I am very often asked by Yorkie pet owners how to maintain their coats, so I have decided to write a Yorkie blog. Here goes:
Yorkies pets look lovely with slightly longer coats and as we are used to maintaining show Yorkshire Terrier coats, it will be quite similar. We have 20 years of experience with our Yorkie clients.
Step 1: Wash with a non-ionic coconut-based shampoo such as Wampum Conditioning Shampoo. This shampoo comes in 300ml, 500ml, 5 litres and 20 litres but it is a concentrate and dilutes 1 shampoo to 4 water. Only dilute what you are going to use in a dilution bottle (which we also sell) or in an old shampoo bottle. I dilute only 25-50ml at a time with luke-warm water. This shampoo re-adjusts the pH of the Yorkie skin and will re-fat the skin (restoring skin barrier function) naturally preventing excess oil production with time. Skin oil (also called sebum) is good for the coat, but excess production means you have dried out the skin and the body is trying to correct the balance but has gone overboard. Rinse well.
Step 2: Dilute 25ml of our Wampum Conditioning Rinse in a dilution bottle and rinse through the coat. Do not rinse out. The conditioner is a leave-on and will feed the coat and prevent matting. If you have long top-knot hair you can apply a bit of neat conditioner to the head and I sometimes also apply underneath on the chest as the rinse does not reach the tummy easily.
Step 3: Towel dry your dog and before you blow dry the coat apply Wampum Miracle Spray Double Strength. THIS IS THE SECRET TO PREVENT MATTING IN THE FUTURE!!!!! This spray can also be used to undo previous mats before you bath, to spray on when you are dry grooming between baths especially on the head to prevent breakage of the top-knot hairs. It is completely non-oily but it is one of our most iconic grooming sprays. Your will never look back!
Brush: The best brush to use is a polished pin brush without knobs on the end. We sell 3 sizes: small, medium and large and preference of the size of brush is what works best for you and what suits your style and technique of brushing.
Happy Yorkie grooming!
