Why does schnauzer hair become matted?
Mats form when your schnauzer’s hair becomes tangled and wraps around itself, and form tightly wound clumps of the live hair and the loose dead hair. Failure to brush your schnauzer’s hair frequently will make these clumps to continue trapping more hair, as the clumps get closer and closer to his skin. Mats commonly occur in areas experiencing a lot of friction in your schnauzer’s body. Such places include the area around the neck, where the collar sits, under their armpits and chin, where their harness normally sits, behind the ears, where you lovingly scratch them, on their feet and on the back of their hind legs.
Mats also do occur mostly during your schnauzer’s seasonal shedding periods. This is the period when he is “blowing coat” to change from their summer to winter coat and vice versa to enable them to adapt to the current season. In situations where the loose hair is not adequately bushed out, it gets impacted against the skin and ends up forming mats, and if they are left to grow too long, they end up pelting. Mats also occur frequently on dogs that like swimming because that moisture causes their hair to curl, and as it dries, it wrapped around itself. Also, if you do bath him and you don’t brush him adquately, his hair is also more likely to get matted.
Steps for untangling your schnauzer’s matted hair
Schnauzers, whether it is a miniature, or a giant or a standard, require special care to keep his coat in a good and admirable condition. Unlike other dog pet species, schnauzers’ hair doesn’t fall, unless a particular disease infects your schnauzer. Thus, the coat of your schnauzer requires regular care and attention. But what do you do when you find that your schnauzer’s hair has mats or tangles? Here are nine steps you can follow to ensure that you successfully and effectively untangle or demat your schnauzer’s hair.
Step 1: Assemble all the tools you need
To successfully untangle the mats on your schnauzer’s hair, you need to have the right tools with you. Such tools include a slicker brush, a mat splitting tool, and a de-matting tool. You can buy these tools from a pet supply store or online shops.
Step 2: Have the best products with you
For easy dematting and the detangling process, you need to ensure you arm yourself with the right products required for the dematting exercise. Such products include a high-quality dematting spray and conditioner. These products help to loosen the mats and the tangles making the process quite easy and smooth.
Step 3: Find the tangles and the mats
In most cases, mats form under the belly, bellow the neck and the ears and the hind legs. Use a slicker brush to brush his hair smoothly so that you can locate where the tangles and mats are specifically.
Step 4: Separate his hair into small sections
Splitting the matted hair helps you to separate his hair into small manageable parts. This makes the dematting process easy and effective. You can separate the matted hair using a dematting comb or your fingers.
Step 5: Apply detangler
You start to detangle and demat your schnauzer by applying a detangler product on areas of the coat that are tangled or matted. Then rub the product on the detangled are so that it can penetrate the matted or tangled hair and loosen it. Applying detangler also prevents you from damaging the hair of your schnauzer when dematting or detangling him.
Step 6: Use your fingers to demat his hair
Before using any tool, work the tangle or mat with your fingers by pulling and easing his hair apart little by little. This task can be quite tiresome at times but is worthy. In case you find you can‘t break through the mat even after working on it for quite some time, you can apply the use of some tools like mat splitting tool to cut through the mat. When doing this, you need to be careful to cut the matted hair in the direction that the hair grows.
Step 7: Use your brush
After ensuring that you have untangled or dematted as much mats or tangles as you can, is the time to use the slicker brush to finish the job. To ensure you do a clean job, brush a few hairs gently at a time as you separate them from the rest of the tangles. You can apply more detangler or conditioner to loosen the hair if you find it necessary. Remember to brush your schnauzer in the direction that his hair grows.
Step 8: Bathe your schnauzer
Once you see that you have removed all the tangles and mats on his hair, it is recommendable to bath him. Ensure that you have removed all the mats and tangles before you wet your schnauzer. This is because wetting him will only worsen the tangles and make the mats tighter and harder to get them out. To ensure you wash him properly, you can use the shampoo recommended for pets cleaning and apply a conditioner to prevent mats from developing as you dry your schnauzer.
Step 9: Prevent the problem
To prevent tangles and mats from forming again soon, ensure you apply a detangler to your schnauzer’s coat after his hair dries completely. In case he like swimming, apply detangler on him just before he goes into the water.
The best tools to use for dematting your schnauzer
Using the right tools is extremely important to ensure you effectively and successfully groom, detangle, or demat your schnauzer. Here, this article presents you with the best schnauzer dematting tools that will make your demattig exercise quite easy and fast.
GoPet Dematting Comb with 2-sided professional grooming rake for dogs and cats; One side of this tool has 12 teeth capable of cutting through the matted hair of your schnauzer very fast. The other side has 23 teeth that help to thin and shedding the thick undercoat
Easy pet grooming undercoat rake; It helps to work through tough mats and make it manage your schnauzer’s hair.
PowsPamper undercoat rake for dogs and cats; It is a useful tool in tackling heavy mats in both small and large-haired schnauzers.
Rubold fur perfection dematting tool; Preferable for removing heavy mats as well as removing dead and loose undercoat trapped in the hair.
Furminator de-shedding tool; Mostly used for de-shedding and prevent matting from occurring after de-shedding.
Master grooming mat and tangler splitters; For splitting the matted hair.
Pet grooming brush; To assist in brushing your schnauzer’s hair as you demat it.
Safari de-matting comb; For brushing and combing his hair after dematting.
Poodle dematting tool; Used to detangle and demat your schnauzer’s hair.
Detangler products; These products are useful to soften and loosen the matted hair before beginning the dematting exercise and prevent mats from forming again.
What not to do when your schnauzer’s hair is matted
To avoid worsening the matted condition of your schnauzer’s hair, here are some things you should avoid when handling your matted schnauzer.
Avoid bathing your schnauzer if he has tangles or mats. Washing him will only worsen his condition as water acts as a sponge and only makes the mats tighter and harder.
You should not cut the matted hair of your schnauzer. Some mats may have some skin caught up in them or might be tighter than you think, and cutting them. You may end up cutting him, hence causing injury on his skin.
Avoid pulling the matted hair. Pulling the matted hair, whether it is during the routine grooming or when dematting your schnauzer, may inflict pain on him. In case there is unavoidable need to pull his hair, ensure you have enough space to hold the hair so that when you pull, you pull the hair, not his skin.
Avoid trying to get the mat out without following the proper procedure, as given above, will only act to make the matting worse.
When should you just take your schnauzer to the groomer?
Taking your schnauzer to the groomer is the last step you take to demat your schnauzer. It is necessary to take him to the groomer when its coat has been neglected, and the matting condition has reached a point where the coat just needs to be shaved. Also, if he has developed sores on his skin is advisable to see a professional groomer to do grooming for you. You can also take him to a groomer for his regular grooming maybe after every six months or after every one year depending on the species of your schnauzer.