On Schnauzer Hair, Part 1

For those of you who know me well, you probably know that I have chosen not to join a certain social networking site that seemingly "everybody" is a part of.  So, it may surprise you to find me blogging, which is a topic for another time.  One of my biggest hang-ups with all our social media is the mask it allows us to put on.  We post and blog about things we want people to see.  Things like quaint canned goods snuggled together on the sparkling, clean kitchen counter, smiling children who just aced a test at school, cutsey burlap crafts, and on and on.  We all know that these are just glimpses into someone's life.  Perhaps true glimpses and often helpful glimpses, but glimpses, just the same.  People don't post about the hot dog supper they served last evening, the children who threw a fit in the grocery store, and the living room wall with the decoration that you hung 10 years ago.  And perhaps people do posts on such things; I wouldn't know.  Anyway, all that to say, I find myself blogging about the good, interesting things here at Russell homestead.  But I want to be real too.  So, as I looked at my dear dog, Cocoa, these last two weeks since her haircut, I  kept thinking, "I really should blog about this to be real."  So, folks, here's a real picture of real life here at Russell homestead.

Cocoa with a VERY short haircut

If you aren't a schnauzer person, you may be scratching your head, wondering, "So what?"  Well, below is what Cocoa looks like on a good day.

Miniature schnauzers are known for their beautiful coats.  They should have long hair on their belly and legs, as well as a beard and eyebrows.  So, why is Cocoa lacking this hair in the first photo?  Well, Cocoa is what you call a super-coated miniature schnauzer (a term I will describe in detail a bit later).  Super-coated basically means that she has a thicker, fuller coat than our traditional-coated Jolly.  It also means that sometimes her coat becomes too matted to redeem and must be completely clipped.  What complicates Cocoa's coat is that she thinks she is the born watchdog of Russell homestead, and prefers to spend every minute outside warning us of any intruders (that is, people walking by on the road), playing with the children, chasing any chickens that have hopped the fence, etc.  She just loves the outdoors.  If she preferred her soft bed and the living room carpet to grass and dirt, we wouldn't fight the matting battle like we do.  But, we like that she wants to be outdoors, and we allow her to spend a lot of time roaming the property; thus the recent haircut.  (Just to clarify, she does live in indoors with Jolly.)
We get questions from our puppy families about miniature schnauzers and the care of their coats.  So, I'm going to use this post as an introduction to a few posts on our experience with schnauzer hair.  Check back for Part Two in a few days.