Now before everybody jumps me on this one, I would never shave her, but Miko has exceptionally long guard hairs, they come down her back to form a V almost like a lions mane. She also has what I call "Chronic Butt Fro", and her tail hair is much longer than most huskies I have seen(an average strand is about 8"). She is spayed, which I have been told will increase the hair length because is throws off the hormonal balance, and I have her groomed regularly, she also has not blown coat before(I don't know if this will affect her hair length).

So here is my question. Is it okay to have her "Butt Fro" trimmed back? I have her pads shaved every couple of months so that she doesn't get "Grinch" feet, but the "Butt Fro" is driving me crazy and she HATES having it brushed out.

My Mr. Sebo is long haired (almost collie length) and has the same issue. To add to the problem he has a sensitive stomach and occasions running stool. Lets just say I keep this trimmed up back there. He too hates be combed there and gets matted after swimming if I don't keep it trimmed down.

"Chronic Butt Fro"... LOL...

I have no advice, sorry... I just thought that was funny! I'm sure if I had to deal with "Butt Fro" it would NOT be funny, but you have given me my laugh of the morning!

There is a breeder in our area that only breeds what she calls "wooly huskies". I think the long hair is a dormant gene and pops up occasionally, but this gal breeds for that trait.

Here's a butt fro shot, not the best quality but you can get the idea.

HAHAHA GRINCH FEET! My mom's dog Kele gets those, a collie X. Perfect name for it!!

Grinch feet

You guys are cracking me up.

We used to trim the fur under Ginger's paws because they just looked gnarly but now I think if we kept it, it would have helped with snow balling up in her paws. So we're not trimming paw fur anymore.

Is Miko a long-hair or wooly husky?

There is nothing wrong with trimming back the butt fur or "pants" as I call them in dogs with long hair back there.

Miko looks like she has an "in-between" coat, longer than standard but shorter than a true wooly.

Our Chihuahua, Glory, is a long coat chihuahua so she has really long butt fur/pants that tends to get tangled and twisted and heaven forbid she gets worms or diarrhea! Of course brushing there is sensitive so I give her a sanitary shave at home by myself with a regular pair of human hair clippers back there every few months. It's really easy to do and as long as you leave a few inches of fur back there she'll still look okay. You could trim Miko's "pants" to where the fur would stop on a standard husky coat, that's what I do with my long coat Glory and if you didn't know she normally had the long "pants" you wouldn't even notice that it was missing. It does look different the first day or two but after that you don't even notice.

I like that name for it = long pants!

I called Ginger's butt fur, Bloomers.

Storm?....hmm. how about 'Cargo Shorts'...it's not long pants, and Bloomers are for girls...I think I'll go with Cargo Shorts for Storm....

Ginger's Bloomers and Storm's Cargo Shorts!

Haha! Grinch Feet! I know something about those! Chronic Butt Fro too. (But I call it Butt Fuzz. Or hairy Pants.).

I trim Zander's feet every week or so. We get too much rain and mud for him to be comfortable otherwise. Everywhere else that I think needs trimming/shortening....I use the furminator or shedding blade. They both do a pretty good job of tearing up coats. I'm just OCD, and I can't ever get scissors to make a natural looking cut. My parents shaved his pants one summer. It was a terrible idea. I wasn't happy.

cmanding wrote:

Is Miko a long-hair or wooly husky?

I agree with Val, she is somewhere inbetween a long hair and short hair. Its weird because the long hair is really just down her back and tail and of course the Butt Fro. The rest is short hair(I'll post some more pics later).

Thanks everyone, now I feel better. I am calling the groomers today.

Ah yes nothing like a good chuckle on a topic they you wouldn't think would make you laugh.

Mylo use to grow Grinch feet in the winter and he hated it when the snow would clump up in his toes. I never knew what to call it back then but damn Grinch feet fits perfectly.

Here4thePics wrote:

Ah yes nothing like a good chuckle on a topic they you wouldn't think would make you laugh.

Mylo use to grow Grinch feet in the winter and he hated it when the snow would clump up in his toes. I never knew what to call it back then but damn Grinch feet fits perfectly.

Len,
I use to have a roommate that was horrible about grooming her lab/corgy mix. One night just before christmas i was watching The Grinch(the Jim Carey rendition) and I looked at the dog and said "If your fur was green you would have identical feet(it was ridicoulsy long and even got the pointed curl)" It stuck ever since.

Ah! Sorry to revive a dead thread, but this is exactly what I'm dealing with at the moment. How much butt fro should be left when you trim? An inch and half? Two inches? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

I cut all of the matts out because she sounds like she will have me for dinner when she sees the comb. I try to leave as much as possible but usually its dependent on how close the matts are to her skin. Right now she looks so silly because she won't let me go back and use the thinning shears to even it out.

I leave the top near her tail looking like a bowl cut and it kinda looks like a diaper. Then once her legs are finished I thin upwards to make it look like less of a hot mess. Takes me three seperate days with the thinning shears because it really tries her patience.

I would start with two inches and see if that does the trick. If you notice there are still matts try an inch an a half or cutting them individually.

Also, this is key: use completely metal combs, shears, etc.

She ate 5 combs before I finally invested in indestructible tools. I'm also missing two apple remotes, 4 lip glosses, 5 hair clips and 2 collars. Also nuvaring birth control is completely safe for your dog to eat but they will get mopey and hormonal. I don't leave everything everywhere. She is a sneaky and fast little gremlin turd sniffer who rubs her body on dead carcasses and then my pillow.

Danielle, I've always been the opposite (of course) When I had my Spaniel mix brushing was worse than with a Husky - because she just loved to go running into every clump of brush she could find and then we'd spend the evening pulling burrs out of her. I'd seldom have to resort to shears but there were times it'd take 15 minutes (it seemed) to get one burr out, pulling out a hair or two at a time. Seeing her run around with her "feathers" flying was really enjoyable. (feathers = the hair on the backs of her legs, on her ears, etc)
Sasha is good about letting me brush her, she has longish fur, not a wooly but doesn't miss it by much! With her, it's the back legs that takes the most effort and we both sometimes get disgusted and decide that mañana is good enough.
I've avoided clipping anything out since - in my mind - having all her hair the same length means it's going to flow naturally around / across each other; when a spot is cut out then there's an area where short hair is going to be pushing against the longer hairs and is the perfect place for another mat to form.

Haha thanks y'all. I took him to the groomer a few weeks ago and just asked that it be trimmed to match with the rest of him. It looks really good now I think and had been much more manageable. There haven't been any sanitary issues since lol. I think it suits him better now because the hair on his actual legs is really short and when he had full butt fro he had a bit of a chicken leg look to him.

I don't trim unless there is a mat too bunched for me to pull apart with my fingers and brush out - Ami is a PIA to groom - like grrawrrrofff, when he sees any grooming tool, he's off to the races.  Getting better, though, he sees Archer loves grooming so now he's willing to stand still for a few minutes to see what all the fuss is about

Danielle, I would not trim his "pants" (hind leg feathers) unless they get really matted.  At most a hygiene cut just under the tail (good luck with that, BTW  )  Like Al, I love to see Ami's fur flowing in the wind when he runs.  It may not be husky like but it sure is beautiful.

EDIT: oops, Danielle - just read your last post. Yeah, Ami gets a definite fou-fou kind of look after I've had to trim something. And with fall and all the seed heads, looks like I may be trimming more

My pup is a Samoyed, so has very long bloomers as we call them (but I like butt fro!). We trim her up every few weeks to keep that area clean and non-gross. It's never bothered her, and the breeder said she does it to all her dogs. As long as you don't go crazy and do the full legs, I don't think it will damage his skin or coat.