Fluffy Fur Needs Help

My Griff is a Fluffy! I love him in all his fluffy glory. His ears have whispy, flyaway fur tendrils (so pretty)! Behind his ears crimps up when it gets wet, which a friend of mine once equated it with, "An 80's girl's hair!" And his lovely, undocked tail fur sweeps the ground like a broom.

HOWEVER...

All Fluffies need extra grooming, that's a given. I used to take Griff to the groomers roughly every 6 weeks, but once I started feeding him higher grade food, his coat improved to the point where he didn't need to go as often. Plus, the expense...! So now I'm a groom-at-home Mom. Griff's fluffy coat is not necessarily long like most Fluffies, but it's not exactly short, either. He's an inbetween Fluff! This makes his coat extremely hard to keep nice. It's almost like his fur is making a statement: "I was not meant to be long, and therefore I will be most difficult."

His "pantaloons", or the fluff that grows off the back of his front legs, are super downy. They attract everything from snowballs to dirt to leaves to, my personal favorite, burs. And everything just sticks to him. Everywhere! He always has something stuck to his crazy, downy fur! I think it's almost like his undercoat grew long, too, but it's not covered by a top coat and therefore grows wild.

And then there's his belly fur. It grows maybe an inch down from his stomach, but it too is NOT water resistant like his top coat and everything sticks to it. During the winter he unknowingly gathers up snowballs and drips them all over the house with said belly fur.

So, my question for other Fluffy parents is this: What is the best way to control semi-long, fluffy fur that everything sticks to and looks like downy crap (not real poo...just figurative poo!)??? I use the FURminator every week, which seems to help the issue, but I can't afford to get him professionally groomed every month. Should I invest in my own grooming tools? Or is there maybe a certain doggy beauty product I could use to condition his coat? Please, help!

Griff pre-grooming, at his very worst:

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Comment by JW on May 7, 2008 at 11:56am: Thank you thank you thank you! I soaked him in the bath the other night and poured a lot of oatmeal conditioner on his coat. It seemed to help...for like a day. He's back to his dirty little self :o) I might take the clippers to his belly and pantaloons, I think that's a really good idea. He would probably freak out at the noise but it's worth a try. I think Griff might be a hopeless at-home grooming case!

Comment by Sam on May 1, 2008 at 5:59pm: Visit the PWCCA website. There is a complete article there regarding the grooming of fluffs. Show sheen is a product used for horses that is a great detangler. 1/3 show sheen and 2/3 water will help keep thing from sticking. The article is chock full of good info from long time fluff owners.

Comment by Carmen on May 1, 2008 at 4:31pm: I'm not sure what you mean as the downy crap. I'm guessing around his backend, if so please continue reading.

I have a electric razor. I very carefully clear the fur from Pan's backend. I usually end up butchering her fur. (looks uneven, etc.) It looks fine after a couple of days. I shave around her back end inside the pantalooms and then trim the pants. I only take her to the groomer twice a year.

If you are having problems in other areas, you may want to invest in other tools. The furminator will help with pulling out the undercoat, which may be the problem. Griff does seem to have a lot of undercoat, as evident in the picture.

Pan is VERY tolerant of the razor, so you may want to test Griff's tolerance of the sound and feeling. If you have an electric shaver, see how he reacts to that first before investing. I spent about 40 dollars on my electric razor.

I love Griff's fluffy little tail! Looks like a little fox.