Grooming advice for a cocker spaniel x Golden retriever?

[rocketbear]

Hi all,

I own a wonderful girl named Bella, who is presumed to be a cocker spaniel x golden retriever (she was a pound puppy).

Photos for reference:

https://imgur.com/a/JREeG

When she was 1.6 yo (she is now 3) we clipped her twice, due to extreme heat and she seemed to be getting very hot. After this however, she started to grow back single grey hairs, they aren't visible in photos, but if you peel the top layer of her hair back she has alot of them underneath. I presumed that it was because of the clipping.

Since then, she hasn't been clipped again. Her face face (or else she can't see) and her feet (dreaded grass seeds) both get trims. However her hair doesn't seem to stop growing! It's straight and quite thin on the front half of her body, however he back legs and bum has curly hair and a lot of it! She seems to have two different coats in one.

I am not sure how to proceed with her grooming as summer is coming around again. While she gets brushed at least twice everyday, her coat is at its longest ever, and with constant trips to the beach, and hikes in the bush I fear she will be too hot. When she was clipped she didn't have a double coat, however the back half of her seems to be developing into one, somehow.

How could I proceed with Bellas coat, should I trim it (like human hair), try and thin it with an undercoat brush, or leave it be?

Apologies for the wall of text and thank you for any advice you can give!

 

[compassion4humanity]

@rocketbear I'd say she is mixed with a flat coat retriever before golden. She is adorable.

I would probably recommend sticking to comb attachments if blades are damaging her coat. If she is double coated using blades will damage her fur, plus they use the double coat to cool down. A 2 comb (Wahl attachments, I can't remember the length off the top of my head) would be a little longer than a #4f blade. That would be the shortest with combs.

 

[rocketbear]

@compassion4humanity Thank you so much for your advice! I will definitely look into combs.
I think you are absolutely correct when you say flat coated retriever! Thank you for that too, its amazing to know what she is and know more about her!

 

[hischild4eternity]

@rocketbear I would bet she has Lhasa apso. I would clip her with #4 or longer. It would explain the fine texture and grey hairs. Many black breed pups start turning silver at 1+years.

 

[peterblom30]

@rocketbear Do you know what length she was clipped to? I bet a nice tidy up would help keep her coat manageable in the summer. Since she seemed to react to bring clipped once I'd be leery of cutting into her coat again, even with a clip comb. Does she have an undercoat?

 

[rocketbear]

@peterblom30 She was clipped very short the first time, against my wishes, a 2 or 3 maybe? From what I can gather she doesn't have a double coat, but she does seem to be thicker on her rear end. I too am apprehensive to clip her again. Thank you for your advice! A trim may be the way to go.

 

[peterblom30]

@rocketbear Yeah I know most people will say so long as you use a longer clip comb it won't damage the coat but it's really different for every dog. I had an Australian shepherd client whose coat was starting to turn bad after being clipped to a 1" length.