Schnauzer Grooming

Question
QUESTION: Hi,
I have 2 miniature schnauzers...the salt & pepper is hard coated and a black that is soft coated.  I do their grooming myself and while not "show" quality they do look quite good.  My question is this.  I have a Wahl dog clipper that I use.  It works fine for the hard coated dog but works terribly on the soft coated one.  Seems to just bind up & not want to cut through the finer type hair. I've tried various brands of clippers over the years but all seem to have this problem. Any suggestions?
Thanks, Rose

ANSWER: Those soft coats can be a real <expletive!>. Make sure that you have a pair of heavy-duty clippers, and not the cheap pet ones; ones with faster speed (RPMs) work better. Your blades may also need sharpening, but sometimes even that doesn't help. Be sure you keep the blades oiled as you work.

Now here is a radical idea which may eventually help. Make that coat a bit coarser. I don't mean actually strip it as one would do for showing, but start raking through it once a week to get out some of that fluff and encourage a bit more texture than you currently have. You can do this with a good stripping knife like one of the Classic blades or... One way that works well is to bathe the dog once a week and while the shampoo is sitting in the coat all soaped up, go over the coat somewhat firmly with a coarse grooming (lava) stone as you keep the skin pulled taut. Don't stay in any one spot too long as you don't want to damage the skin. The more coat, the firmer you can be; less coat, lighter touch. You will need a really good strainer in the drain if you do this, as that soft hair will really come out!

Over time, the dog's color should improve and there should be a bit more texture and maybe the clipper blades won't clog up so easily.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for your quick reply.  I am definitely going to get a new clipper...any recommendations?  Rose

Answer
I would recommend one of the better-quality Andis clippers.
http://grooming.petedge.com/catalog/thumbnail.jsp?parentCategoryId=190&categoryI

There are numerous dog supply catalogs online.