If you’ve been reading this blog, you know what I think about the silliness of having an Irish Water Spaniel with long fur. I know it looks good to many people in the show ring -- and I’m very fond of several of these people. (You know who you are...) Some have been known to comment from time to time, when seeing an IWS with short fur, that that dog doesn’t look like an IWS.

 

Well, OK. I’ll keep Cooper’s leg fur  long for the show ring because I love these people. And I’ll try not to whine too often. But...

 

In the picture above, you can see why I prefer short fur. As I said in an earlier entry, this curly velcro-fur collects everything. Today, while running around at St. Louis Ponds, Cooper collected many thousands of these green seed balls, plus assorted twigs, grass stems, leaves, and brambles. We had an hour of brushing and combing when we got home. Short fur would have been much easier and quicker to comb.

 

Colleen had told me about The Stuff. It’s a very slippery conditioner that you spray on the dog. She told me to apply it before I went out into the field, and that the debris would fall out when we got home.

 

Let’s just say that I’m very happy I used The Stuff -- combing out all the crap wasn’t difficult. But I wouldn’t say that the debris just fell out. It makes me shudder to think what the combing out might have been like without some product like that.

 

Cooper wasn’t all that thrilled with the brushing and combing, either. But whenever Cooper cooperated, Russ fed him bits of tuna (the new favorite, along with watermelon). That kept Cooper on the grooming table until finally we got the job done.

 

Then it was time for a nap (until the evil fireworks started up).