Golden retrievers are one of the most popular dog breeds due to their loving, playful, and friendly nature. They have a golden personality with a warm and cheerful temperament, but that’s not where the name comes from. Their strikingly beautiful golden coat flows along with them. When they are puppies, the coats are fluffy, but over time the hair grows long and shiny.
So, when do golden retrievers grow long hair?
Golden Retrievers Growing Long Hair
The short, fluffy coat of golden retriever puppies lasts for around 3 months. Depending on the puppy’s bloodline and heritage, the coat can begin to turn into long hair after this time. If the parents of the puppy took a longer time to grow the coat, the chances of the puppy taking a long time are increased. You should ask the breeder about the puppy’s heritage so that you have enough information to prepare for a loving golden retriever with long hair.
After 3 months of a fluffy puppy, you will begin to see some long hair that has started to grow on the tail of the puppy. This is the beginning of a process known as ‘feathering.’ Golden retrievers with long hair start with feathers on their tails, their legs and under the stomach. It starts from the tail and travels up the body to the head in a gradual process. You will be able to notice the new hairs at once since they are darker than the light hair puppies usually have.
Most breeds shed the puppy fur, but golden retrievers do not. The longer adult hair begins to grow on top of the puppy hair and pushes this puppy hair aside. The puppy hair turns into the dog’s undercoat as a second layer to the fur. With time, the undercoat begins to grow thicker as the longer outer coat also grows in. This whole process takes around 18 months to develop until you have a gorgeous golden retriever with long hair.
Grooming Your Golden Retriever
Grooming can help the hair grow in a healthy and quick manner. You should start grooming your golden retriever when it is a puppy. This will result in two main benefits for you and the dog. Firstly, it will get the puppy used to grooming so that it is easier to do as they grow as well. Secondly, golden retrievers with long hair are heavy shedders. The more you groom them and keep their hair under check, the less hair you will find lining your sofas and clothes.
Brushing the Golden Retriever with Long Hair
The first step to grooming is brushing the dog with a suitable dog brush. Do make sure that by the end of the brushing, there is no matted fur anywhere on the body. If you brush the dog at least once a week from head to toe, you won’t have any problems with shedding and matting at all.
Begin by concentrating on the mats in the fur. Do not pull excessively, since that might hurt your beloved pet. Be gentle and hold the fur close to the skin of the dog. Work your way up to the skin, gently brushing the mats loose. If the mats are too tangled to be combed or brushed out, you can use a pair of sharp scissors to cut them out.
Bathing a Golden Retriever with Long Hair
Use warm water to bathe your golden retriever with long hair. Make sure that you invest in a good-quality dog shampoo so that it doesn’t irritate the dog. It will also make its fur shinier and healthier. You can also bathe the dog after trimming it so that all the loose hair is washed away. If the puppy is especially dirty or smelly, it then bathing it becomes all the more necessary.
A regular bathing schedule can also reduce shedding and keep the fur coat shiny. However, it’s also perfectly fine if owners bathe their golden retrievers with long hair only when they get dirty.
Rinse the body of the dog carefully so that every part of the thick coat is soaked thoroughly. Begin working in the lather of the shampoo from the tip to the tail of the dog. Wash it off to make sure that you don’t leave any shampoo in the fur since that can increase matting. Use a towel to dry off the dog or blow dry for show-worthy results. If you use the latter option, make sure to keep the heat low.
Comb or brush the fur one time before starting the trimming process to straighten the fur so that it is easier to cut. You can even use an undercoat comb so that no fur is left matted.
Trimming Your Goldens Coat
You don’t need to trim the entire coat of a golden retriever with long hair. Golden retrievers have a unique two-coat fur with an over and undercoat. This combination is crucial to keep the dog comfortable and happy in any season or temperature. On cooler days, warm air tends to get trapped between the coats and acts as an insulation to keep the body warm. On hotter days, the opposite happens to make sure that the dog doesn’t heat up.
If you trim the coat too much, this can hinder the natural heating and cooling process of your golden retriever with long hair. You can use clippers or scissors and thinning shears to trim your golden retriever. Start by trimming the fuzzy hair growth at the edges of the legs and feet of the dog. The fur on the feet should be around half an inch and lay smooth against the surface.
Lift the paw and trim the fuzzy hair between the toes so that the new length is level with the dog’s pads when it is combed back. Apply Vaseline to the pads if you see any cracks.
The back of the legs can be trimmed easily with thinning shears. Focus on any fuzzy or unkempt hair, and you should be fine. The hair on the rear end of the dog should be relatively long and flared out while the hair on the front should lay flat and be shorter.
The undercoat around the chest and neck of the dog also needs to be thinned out. These areas tend to have excess hair, which may make golden retrievers with long hair feel hot or uncomfortable. Start from the shoulders if ridges of hair have formed and make sure the hair on the chest lays flat. Use the thinning shears to give the dog a clean and natural look by moving them in the direction of the coat around the neck and chest.
Trim some of the tail as well so that it isn’t too long. Trim the length of the tail by tapering it from the base till the end of the tail. In the end, trim the ears of the dog. Begin by thinning the fur around the back and front of the ears. This will make sure that it doesn’t affect the dog’s hearing or collect debris around the ears. The fur on the ears at the top can be thinned with thinning shears.
It is better to focus on unkempt hair rather than trying to trim the hair to specific lengths. Golden retrievers with long hair are known for their flowing coats. If you trim it too much or remove too much hair, you may just hurt the whole look of the fur. The goal is to simply to make sure that the coat is balanced and symmetrical instead of a certain size.
Other Grooming Tips
You can also take care of some other things that are essential when it comes to making sure that your dog stays happy and healthy.
- Wipe the eyes of your dog with a cotton ball. Be gentle to ensure that no irritant goes into its eyes.
- Clean the ears with cotton balls and mineral oils. Make sure that you don’t mess with any internal areas of the ears and focus on cleaning the outer areas.
- Cut the toenails of the dog so that they aren’t too long. Long nails can break off and hurt the dog while it’s running or playing. They may even cause an infection or irregular gait. You can use dog nail trimmers since they are easier to use.
Our Final Thoughts
Golden retrievers with long hair are magnificent creatures that need to be taken care of properly. Their fur begins to grow in the first couple of years, and after that, they look gorgeous with their flowing, shiny hair. But only if it’s well-maintained!
