Australian Shepherd grooming in Gloucester, MA

The outer coat is the part you stroke: medium length, straight to wavy and weather resistant, in the words of the AKC standard. Beneath it sits an undercoat that, the standard notes, varies in quantity with the climate, so an Aussie that spends a Cape Ann winter outdoors grows a heavier one than a dog kept mostly indoors. That soft layer is what lets go each spring and fall, and the AKC scores the breed's shedding as moderate.

The feathering is the other half of the story. The standard calls for moderately feathered backs of the forelegs and britches, and a mane and frill around the neck that is fuller on males. Those longer edges are where an Aussie knots: behind the ears where the frill begins, in the britches where the dog sits, and under a collar or harness. The short, smooth hair on the head, the ears, the fronts of the forelegs and below the hocks rarely causes trouble.

The AKC keeps its grooming advice for the breed modest: weekly brushing, an undercoat rake every two or three days while the dog is shedding, and a bath only occasionally unless the dog has found something messy. In practice that points to two professional visits that matter, a bath with Shed Release as the spring shed starts and another as the fall one begins, with a full service whenever the feet and feathering have grown ragged in between.

Skipping one rarely costs much on the body of an Aussie, but it does in the feathering. Undercoat that is never lifted out drifts into the britches and the hair behind the ears and packs into felt, and felt has to come out before a brush-out can finish. Dematting is billed at $15 per 20 minutes on top of the bath or full service. A small knot behind one ear may need a single block; britches felted all the way through can take several, and the groomer gives you the estimate at check-in.

Cape Ann gives an Aussie plenty to carry home. Gloucester's beaches reopen to dogs on October 1, Good Harbor until March 31 and Wingaersheek until April 30, and sand and salt settle deep in an undercoat. A trail day on Dogtown Common adds burrs in the frill, and from April to November the same feathering is where a tick hides.

The home routine that keeps an Aussie at the base price takes minutes, not hours. Our how-to on de-shedding a double-coated dog at home covers the tools in detail; the outline below follows the AKC's own advice for the breed. Work in sections and reach the skin every time, because a brush that only skims the surface leaves the felt growing underneath where you cannot see it.

From April to November, add a tick check to every walk in the woods. An Aussie's frill, britches and leg feathering hide a tick well, so part the coat with your fingers after Dogtown Common or Ravenswood and feel for bumps rather than relying on your eyes. Our tick-check how-to sets out the order to work in, and the CDC's tick pages cover removal and the signs worth a call to your vet.