Care Guides

The rescue collie came with a lump of felted fur under his collar the size of a plum. I got the scissors. Within about four minutes I had cut a two-inch gash in his neck and he had bolted under the kitchen table and the vet had to see us both, one for stitches and one for a lecture.

Skin lifts into a mat. That is the thing I did not know. When fur felts tight to the body it pulls the skin up with it, so what looks like a solid mass of hair with a safe gap underneath is actually hair with a fold of living dog inside it. Scissors cannot tell the difference. Neither, it turns out, can I.

Since then I have taken three matted rescues from filthy to decent without a single injury, and none of it involved scissors.

Start by finding out what you are dealing with. Run your hands over the whole dog slowly, and map it. Behind the ears, under the collar, in the armpits, the groin, between the back legs, along the tail underside. Those are the friction spots and that is where mats live. Write down or just remember which areas are tangles and which are true mats, because they are different problems. A tangle moves when you push it. A mat does not move at all.

Tangles come out, mats come off

For tangles, work from the ends inward. Take the very outside of the tangle, hold the hair above it firmly in your other hand so the pulling never reaches skin, and comb small amounts free. That grip matters more than the tool. Holding the base means the dog feels tugging on your hand, not on his follicles, and the difference in how much he tolerates is enormous.

A detangling spray helps and it is not a gimmick. Dry fur snaps and drags. A light mist and a minute to soak makes a fifteen-minute job into a five-minute one. I use a dog conditioner spray, cheap stuff, nothing special.

Use a slicker brush for the loose stuff and a metal comb to check. The comb is the honest tool. A slicker will glide over the top of a mat and leave you thinking you have finished, and then the comb hits a wall two millimetres down and tells you the truth. If the comb passes to skin, that patch is done. If it does not, it is not.

Now the real mats. If a mat is solid, tight to skin, and larger than a coin, that is a clipper job and honestly often a groomer job. Clippers go under a mat flat against the body with the blade parallel to the skin, and the mat comes away in one piece. There is no cutting motion, no lifting, no point at which the blade is aimed at the dog. A cheap set of quiet clippers costs less than one groomer visit and I would buy them before I bought any brush.

You can also split a moderate mat with a dematting tool, which has curved blades that cut through the felt while the flat back sits against the coat. Work in the direction the hair grows, tiny strokes, checking with the comb constantly. This takes patience and it hurts if you rush, so read the dog. Lip licking, a turned head, a paw lifted, freezing. Those all mean stop.

Break it into sessions. Five minutes, then something good happens and the brush goes away. A badly matted dog cannot be fixed in one sitting without frightening him, and a dog who learns that grooming is an ordeal will fight you for the rest of his life. My worst case took nine days of short sessions. Nine days is fine. There is no prize for finishing on a Sunday.

When it is beyond you, say so. A coat that has gone solid across the back and sides needs shaving right down, and a groomer will do it in an hour with the dog standing calmly, because they have done it a thousand times and their clippers do not overheat. The dog looks ridiculous afterwards. He also stops being in pain, which is the point, and mats do hurt, pulling constantly at skin and hiding sores and hot, damp infections underneath. I have seen what comes off a badly matted dog and the smell alone should end any debate about whether the shave is cruel.

Do not bathe a matted dog first. Water tightens felt into something closer to carpet. Get the mats out, then wash. I did it the wrong way round once and turned a manageable coat into a solid one.

Afterwards, the actual answer is frequency. A doodle or a spaniel or a collie needs a comb through, not a surface brush, two or three times a week, and it takes ten minutes. Under the collar, behind the ears, armpits, back legs. Those four places, every time, and you will basically never have a mat again.

The collie's scar is still there under the fur if you know where to look. He is nine now and he lies down for the comb, which I did not deserve.