Cold Weather Grooming & Fall Flair For Happy, Healthy Dogs

What Are Your Favorite Autumn Hair Cuts?

Cozy trims meet real-life maintenance in a fall grooming guide that keeps pets comfortable, cute, and camera-ready. We break down why the lamb cut shines in sweater season, how friction and static from fabrics create mats, and the smart way to prep double-coated breeds for winter without sacrificing coat health. If you love the plush look but dread daily detangling, you’ll learn how to choose the right length, focus on high-friction zones, and keep your dog’s coat breathable and easy to manage.

We also dig into seasonal timing: when to schedule a tidy versus a full haircut, why costumes call for a slightly shorter cut now, and how roughly a quarter inch of monthly growth helps you plan photos and holidays. For double coats, we explain de-shedding that clears packed undercoat, preserves guard hairs, and supports true temperature regulation. No more myths—mats don’t keep dogs warm; healthy, clean coats do.

Between appointments, the small stuff matters. A 4–6 week routine for nail trims, paw pad tidies, and quick face and sanitary cleanups protects joints, improves traction on slick floors, and saves your couch from beards and debris. We share simple at-home tools—a slicker brush, metal comb, and light detangler—to fight static and prevent tangles under sweaters and raincoats. Whether you have a Yorkie, Shih Tzu, doodle, or a double-coated powerhouse, you’ll walk away with a clear plan to keep your dog comfortable and stylish all season.

Love practical tips and happy, healthy pets? Follow, share with a friend who dresses their dog for fall, and leave a quick review to tell us your favorite autumn haircut.

To learn more about Hound Therapy visit:
https://www.HoundTherapy.com
Hound Therapy
3509 E Park Blvd.
Plano, TX
469-367-0009

Chapters

• 0:03 Welcome And Fall Vibes
• 0:39 Meet The Hosts And Setup
• 1:08 The Case For Lamb Cuts
• 2:21 Managing Double Coats In Fall
• 3:26 Costumes, Length, And Scheduling
• 5:00 Debunking Cold Weather Myths
• 6:36 Sweaters, Style, And Practicality
• 7:30 Maintenance Between Appointments
• 9:16 Nails, Pads, Allergies, Quick Fixes

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:03

Welcome to Tale Talk Grooming Chronicles with Health Therapy, the podcast where we talk all things pet grooming, daycare, academy, and more. Hosted by Shannon and Tanya of Health Therapy, serving pet owners across North Texas. We're here to share expert tips, hilarious pet stories, and the inside scoop on keeping your furry friends happy and healthy. Our motto, humanity over vanity. And don't worry, we don't fight. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_01: 0:33

Who let the dogs go? Who let the dogs go? From cozy trims to pumpkin spice inspired styles, Shannon and Tanya share how fall grooming brings out the flair in every furry client. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Sophia Yvette, co-host and producer back in the studio with Shannon and Tanya, professional groomers at Hound Therapy. Hi ladies, how's it going today? It's good. How are you? It's going good, and I am so excited to have you back on today. Now, let's kick things off. Talk to us about how to have fall flare with Hound Therapy's favorite autumn haircut.

SPEAKER_02: 1:16

Um I mean, jumping right into it. My favorite's the lamb cut because they're perfect for, you know, sweater weather. Like it's gonna get cooler hopefully soon. Um and it's a real nice, it's short body, longer legs, so you still got the kind of feel of a long haircut, but you don't have to do all the maintenance that a long haircut requires when you're wearing sweaters and all of that. It literally covers all of the the hairy parts. So if you put a sweater on a dog and and especially if they've got long hair, like a Yorkie or a poodle or a doodle or something like that, it it will map them up. It's kind of like constant friction. Um, and then you you do that plus the weather changing, and then you get the static electricity and all of that. So it just makes for a really bad case scenario. So in order to make those dogs look really cute, um, I think the lamb is uh a good choice too for the fall for um being able to give you a longer look um with less to take care of. Without all the maintenance that comes along with a long haircut. Yeah. Uh the other thing to remember is that we're still removing all of that, you know, we've we've still got to remove dead hair. A lot of people say, oh my gosh, let's stop right now um and let my dog grow. It's it's fall. It's we're not we're not winter. Uh so we're still okay. Quite there yet, but yeah. We we're still doing a lot of our double-coated breeds and they're still um really jumping out as you can everybody can see my lip. We've gotten smacked by a couple of big dogs in the face. Um, it just they don't they come once or twice a year. And uh it's it's this is one of the times they come. It's the beginning of summer and usually the beginning of fall because it's you know, they're gonna start shedding their coats and you'll start you'll start seeing that big slough off at the beginning of summer, but for fall, you start seeing it drag off a little bit, but there's a ton of dead hair packed behind those double-coated breeds. So we really need to make sure that we're pulling all of that dead hair out um and and prepping them for their winter coats because that winter coat they're gonna start to pack on. Um that's what they start losing come spring, summertime. Yeah. The following year is all that winter coat that they've put on all winter. Plus, we have some really cute Halloween costumes that, you know, another another good reason for uh, you know, another, maybe not a summer shortcut, but a shorter cut that is gonna allow you to have another couple months of in bef in between grooming. Uh so if you normally do a really smooth coat and you're like, oh, I don't want my dog to be cold, you know, they grow a quarter of an inch a month, roughly. So you can pretty much you know get another two or three months out. Maybe we don't go quite as short. We just clean it up and you know, take a little bit off, clean it uh so that it looks, you know, nice and neat and uh do the nails and the pads, yeah, not scruffy and homeless, and then um turn around and uh from you know, just kind of continue to do that, but not not taking any off now. Starting to let your dogs grow out right now is a little too soon. So fall can be fall can be tricky. But the lamb cut is a great alternative. Yeah. I do them all the time. I love them. It's a great alternative and it's fantastic for it looks really cute on Yorkies, it's really in for those. Um it's really, really cute on the shihtzus too, whether it's like a little poofy stove. Yeah, but shih tzu's, uh Yorkis. I would say, I mean, it's it's it's any of those little drop-coated dogs. It's it's really cute on all of those. Uh so if you haven't seen those, we even do some on through schnauzers, we do them on um yeah, they're really cute. On everything. If you have a dog with hair, I might try to do a lamb cut on it. So that's our that's our fall flair for for most of that. And then and then just doing that prep for the winter time. Um, you know, we we we don't want there it's kind of a myth that, you know, and it our all our dogs don't get cold like we do. Their temperatures, their their coat and their hair, it's built to regulate their body temperature. So a matted dog, a dog that has mats that's retaining um extra dead hair that that creates a barrier between the dog's skin and the outer shell of the dog. It it and it I call it a shell because it literally, if I take it off, it's like a helmet that surrounds the dog. That dog is unable to regulate its body temperature. So whether it's hot or cold. Yeah, it is so it's not good. It's not good at all. Where if you go ahead and and keep that hair, uh, you know, removing the dead hair, putting letting letting them put on their winter coat because they're going to be thicker in the winter than they are in the summer. Uh, they're self-regulating. Um, but most of the dogs that we do in here, I mean, they're inside dogs, they're not living outside. Um, they're they're they're not going to be in extreme weather, hopefully. Hopefully, you bring your dogs in if it's cold. Um, and if it for those, you can pretty much do what's going to be the best for you to maintain your dog. And and that's still the number one uh, you know, goal for us. But everybody wants a little longer just because I think that we look at them and if we think they're cold. Yeah, it makes me cold. Like I I dress up my dog all the time. She's got a whole closet full of sweaters and sweatshirts, and I do she's got costumes, she goes chick-or-treating. I mean my beach law also has like a closet full of sweaters because they literally have no hair. So and but they're warm, they're always warm. And she doesn't care. She'll wear it because she thinks she looks pretty. But it's a level two. But she she doesn't like she's she she doesn't like the rain, so she'll wear a raincoat just because she didn't like to get wet. But she doesn't care. And it doesn't help her regulate her body temperature more or less. It makes me feel better. Yeah. So for those of you who just want to feel better by looking at your dog, um it's you know, you don't have to take you, you know, we don't have to groom all the way out. We can still give you an easy maintenance groom that that you can, you know, keep up with it. Or you can put a worm cut and slap a sweater. Yeah. It's a little trick.

SPEAKER_01: 7:25

Well, fluffy cuts are always cute. One other question for you two today. Any tips for pet parents to maintain those fall cuts between appointments?

SPEAKER_02: 7:36

Yeah, it's uh the for maintaining those is uh let's bring them in because it's we're going a little longer in between than we do in the summertime. So we want to keep your nails short. Uh they can grow back into the bed. So um we we the pads get soppy and wet. So we we recommend that you come in in about every four to six weeks to keep those nails short, the paw pads down. Even if we're just doing all sanitaries right in front of your eyes, you know, it gets drainy, and we still have a lot of um uh in Texas anyway, we still have a lot of uh allergy issues here for our pets, uh, even in the wintertime. So for those animals that are having um and the long hair, because it's shaggy is great and and a longer coat looks good, but nobody wants dirt all over their couch and ibergers and uh junk in their beards. Soffee with tea all over your couch and the nails. That's very healthy to keep those nails done. If they grow too long or get too the the quicks actually grow with the nails. So the longer you leave that nail, the less likely that we are to continue to take it back. So uh if you don't walk down and file it uh you know on a natural uh concrete barrier, or if you're not walking every day, it's gonna be harder to do. So go ahead and pop on in for nail trims and a quick face cleanup and maybe a little fanny. A fanny trim.

SPEAKER_01: 8:56

Well, thank you both for sharing those seasonal favorites with us today, Shannon and Tanya. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_02: 9:03

See you later.

SPEAKER_00: 9:07

That's a wrap for this episode of Tale Talk with Hound Therapy. Ready to book your pet's next groom daycare stay or grooming academy tour? Call us at 469-367-0009. That's 469-367-0009 to schedule an appointment or visit us online at www.houndtherapy.com, serving North Texas with expert pet care. Until next time, keep those tails whacked.