Grooming

The Black Russian Terriers coat is both a beauty and the pride of the BRT. A BRT with a proper haircut is irresistible. Maintaining a BRT’s coat is a big job. Your dog should be groomed every 6-8 weeks by a professional groomer or you should groom them yourself. Inbetween grooms you should be fully brushing your dog out at least twice weekly. For your BRT to look at its best it requires a serious amount of care.

Brushing:

A BRT should be brushed at least a couple of times per week. More often to make the grooming of your dog easier. Daily if possible. This will improve the coat condition. It is also a great way of bonding with your dog. The more often you brush your dog, the easier the maintaince will be. You will have less tangles and bunches of undercoat. This will also make it nicer for your dog, as you have less tangles and de-matting this will make more of a pleasure and a brush in your hand will be happily greeted.

You need to start getting your pup use to regular brushing sessions as soon as you get them. This will not take long when they are a puppy but it will get them use to the proccess. It will also teach your pup good habits if you choose to take them to a groomer.

Equipment:

A BRT should be brushed at least a couple of times per week. More often to make the grooming of your dog easier. Daily if possible. This will improve the coat condition. It is also a great way of bonding with your dog. The more often you brush your dog, the easier the maintaince will be. You will have less tangles and bunches of undercoat. This will also make it nicer for your dog as you have less tangles and de-matting will make this more of a pleasure and a brush in your hand will be happily greeted.

ONE:

In the Blue Colour – Shave the hind part of the leg with the clipper. From Anus to 2cm above the hock. (Blade #7, #5 or on some dogs with a less tight coat #4. Ideally shaving has to look tight and smooth, but not to the skin).

In the Red arrows – Holding your scissors parallel to the rump, take off all the dangling hair on the inside of the rare legs.

In the Yellow Line Shown – Making the legs looking straight as columns. using scissors.

TWO:

In Red- Marking of the hind part of the rear leg line blend longer hair on the rump (8-10cm) with the shaved hair (blue colour on picture one). Brush the hair backwards as shown in red arrows, then cut with scissors going from the bottom up, making nice curved line to emphasize the angulations of the rear legs as shown.

In Blue – Brush the hair towards the back and cut making hair from the hock down appear perpendicular to the ground.

In Yellow – shows how to cut the front part of the hind legs.

The Tail – the entire length of the tail is cut evenly to about 5-6 cm. The tail should complement the body and should not look out of proportion. The tail should appear thick and powerful from each side. The tail is an indicator of the bone structure of a BRT. If the tail is thick, than the bone structure is correct and heavy. That is why the hair on the tail should not be cut short. If the tail is docked to short, leave some hair on the end to make it appear longer.

THREE:

Grooming of the top line and sides.

Top line is done with scissors: Start from the tail and work your way up to the withers.

On the base of the tail (or hip) cut short, leaving 2-3cm, then the length of the hair is slowly increased from lion to withers. It is left 7-10cm long at the withers. It is done to emphasize well developed withers and high front.

Hip (base of the tail) should be blended in smoothly into the tail area. They should be at the same level. The tail should not be either above or below the top line at hip area.

The sides are cut evenly. Brush the hair up and cut. The sides should appear rounded up, not flat. The length of hair at the sides is left up to 8-10cm.

The arrows indicate the smooth transition from the shorter hair of the top line to the longer hair on the sides. It must be blended in smoothly.

FOUR:

In Blue from the blue line and up, cut the hair evenly and smoothly, while brushing it up when scissoring. Make smooth transition from the longer hair on the sides (below the blue line) to shorter hair on the back (top line). From the blue line down, brush the hair up and cut only a bit of the ends making another smooth transition from shorter scissored upper sides to longer bottom part.

FIVE:

The bottom line (or the “skirt”) is done on a straight ascending line as shown on picture 5 with yellow colour.

Do not leave a long “skirt’ for dogs with well-developed chest. An outline of the chest, lowered just a bit below the elbow, transitioned smoothly into a straight ascending bottom line, moderately tucked in at abdomen level, makes a well-developed dog look striking and impressive. If a skirt is left too long on a dog that does not have a well-developed chest, it will make the front look too heave and the front legs will appear too short. The whole dog will look stocky and not well-balanced.

SIX:

Grooming of neck and chest- draw a mental line from the base of the ear to the point of where the lower jaw and neck meet and down to the breast bone (sternum) or chest bone and down 3-4cm (the other line from the base of the ear to the shoulder area ( a bit lower) as shown in blue. Using clippers,(Blade #7)) shave the hair very short, leaving 5-6mm, to make so-called shirtfront (like a tuxedo shape).

In Blue the approximate line which should be used to clip the neck (so-call shirtfront or a tuxedo shape).

In Yellow the shoulder and the brest bone is shown. Find these bones make the neck appear longer and more stulish.

SEVEN:

The arrows show how to bursh the hair and blend in the longer hair on the sides with the shorter hair on the neck.

EIGHT:

Scissor the upper neck area. Brush well against the hair growth, cutting with scissors from the top down all the extra hair. Form the “mane” (hair length is 6-5cm). Try to make a transition between upper neck and withers area as smooth as you can, otherwise you can get an impression of a short neck coming out of covered with long hair body. On the side of the neck the transitionf rom very short to longer hair is very subtle and smooth. The lenght of the hair on the mane should suit the dog. Leave more hair on a thinner neck, cut shorter on a big, thick neck.

Front view. The neck (shirtfront or tuxedo) looks like it is shown in BLUE.

Yellow line – breast bone, yello lines are your shoulder lines. The nick is clipped a bit lower than the shoulder lines.

NINE:

Chest and Shoulder.

A BRT Standard calls for: “…front part of the chest of a BRT is deep and comes forward a bit beyond the shoulder line….” I think, it would be nice to emphasize this feature. This is how it is done.

Blue lines indicate the transition between the short hair on the neck and longer at the shoulders. Do not make this line appear obvious. All scissor lines on a BRT should blend smoothly from one part into another. All anatomical parts should appear proportionate.

Starting from the longer hair down from sternum, the hair is left about 4-6cm long. Front part of the chest is shaped with scissors. Beautifully done front with apparent and proportional should line makes a desirable appearance of a forwar montion. The shoulder line should be rounded and end up at the level of the BLUE DOT on the picture. The Red dot indicates where the elbow is. Rounded part of chest should end up a bit below the elbow.

TEN:

Grooming of Front Legs.

Front legs should be thoroughly brush with a comb/slicker brush against hair growth. Take all the extra hair off, making legs appear as even columns. Bunches of hair left in between pads will make the paws look spread out and must be cut out. Make sure to cut all the extra hair around the paw, to make paws appear round. Half of the nails should be visible.

ELEVEN:

Grooming of Head

Brush the hair on the head and face forward. Clip the hair on both ears short on the in-side and out-side. It is best to do the ears last, for the short hair can fall inside the ear, causing the dog to shake its head excessively, which will make your job more difficult. Even though it is best to use clippers on ears, you can do it with scissors as well. By the base of the ear the hair is left as long as hair on the head, making another smooth transition from very short hair on the ear to the longer at the base, otherwise the ears will cling too close to the cheek bones. The hair on the tips of thears should be carefuly taken off, be careful not to injure/cut the ear.

The shaved part on the forehead(“little Square”) is done with clippers. Start at the level of the brow lines, just about the eyes and go to the base of the ear level, making the “little square” the width of the skull.

The rest of the hair is cut with scissors. Make a smooth transition from shaved part to longer hair at the end of the head. Where the head and the neck meets, form so called “hat”. The “hat” is formed just beyond the occipital protrusion to make the head appear longer.

The hair on the cheek bones also left intact except the ends are evened up. There should be lots of hair on cheekbones to make the head look more wide and massive.

The head is cut to look like a brick (looking from above) trim and blend in the transition from the short hair to long, shaping decorative beard and mustache. Looking from above, the head should look like a brick, from the side, like a triangle, where the banks and mustache form the 90 degree angle.

The banks should look like a natural continuation of a forehead, emphasizing its straight line and be parallel to the nose line. The banks that are formed too low or too high distorts the proportions of the head and looses parallel apperance to the nose line and forehead. All the hair coming out of a retectangular brick-like appearance of a head, should be carefully trimmed. Keep brushing and blending till it is smooth. Now all you have to do is to shape a beard and mustache to look like a triangle from a side view.

11.1 The correct formed head. The hair on the cheek bones almost left intact except the ends are evened up. There should be lots of hair on checkbones to make the head look wider and more massive.

11.2 The head is too narrow in cranial part.

11.3 The head is too wide in a cranial part.

11.4 The correctly formed head. The hair on the cheekbones almost left intact, except the ends are evened up. There should be lots of hair left on cheekbones to make the head look more wide and massive.

11.5 & 11.6 The banks that are formed too low or too high distorts the proportions of the head and looses parallel, brick-like appearance of the lines that goes through the nose to the forehead.

11.7 All the hair coming out of a rectangular brick-like appearance of a head, should be carefully trimmed. Keep brushing and blending till it is smooth.

11.8 The correctly groomed and formed head.

11.9 All the hair coming out of a rectangular brick-like apperance of a head, should be carefully trimmed. Keep brushing and blending till it is smooth.

11.10 The facilitated head.

Written by Natalia Stolbova at Deneb-Keitos Kennels

Translated by Jean Brown