeping your Border Terrier Healthy and Happy

Like any other dog, Border Terriers need to have their teeth brushed regularly and starting from as early an age as possible. Brushing your Border Terrier’s teeth will reduce plaque build up and keep the mouth of your Border Terrier healthy. By starting as young as possible, you ensure that your dog will get used to it and not put up as much of a fight every time you try to cut its nails. Border Terriers also need to have their nails clipped regularly so that they don’t grow inward or cause a limp. You also need to clean the corners of your dog’s eyes daily to rid it of the dirt and debris which the eyes naturally push away.

Border Terriers do not need to be bathed in any sort of set schedule; they only need to be bathed if they’ve rolled in something noxious. The dog’s wiry coat means that it’s fairly impervious to water and dirt can easily be brushed out with a weekly combing. However, if you have to bathe your dog, make sure to do any hand stripping or plucking before the dog gets wet as a wet coat is much harder to pluck properly.

In a true bath, make sure to lather shampoo all the way into the undercoat and rinse very thoroughly. Then you have squeeze out the water and dry your dog with a towel. When you aren’t doing a full bath, simply rubbing your border terrier with a damp cloth on the face, feathers, and legs should suffice for keeping the fur clean.

Low Maintenance

Border Terriers are relatively low maintenance, but learning how to groom your Border Terrier will save you money and let you enjoy spending time with your dog every week. It’s well worth learning for the sake of your pet.

Border Terrier Resources

Border Terrier Grooming Supplies

Border Terrier on Wikipedia