The Clumber is overall a natural breed and grooming should be minimal. To protect the soft coat texture hand stripping is discouraged but can be beneficial on the spay and neuter coats to remove the peach fuzz coat that develops. For pets, the furnishing on chest, belly and rear can be trimmed shorter to help reduce maintenance and matting but the body coat should never be shaved below length of guard hair which is approximately 1 1/2 – 2 inches. For pets you could use a MARS #10 tool to help strip out the undercoat and reduce matting.
Get a good shampoo for white dogs and a good conditioner. Bathe before shows and as needed between shows. Dirt and other debris typically falls out of their coats and they do not require constant bathing. Brush regularly and this will help maintain their coats.
Front leg feathers-Gather front leg feathers in your hand and stretch the leg forward pulling the feathers forward. Trim the leg feathers going across the paw pad. Have the dog stand and check the length. It should be just above the grooming table. Touch up as necessary to be sure straight. Stretch toward front of foot again and repeat if too long.
Feet-trim hair off the bottom of the pads and cut around the foot. Foot should look round like a cat’s paw. You should not see individual toes. If the hair is not laying down flat on the top of the foot, take your comb and comb the hair between the toes up and use thinners and cut the hair you pulled up two or three times and then comb down. It should lay smoothly. If you comb up a mat, again, use thinners on the mat 1-2 times and comb it out.
Tail-whether docked or long, twist hair at end of tail and cut after the twist. Be sure you have a finger between the end of the tail bone and where you cut to be sure you do not cut the tail bone. Then feather the tail and be sure it is even and feathers nicely. Touch up as needed.
Ears-trim around the ear. Using thinners trim the hair on the neck under the ear. Do this gradually over a period of time so it lays flat. For pets or dogs no longer showing, you can use your straight scissors and trim down in one session. The ears need to be able to breathe. Clean inside of ears weekly using a cotton ball and good ear cleaner.
While trimming of whiskers is optional for show dogs, it does accentuate the muzzle. Trimming can be done with scissors or carefully shaving. The whiskers should be trimmed to the same length as the facial hair.
Toenails-grind or trim weekly. They should be kept short and not show below their hair. You should not hear their toenails clicking on the floor.
Teeth-brush regularly using a toothpaste made for dogs. In between brushing you can wrap gauze around your fingers and rub on the teeth.
Red stains could be caused by red yeast if you are seeing red tear stains, red around the mouth, red on the chest and red hair on bottom and top of feet or any combination of these. Tylan powder is a low dose antibiotic powder you can get from Chewy’s but will need vet’s authorization. Using size 0 capsules make up a bunch and give one capsule twice a day. Powder can be added to food but likelihood of dog eating it nil due to bad taste. It can take 2-3 months for red to go away. Chest hair may have to grow out. Once gone you can maintain by using Seebreeze astringent around mouth weekly, Angels’ Eyes wipes-wipe eyes daily and check their diet. Some foods are known to cause the red.