Cavaliers coat

I don’t know if you’ve gotten an answer to your question or not. We had our Cavalier King Charles for 15 years. My dad always scissor cut Augie, and we never had problems with matting of any kind – never used a professional groomer. Of course, we didn’t use the traditional spaniel cut – just kept his fur only about 1.5 – 2.0 inches long, using the usual dog shampoo.

I don’t know if this helps at all, but I thought it’s an idea worth trying.

I have a Cavalier/Bichon mix. She also has a really tight curly coat. I groom her myself also, because I have 4 dogs and can’t afford to pay a groomer. Like the answer above, I scissor cut her coat quite short. Can’t get through it with my clippers. Her coat mats really quickly also. She looks like a curly Bichon. I’ve attached a picture of her. She is the white dog on the left, My toy poodle is on the right, you can see the Cav/Bich is just as curly as my Poodle.

My friend has a Cavalier. What she does to keep the hair nice is she uses a Mars Stripper with 20 teeth (can be ordered online) about once a month and this takes out all of the dead hair which is what gets matted. It is very easy to do and the dogs don’t seem to mind. I got one for my Shih Tzu. Her hair was getting too bunchy and unkept, so my neighbor came over to see if the Mars stripper would work on her hair, and it does beautifully.When I notice that her hair starts to get a little bunchy (too full and not lay down properly) I go around her and it is surprising how fast the dead hair collects in with the good hair. It really makes a big difference. You may want to give it a try.