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Grooming Yorkshire Terriers and Yorkie Haircuts
How to Groom for Long Coats or Yorkies Hair Cuts
Other than grooming itself and how to maintain a good coat, the most often question I am asked "Is how fast does the Yorkie hair grow?" That varies on Yorkies and on coat texture. A true silk coat generally is to the floor by 1 1/2 to 2 years of age if taken care of. Growing coat is not a difficult aspect on a silk coat if bathed regularly which is atleast weekly. So to answer how fast does your Yorkshire Terrier hair grow depends a lot on how well you take care of it and that it has the genetics to grow good coat. Yorkies have hair much like humans and they have silk hair on a proper coat. Puppies are born sparse coated and keep increasing thickness as they increase length.
For those of you with full coat especially you can not let them dry completely in the dryer or the coat will have lots of waves. For me personally, even on show day, I put them in a crate in front of the dryer for a few minutes to warm them up a bit. For that reason only. Then I blow dry their coat in front of the dryer while brushing it out. The coat is actually still wet, but they are no longer shivering because I allowed them to warm up a few minutes in the crate dryer.
If your dog is not trained to lay on it's back for the underside to be dried, then make sure you are getting them totally dry underneath or the dampness will spread back up the coat some and cause waves. If not trained to lay on their back just hold them up on their hind legs while the dryer blows their stomachs and legs underneath.
Now when brushing between baths. For those that are meticulous use a small spray bottle and spritz the coat with water, or some conditioner mixed with water, or coat dressing, for a light dampness and brush through the coat. You will not need the dryer for this light misting.
I leave my Yorkshire Terriers in full side coat. I started the process by fully bathing the Yorkie with a good quality shampoo & conditioner. You can use a good pet product or human product. Just make sure that you do follow up with a conditioner. Make sure you are rinsing out every bit of the conditioner when done. A good rule of thumb is to rinse twice as long as you spent shampooing. At bath time their teeth are also brushed.
Using a pin brush, I proceeded to blow the coat dry with a hairdryer. A hand held one is fine. Once the Yorkie is dry you can add the bow, unless you're wanting to keep the Yorkie cutdown, if so it's time to start clippering. I personally like a really close cut for neatness on the Yorkie, so I use a 10 blade, but if you like a little more coat, you may want to use a 7 blade. Since you are leaving so much side coat though, I would much rather have the parts I do shave very close. I take the blade & cut with the grain down the topline, usually doing 1-2 strips wide with the blade, starting at the back of the skull to the tailset. This saves me from having to worry about keeping a neat part, but leaving the side coat there so that they still have the coat length. I than shave the Yorkie against the grain on the chest & rear end. Since this hair grows the fastest I go against the grain to keep that area neat longer.
Using scissors I trim the tail hair to the length that I want it. Normally I only trim the topknot in front of the skull above the eyes, but have given an occasional Yorkie a rounded look on their face, since some people do like that. Normally I leave the beard long. Do be sure to not trim any hair below the eyes, as this will grow back so fast that it is poking them in the eyes. Trim with the scissors, the hair on the front, back & sides of the ears about 1/3 to 1/2 way down the ear, whichever you prefer, or use a small clipper to shave the backside of the ears. You can buy a man's mustache trimmer that does the job well. On a male you may want to trim a little hair in front of the sheath for cleanliness.
When this is all done, you may need to trim some side coat hair if it has gotten below floor length. At this time, trim the toenails taking off the tips & with scissors trim the hair on the bottom of the feet & trim the hair off the edges of the feet into a round shape.
If you like what is known as the puppy clip with all the hair short on the Yorkshire Terrier, than you should use a 4 blade. You can even get comb attachments for that blade to leave a slight more amount of hair. Just trim the dog all over where you want the coat short going with the grain the way the hair grows. Be ready to start this process all over in a month or two.
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