Hand stripping in Wakefield: which groomers still do it

Wire-coated breeds, terriers and schnauzers among them, grow a coat that is meant to be pulled out by hand at the root rather than cut with clippers. Clipping still leaves a soft undercoat behind and, over repeated clips, changes the coat's colour and texture for good. Hand stripping takes far longer than clipping, and only three of the twenty-six groomers listed for Wakefield, Horbury, Ossett, Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford still offer it.

Who offers it locally

Hair Off The Dog on Hoyland Road in Wakefield centre covers the full range from bathing and styling through to clipping, scissoring and hand stripping, alongside anal gland expression, toenail clipping and ear plucking. Doggy Dazzler, at Chapple's Yard on the High Street in Crigglestone, part of the wider Horbury area, is run by a groomer with more than 30 years' experience working with all breeds, and lists hand stripping alongside its usual bathing, nail cutting and tidying-up service. Style A Dog in Normanton, a family-run salon with more than 20 years in pet care and an unusual sideline in walk-in dog microchipping, offers hand stripping alongside ear plucking, flea treatments and anal gland emptying.

That is a genuine minority of Wakefield's groomers, worth checking for before you book if your dog's breed needs it, since most of the salons in this directory clip only.

What it costs

None of the three publishes a fixed add-on price for hand stripping, in keeping with the rest of this directory: as our Wakefield dog grooming prices guide sets out, not one of Wakefield's twenty-six groomers publishes a price list at all. Expect hand stripping to cost more than a full clip on the same dog, since a proper strip on a medium terrier can take several times as long as running clippers over the same coat, and ask for a figure when you call.

How often a wire coat needs it

A wire coat kept properly stripped is usually done every couple of months, though the exact interval depends on how fast the individual dog's coat grows and how it is brushed between visits. Skipping stripping in favour of repeated clipping does not harm the dog, but the coat's colour and texture drift further from the breed standard with each clip, which matters if you show the dog and is largely cosmetic if you don't.

Clipping instead, if stripping isn't available near you

If none of the three above suits you on location or availability, clipping a wire coat is not harmful to the dog, and is what every other groomer in the directory will do by default on a wire-coated breed. The difference is entirely cosmetic and long-term.

What to ask when you book

• Whether they hand strip the full coat or only finish areas like the head and legs by hand while clipping the body, since these are different jobs, priced differently
• How long the appointment will take, since a proper strip is a longer sitting than a clip-based groom
• Whether they can show you the finished texture on a similar breed, since a good strip should leave the coat noticeably harder and flatter than a clip would