Grooming a Show Line - Page 2

 Sunsilver, your girl is beautiful. How old is she in the picture? 

Also, I am curious: it looks like she has a "tuft" of hair on her rear leg upper thigh-femur? (I might be wrong, it might be the picture).  I am asking because my male gets something like that only more pronounced. His looks like a cowlick almost. He does not have it all the time, mostly with the changes in coats. Any input? 

Davron and Domenic, if you read my post carefully, you will see that is NOT MY FEMALE. It is her SIRE!

However, she DOES have the same sort of coat, and grows long fringes on the front and hind legs and belly when she gets her winter coat in.  And yes, she does have that same fringe on the upper thigh. No, it's not a cowlick, just extra hair.

She also has a tiny tuft at the base of each ear. Interestingly enough, despite these 'longcoat' type characteristics, the hair on her back and ribs is actually rather short. She doesn't have a very thick undercoat in those areas.

Re the picture of Erko, her sire, when you can't tell if it's a dog or a bitch due to the long hair on the belly, I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to give the belly hair a trim, don't you?  

Here's my girl. I trimmed her belly and legs just before the photo was taken. I've picked this particular shot because, although she's not stacked properly, it really shows how much hair she had on her belly even after trimming. I was afraid to take too much off, in case it looked unnatural.

I just wanted to make the OP aware of something important. The GSD is to be shown with the coat in its completely natural condition. I know this is the CKC and AKC rules, and I'm pretty sure this applies to other venues as well (SV, etc.). If you trim the dog's coat in such a way that it is OBVIOUS to the judge, you will be disqualified. 

None of the dogs pictured in the posts, look to me to need any trimming what so ever........
There is nothing nicer than a beautiful , thick coat.   All you need to do is properly brush, rake & maintain the coat.
We have several dogs with much more coat texture & length and would not consider "trimming" them.....
However;.....since I am not the owner of any of them.....it is only my opinion.
You should do what makes you comfortable.
Robin

Thank you all for your help...

 Hey Sunsilver,

Thanks for the input. I agree that it is not a true cowlick on my male, but I could not describe it any better. It just seems that some of the hair is growing in the wrong direction. He does not have it all the time; it seems like he acquires it just before he blows his coat. I brush him rather vigorously for a few days and then it is gone. He does not have it anywhere else.

Thanks again.