Ideally a cockers back coat is hard and flat. It will generally speaking create a natural line where the coat will fall naturally towards the ground and there is only a little bit of blending to be done Most of the time this blending and sculpting is done with thinning shears from underneath the coat so as to not leave short hair or holes visible. Special attention should be given to the shoulder and hip area to make sure that they are neat & tight, blended well into the legs. If the dog has a low tailset then you want to leave "fill" coat in front of the tail to minimize the appearance of this fault. Also, a nice tight "butt" is essential in keeping the profile true and is best achieved by thinning from underneath.
If the coat is softer and wants to flip backwards or curl it can be harder to get the look you want and will require much more work on your part to maintain that show look. It is necessary to work the back of a softer coated dog at least weekly to keep the length at the desired point and to keep it laying down instead of standing or flipping.
Doublewide fine tooth Mars Coat King.
Great on both hard natural looking backs like the tricolor above & the softer coats like the black and white on the bottom, this tool will save you MANY hours of work. It pulls some coat and cuts some so care must be used to go with the natural lay of the coat to avoid damage.Using the double wide fine tooth Coat king and a 20 count Coat King on all cockers to bulk out the most hair as fast as possible. Followed up with a stripping knife.
Classic Strippers
The classic brand works really well on cocker coats with less damage than some knives. To prevent damage it is advised that the knife be seasoned by placing it in a bag with quik-stop to help dull the blade to prevent it from cutting or breaking hair and actually allowing it to pull out the hair as desired.
Stripping cocker backs is not as hard as stripping terrier backs and in fact can be described as carding. The softer coats require more actual stripping to help improve texture because carding can break the softer hair. To do so, keep your wrist straight, grasp hair firmly between the knife and the thumb and pull out the dead hair. To card the coat you use a raking motion while firmly stretching the skin and using care not to irritate the skin as you remove excess coat by using a Coat king first you can greatly reduce the time it takes to card out a coat and that will make it easier for both you and your pet. For pet cockers, the same rules above apply EXCEPT usually the backs are clippered following the same lines as for show being careful not to leave a distinct clipper line (hula skirt). Using a No 7 skip tooth on harder coats, following up with carding to remove lines, and a NO 9 or No 10 on softer coats. When you get to the place where the furnishings begin float you clipper off to minimize the lines and ease blending.
[Stripping Backs]*
[Trimming Ears]*
[Clippering Heads]*
[Clippering Necks & Shoulders]*
[Shaping Feet]
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