[bluesbarby]

Riley is half Shih Tzu and pretty much has Shih tzu ears. His hair though is a mix of ST, Bichon and Poodle. Very soft, silky and half way between straight and the curlier poodle/bichon. His hair is not thick. I comb him on a regular basis as needed but I check for burrs, etc. with my hands on a several times a day. He gets a bath every 2 weeks. I noticed some excess hair, not actually matted - I actually don't know how to describe it - under the top hair on his ear flaps. So I went to work on it with the comb. All this hair came out. It was like dead hair underneath. Riley is really good when I'm combing, drying his hair. He didn't complain. But I was pulling on the comb pretty hard. How delicate are these flaps. Do I need to be more careful in the future?

[animalcraker]

The ears are probaly one of the more senesitive areas to groom. If you're shaving or triming the ears then you have to be carefull not to cut them, since it can be quite painful and it takes forever to heal compared to the rest of the body. If he didn't complain then it probly wasn't a problem for him. And it's definety good to get all the dead under coat out, it will help prevent matting and will make the ears look alot better.

[Lorina]

My medium hair cat gets clumpies (as I call them) like that every so often. Her fur is plush like a chinchillas (so ridiculously soft!) and doesn't really tangle or matt, but once in a while, I'll notice a tuft of dead fur sticking out on the side of her face under her ear, and it usually just comes out as a big clump. Sometimes I work it out by hand, sometimes with a steel comb or Beav's undercoat rake.

[bluesbarby]

animalcracker: Thanks, that's good to know.