Scottish Terrier grooming in Gloucester, MA

The AKC describes the Scottie as dual-coated: a harsh, wiry outer layer over a dense, soft undercoat. The breed standard calls it a broken coat and asks that it be trimmed and blended into the furnishings to give a distinct Scottish Terrier outline. The furnishings are the longer hair on the beard, the legs and the lower body, which the standard allows to be a little softer than the jacket but never fluffy. The small, pricked ears carry only short, velvety hair.

The jacket on the back and sides stays short and shrugs off dirt. On a dog about 10 inches tall at the shoulder, the skirt under the chest and belly rides close to the ground, so it sweeps up sand, leaves and slush on every walk. The beard dips into the water bowl several times a day. The skirt, the beard and the leg hair are where a Scottie tangles, and where most of the grooming time goes.

The AKC puts a clipped coat on a six- to eight-week schedule, with a weekly brushing and comb-out at home to keep it tangle free and the skin healthy. Inside that window the visit is a reshape: the outline is still there to follow, the skirt has only grown a little and the beard needs a trim.

Past eight weeks the skirt is where it shows. Long furnishings on a low dog drag through wet leaves on Dogtown Common and the slush on Gloucester sidewalks, then knot where the front legs meet the chest and where the back legs rub. Working those knots out is dematting, $15 per 20 minutes on top of the $75 full service, assessed at check-in. Where the skirt has matted close to the skin, a shorter skirt is often kinder than a long session with a comb.

The weekly brushing and comb-out the AKC recommends is a short job on a dog this size. Run a slicker brush over the jacket, then a metal comb through the skirt, the legs and the beard, working from the skin outward. If the comb catches, split the knot with your fingers before you reach for scissors; our how-to on handling a mat before it spreads shows the safe way. Wipe the beard after meals so food does not dry into it.

A Gloucester winter adds salt. The skirt and the leg furnishings carry road salt and grit home from every walk on a treated sidewalk, and that is worth rinsing out with plain water and drying the same day. From April to November, tick season on Cape Ann, run your fingers through the skirt and under the beard after Dogtown Common or Ravenswood, because that long hair close to the ground is exactly where a tick waits to be found.