MASTERCLASS

Golden Retriever

COLLEEN BEAGLEY

WINNIE

Winnie is a Golden Retriever with a serious case of the fuzzies. She’s desexed and has developed plenty of spay coat, particularly around her ears, legs and hocks, sitting above the smoother golden guard coat underneath.

Colleen’s aim isn’t to scissor or clip all that fluff away. Instead, she shows how carding and stripping can remove the excess undercoat and bring back a smoother Golden Retriever outline, while leaving Winnie’s pants, feathering, underline and tail beautifully natural.

Equipment Used: Stripping stone, Metal comb, Refuresh Undercoat rake, Medium stripping knife, Fine stripping knife, Extra Fine stripping knife, Thinning scissors, Straight scissors, Nail clippers, Slicker brush

Part 1 | The great Golden deshed

Winnie has already been bathed, high-velocity dried, brushed and thoroughly combed, but there’s still an extraordinary amount of coat ready to come out.

Colleen starts with her long-coat Refuresh tool, working with the grain to remove the bulk of the loose undercoat before tackling the spay coat in more detail. She demonstrates how she uses it safely around areas such as the ears, hocks and flanks, and explains why she likes to begin with a wider, coarser tool before progressively working finer.

There’s also some useful client-talk here: even a thorough deshed won’t magically stop a double-coated dog shedding, particularly during a coat blow.

Part 2 | Getting finer with the carding knives

With the bulk gone, Colleen switches to stripping knives, beginning with a medium-coarse knife before moving down to an extra-fine.

The progression matters. Colleen shows what happens when she goes straight into thick spay coat with the extra-fine knife, then compares it with removing the bulk first and coming back with the finer tool. She works through Winnie’s legs, shoulders and behind the ears, gradually cleaning up the outline without carding away the feathering she wants to keep.

Part 3 | Stripping out the stubborn fuzz

Now for the fluffy bits that are still hanging on. Colleen brings in a stripping stone, using it to grip just a few hairs at a time and pull them in the direction of growth.

This is where you can really see the difference between Winnie’s fuzzy spay coat and her coarser true feathering. Colleen works through the legs and shoulder, protects the furnishings she wants to retain and then swaps to smaller, more precise stripping tools around the ears.

She also makes a good point about knowing when enough is enough. You could keep stripping for ages, but this is Winnie’s regular pet groom and her owners rather like her fuzzies. The aim is to improve the finish, not turn her into a different dog.

Part 4 | Goodbye, Grinch feet

After all that coat work, Colleen finishes with Winnie’s feet and hocks. Curved thinners give her a soft, natural finish, taking away the shaggy bits without leaving the hard lines that can look out of place on a Golden.

The front feathering stays long, but it’s lifted neatly away from the ground, the feet are tightened and those lovely natural ears need barely any scissoring at all. Winnie finishes with her pants, feathers, underline and tail intact, just considerably sleeker around the edges.