The Löwchen’s coat grows continuously, and while some pet owners may choose to trim their dogs about every eight weeks, grooming is a bit more precise for some show dogs.

The Löwchen is a “single coated” breed, which means that it is a blend of heavy “guard hairs,” and fine “undercoat” hair that, in a perfect world, is a proportion of 50/50. Left alone, the coat will grow to be long and flowing, somewhat dense, fairly soft, and with a slight wave. For the untrimmed coat, shaping or scissoring isn’t allowed, but when the dog is in a lion trim, the coat is trimmed to about 1/8″ on the base of the tail, the hind end, and on top of all legs, while the face, mane on the front and neck, “cuffs” on the lower legs, and the end of the tail called the “plume” or left natural.  This is all true except……

……that the lion trim varies from country to country. In Finland and Scandinavian countries, they don’t trim the feet. In Germany, the area around the dog’s eyes is trimmed. In the US. no scissoring is done on the long coat at all, the only disqualification in a show ring.

One club states the clip of the Löwchen is a breed specific trim, not shared by any other breed. It’s tempting to refute this with the Portuguese Water Dog in a lion clip as an example, but outside of the lion trim, one only has to consider how the rest of a PWD is groomed to realize that this is true.

So why the lion clip?  Some believe it originated as a sanitary measure, but a more romantic story is that court ladies warmed their feet on the dogs’ warm, exposed skin.

Image: Löwchen by Jean-Michel Labat is available as a print, poster, phone case, tote bag and more here.