GROOMING

Soft-Coated Wheaten Terriers require frequent and intensive grooming. Wallace is groomed at home and we want to share some our top tips and products so that others can feel more comfortable grooming at home too. Please note that we are NOT professional groomers and this is just based on our experience. Ensure the tools and products you use are best for you and your dog.

Bathing

Wallace is bathed usually every 2 weeks. This helps to keep his fur clean and thus less likely to mat. Because of the long fur, it also gets dirty more frequently, which is another reason for the regular baths. We use a whitening shampoo for his beard since his food tends to add a bit of yellow to his beard over time. The regular shampoo is used on the rest of him and then conditioner on all the fur. We follow up with the Detangler Spray while he's still wet and also use it regularly when brushing.

The Chilly Dogs Soaker Robe (size 18) is perfect after the bath to help dry the fur. Wallace doesn't like the blow dryer so he just air dries.

Specific items are below.

Brushing and Trims

Regular brushing is key to maintaining the Wheaten coat. We usually brush Wallace every 1-2 days and even then, mats are still a battle! To help with the mats, the Safari de-matting comb has been a lifesaver. However, please ensure you introduce it with a lot of positive reinforcement as the sound it makes when it cuts through the mats, and how it can pull, can cause dogs to get anxious. We typically use a slicker brush, but also keep a pin / bristle brush and comb on hand too. Specific items are below.

The waterless shampoo is also great for cleaning his beard in between baths - the one we have I can't find anymore but when we need to replace we'll be getting the Espana one.

He gets a full haircut every 6-8 weeks with a trim, particularly around the face and tail, every 3-4 weeks. We utilize the Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier Grooming Guide and have also found this YouTube channel to be helpful as well. We do the bulk of the cutting with the straight scissors and then go over it with the thinning sheers to blend the cut in. We've tried several thinning sheers and found the ones from amazon (below) have been the best. The "pet" versions tend to wear down very fast so we use human ones.

His cut focuses on maintaining a full beard, modified full fall and longer leg fur in our version of a modified show cut. We tend to keep the hair on the top of his head longer as that's become his signature style.

We use a grooming table as it is much easier to work with and keeps him secured during the trim. We also love having our Dyson vacuum which makes it easy to clean up any rogue fur afterwards with its various attachments.

Nails and Ears

We don't have any recommendations for nail equipment as Wallace has his cut professionally. For his ears, we try to keep the hair trimmed in the ear and clean out / pluck his ears as often as he will let us (which isn't often!). Our vet showed us how to clean them and I'd recommend getting tips from your own vet as well.