To give our dogs the best possible care, we need to complete a variety of crucial tasks. Proper feeding, exercise, and grooming are some of the essentials our pups need to thrive. While feeding and exercise needs are similar across breeds, your dog’s grooming requirements vary greatly depending on factors like their breed and coat type. Dogs with short, coarse hair have fairly straightforward grooming needs, but longhaired breeds require more maintenance to avoid serious problems. The Pomeranian is a breed with long, silky hair that we can cut in various ways. How do you choose the best style for your Pomeranian haircut? Let’s find out!
Styles of Pomeranian Haircut
Before we discuss the different styles of Pomeranian haircut, we need to note a couple of essential issues. First, no matter what style of haircut your Pom has, they need regular brushing to prevent matting. The other issue is that keeping your Pomeranian’s coat short may be less work, but it will damage their coat over time. These short-clipped styles create a clumping hair texture, so it’s best to favor longer cut styles if this issue is important to you.
Ungroomed Pomeranian Haircut
The “ungroomed” style is a bit misleading; as we stated above, all Pomeranians require regular grooming in the form of deep brushing to avoid painful tangles. We characterize an ungroomed haircut as one that is uncut, the coat remaining long and thick and relatively uniform in length across the body. While this style is great for the health of your dog’s hair, it’s also the style that requires the most maintenance. A longer ungroomed cut style requires patience and daily brushing with a long, pinned brush that can reach the deep tangles in the undercoat.
Hand Scissor Pomeranian Haircut
A hand scissor Pomeranian haircut entails a custom trim of your dog’s hair using scissoring techniques. Scissoring allows you to reach a shorter, closer trim without resorting to shaving, which can damage your dog’s coat. With a hand-scissor cut, the rear end, chest, and paws are trimmed short and rounded for cleanliness. The belly is also trimmed shorter. Plenty of length is left on the tail, and this, too, is rounded out. The goal of the hand scissor is to create a shorter trim without damaging the coat or skin.
Show Trim
A show trim is a happy medium between the long ungroomed cut and the shorter hand scissor style. Think of a show trim as the natural coat trimmed slightly for cleanliness. The show trim gets its name because, no surprise, it is the trim people favor in the show rings. For a standard show trim, a groomer uses hand scissors like in a hand scissor cut. The difference is that you leave much of the hair long. A show cut involves thinning the hair on the rear end and trimming a small area around the anus short. Groomers trim the tail to look like a fan, and trim the paws short. We trim the ears to represent a Pom’s natural triangular ear shape, and the chest trims into a natural, smooth bulb shape.
Teddy Bear
The Teddy Bear cut, also known as the Fox Cut, is a popular grooming style among several dog breeds. It’s easy to see why this cut is so popular; it’s a low-maintenance style that makes your pup look adorable. We think it’s important to note that this style does require some clipping and may damage your dog’s coat over long periods of time. However, the Teddy Bear cut won’t cause as much damage as other styles that call for complete shaving. This cut style gets its name because the groomer’s goal is to mimic the look of a stuffed teddy bear. A groomer does this by leaving the hair between ½ to 1 inch long across the body, shaping the body to resemble a fox, and rounding out the Pom’s pointed ears. Your Pom’s tail gets trimmed to look like a brush, and the head is trimmed to look spherical.
Kennel Cuts
Kennel cuts involve grooming the hair short all over with a rounded head and triangular ears. Groomers leave a small amount of longer hair on the tail. This cut is the most damaging Pomeranian haircut style besides completely shaving your dog. However, there are situations that call for a kennel cut. A kennel cut makes sense for an owner who is unable to groom their dog due to disability, age, etc, or if the dog is older and requires such a short cut for sanitary reasons.
Pomeranian Haircuts: Why You Shouldn’t Shave Your Pompom
Another cut style goes by many names. You might hear it called shaved or a lion cut. We do not recommend shaving your Pomeranian (or any other double-coated breed, for that matter) unless a veterinarian recommends it. A dog’s coat is a natural barrier against their environment, and this fact is especially true for double-coated breeds like the Pomeranian.
Many owners want to shave their double-coated dogs to help keep them cool during hot weather. However, a double coat provides warmth in cold weather and insulation from the heat in hot weather. That’s right, your dog’s double coat keeps them cool too. It also protects from the sun’s harmful UV rays, no matter the temperature.
Skip the Shave and Groom Your Pomeranian
Shaving double-coated breeds can cause permanent damage to their coat; their cute, fluffy appearance will be gone forever. Luckily, there are many other grooming options for a Pomeranian hair cut that don’t require shaving. Whether you prefer your Pomeranian’s coat long or short, there is a style that’s perfect for you and your Pom pup.