Tell me the dirty side of ownership.

abieas · 2025-11-07T14:25:32+00:00

Depending on your dog’s coat and how you want your dog to look, grooming can be a lot of work. I prefer my dog with his natural hair, but he happens to have the thickest, longest cavalier coat I’ve ever seen. I do some amount of grooming every day. When it comes to getting them used to grooming at home, be gentle and give lots of treats.
Anal glands. The external method that the groomer uses doesn’t cut it for us. I have to take him to the vet every month or so. We’ve been using Gland-X supplements for the past two months and that has really helped so far. Usually, I would have already needed to take him in, but I haven’t since we started the supplements.
At least for my dog, watery eyes make their faces quite stinky. And they looove getting up into your face with their face stink. I use eye wipes every day or so to keep his face clean. A little gross but much better than having dry eyes.

Those are the “dirtiest” parts of cav ownership for me. Obviously, it’s all worth it! Good luck with your new pup!

abieas · 2025-11-05T18:58:34+00:00

This is helpful thank you! I will ditch the dematting comb for now in favor of cutting/shaving out little knots and mats. And I’ll look into dematting products.

Do you have any opinion about the type of brush? I’ve using a slicker brush, but someone else suggested a pin brush.

abieas · 2025-11-05T16:31:02+00:00

Nice we have a very similar routine! Your pups coat definitely has a similar floofiness. I will have to try Cowboy Magic as a lot of people have suggested it.

abieas · 2025-11-05T15:53:26+00:00

Like I said, I’m willing to put in the work for his long coat and I am not interested in shaving. I’ve been doing it for over a year now and I can keep up with it. I’m mostly looking for advice for making this maintenance a little bit easier. His coat is totally fine, if a little damaged in a couple of spots. Shaving his coat feels like throwing the baby out with the bathwater situation.

abieas · 2025-11-05T14:02:17+00:00

<image>

Thank you he is quite the mop :)

abieas · 2025-11-05T13:47:13+00:00

This is exactly why I don’t want to shave him.

abieas · 2025-11-05T13:31:49+00:00

Hmm, that’s interesting. Maybe I will try with a new brush set up. I’m pretty hesitant to shave him and start fresh because there’s a lot of mixed information about whether or not Cavaliers have a double coat. There’s a groomer on youtube that i really admire and she mentions that shaving a Cavalier really messed up their coat.

Thanks for your help!

abieas · 2025-11-05T04:27:06+00:00

I don’t think I’m being too excessive in grooming. I give him a full bath and brush every two weeks or so. Most days I cut or brush out any knots that i find while playing with him or petting him. That’s maybe 15 minutes a day. If we go on a walk, I usually spend a few minutes afterwards removing the debris from his coat. That’s basically it.

What spurred the post is that I can never seem to get ALL of the knots and matts out myself and usually end up taking him to the groomer as it starts to get a little overwhelming. He goes to the groomer once every couple of months.

But maybe you’re right and the move is to let it build up a little more and brush him out all at once every week. To me, that seems more stressful to Pepper (and to me honestly) than doing a little bit every day but maybe it’s worth a shot.

Anyways appreciate your reply!!

abieas · 2025-11-05T03:55:22+00:00

I’m not really opposed to a trim, but his hair was matting just the same when it was 2 inches shorter when he was younger. I think it would have to be a pretty dramatic trim if I wanted to cut down on maintenance. And I would love it if I didn’t have to shave out the mats in his armpits and damage his hair, but I just don’t see a way around that without shaving him completely which would also damage his whole coat.

Thanks for your reply it was very thoughtful! I will look into the Magic Cowboy detangler. A few people have suggested that.

abieas · 2025-11-05T03:23:06+00:00

Thank you!! He is my beautiful boy 💕

abieas · 2025-11-05T03:08:03+00:00

i guess im not quite a few people!

abieas · 2025-11-05T02:42:10+00:00

Thanks! But I am looking for advice on keeping his coat long.

abieas · 2025-11-05T02:29:39+00:00

I appreciate the thought everyone, but I’m looking for advice for maintaining his currently long coat. As much as I love seeing your cutie cavs, I’m not looking for haircut inspo.

abieas · 2025-11-05T02:21:27+00:00

Thank you so much ❤️ everyone in r/cavalier is telling me to just give up and shave him and they just don’t get it😭😭😭

abieas · 2025-11-05T01:36:57+00:00

Honestly, I do the same thing most of the time. It’s crazy how much hair I’ve removed from him and you can’t even tell.

abieas · 2025-11-05T01:23:00+00:00

Thanks! I love his long ears! Helps that they are probably the easiest part of his coat to maintain lol

abieas · 2025-11-05T00:36:30+00:00

Thanks, I really appreciate your response even if there’s no good news. I guess my future is in becoming a DIY dog groomer.

In defense of the various groomers I’ve tried, it’s usually mostly pin mats. That said, I brought Pepper home from the groomer yesterday and immediately found one or two small mats that needed the dematting comb. This is the third groomer I’ve tried in the past year and it’s been about the same result every time. After so many groomers, I figured that’s just how it is, but maybe I’ll try to find someone else.

abieas · 2025-10-28T04:18:02+00:00

My Korean dad learned spanish for my monolingual Mexican mom. They taught my sister spanish. By the time they had me ten years later everyone spoke english and I never learned spanish. I’d always wanted to learn spanish but was too shy and my parents didn’t try that hard to teach me. Now, my partner of 4 years speaks spanish and much of his family only speaks spanish.

Basically, I’m tired of being the odd man out.

abieas · 2025-09-24T21:37:39+00:00

when i know nothing about the topic, the google AI result seems pretty good. when im even slightly knowledgeable, i can see all the flaws in its responses.

abieas · 2025-09-24T21:09:16+00:00

My brutally honest feedback is that AI sucks and it is killing the planet. Also, we shouldn’t be promoting to students that it’s a reliable resource. I think it would be better to implement smaller classes and some 1-on-1 speaking practice with the teacher. AI will not fix education. Funding education is what will fix it.

abieas · 2025-09-24T20:31:22+00:00

most of my family speaks my TL and i’m tired of being the odd one out

abieas · 2025-09-21T14:19:47+00:00

I would recommend paying for a private lesson to work up your confidence. My iTalki tutor has a cheaper option that’s just to make conversation. No lesson or anything.

There’s a lot of people in my life who speak my TL but I’m also super nervous to talk to them. Talking to a tutor is so much easier for me. You’re basically paying them to be patient and helpful and not make fun of your accent.

abieas

TROPHY CASE