How to Groom a Chow Chow: A Groomer's Step-by-Step Guide to That Profuse Double Coat

If you have not had a Chow Chow on the table yet, get ready, because there is a lot of coat coming your way. The rough Chow carries one of the most profuse double coats we ever handle: a soft, woolly, standing undercoat topped with a harsh, straight outer coat, and it is thickest of all around the neck where it forms that famous lion mane. There is a smooth variety too, which is far more manageable, but it is the rough coat that fills most of our double-coat appointments. Groomed properly, a Chow is a genuinely satisfying dog to turn out. Left to matt, it becomes a welfare problem and a long, careful strip-out session for whoever gets it next.

This is how I approach a Chow on the salon floor, from the first assessment through to the finish.

Assess the coat before you touch a brush

Before anything else, get your hands right down to the skin. A Chow can look immaculate on top while the undercoat has felted into a solid pelt underneath, and the worst offenders are always the same spots: behind the ears, the ruff, the armpits, the britches and the tail. Part the coat and check. If your comb will not pass to the skin, you have matting to deal with, and you plan the whole groom around that.

If you find dense, tight matting close to the skin, do not battle it out strand by strand with the dog in discomfort. A pelted double coat that cannot be safely brushed out is one of the few times clipping is the kinder route, taken carefully and with the owner's understanding of how the regrowth will look.

Welfare note: Never shave a healthy Chow Chow double coat for neatness or to reduce shedding. That coat insulates against both heat and cold and regulates temperature. Shave it and you risk poor, patchy regrowth, sunburn and a dog that copes worse in summer, not better. We deshed a double coat, we do not clip it off. The Royal Kennel Club breed standard is explicit that artificial shortening which alters the natural outline should be penalised, and that reflects what the coat is actually for.

Step one: high-velocity blast on the dirty coat

Start deshedding before the bath, not after. Work a high-velocity dryer through the dry coat first to blow out a huge amount of dead undercoat and loosen surface debris. It saves you time in the bath and stops loose coat turning to felt the moment it gets wet. Work in sections, following the lie of the coat, and keep the nozzle moving so you are not fixed on one patch of skin.

Step two: line brush and rake through

Now go in by hand. Line brushing is your foundation on a Chow: lift a section of coat, brush a thin layer down at a time from the skin outwards with a slicker, and work up the body so nothing gets skipped. Follow the slicker with an undercoat rake to pull the dead woolly undercoat, then a wide comb to check your work. If the comb snags, that section is not done. Be patient through the ruff and britches, because that is where the density hides.

Step three: bath and condition

Use a good deshedding or general shampoo and, crucially, get it right down to the skin through that dense coat. This is where people go wrong: they wash the outer coat and leave the undercoat greasy underneath. Rinse until the water runs completely clear, then rinse again, because trapped product in a coat this thick causes irritation and dulls the finish. A light conditioner helps the coat release more dead hair on the dry.

Step four: the high-velocity dry, and this is the real work

The dry is where a Chow is made or lost. Blast the coat fully dry with the high-velocity dryer while brushing, driving water and yet more dead undercoat out as you go. A Chow left to dry damp will matt against the skin within days. Dry in sections, lifting the coat and drying from the skin up so the undercoat stands rather than lies flat. Keep going until you genuinely cannot get any more coat out and the whole dog is bone dry to the skin.

Step five: the folds, ears and finishing

Chows have deep facial folds and heavy heads, so give the folds and the mouth area a proper check and clean, drying them well, as trapped moisture there causes soreness. Clean the ears and check them, and manage the hair around the ear opening; keep this light and only take what is genuinely needed. Trim tidily around the feet for a neat cat-foot shape, tidy the hocks and any straggly bits under the tail for hygiene, and leave the body coat natural and standing. A finishing blast lifts everything back up. You are aiming for full, plush and clean, not sculpted.

Frequently asked questions

How often should a Chow Chow be professionally groomed? Every four to six weeks for a full deshed and bath works well for most, with owners brushing thoroughly at home in between. The coat blows heavily a couple of times a year, and around those seasonal moults you will want them in more often to stay on top of the shedding undercoat.

Can I ever clip a Chow Chow? Only for welfare, never for style. If a coat is so severely pelted that safe brushing would cause pain, clipping the mats out is the humane option, and you explain to the owner why and how the regrowth may differ. A healthy, maintainable coat is deshed, not clipped.

Why does my client's Chow still shed after a full groom? Because you can only remove the undercoat that is ready to release. During a heavy seasonal blow they will keep dropping coat for weeks. Booking them in more frequently through the moult, plus consistent home brushing, is what actually manages it.

What is the biggest mistake groomers make with Chows? Not drying to the skin. A Chow that leaves damp underneath will matt fast, and the next groomer inherits a pelt. Take the time on the high-velocity dry; it is the single most important stage.

Written from the salon floor by Lucy, City & Guilds Level 2 & 3 qualified groomer and owner of Fluffs, a one-to-one dog grooming salon in Wigginton, York. For more professional grooming guides, explore the Fluffs grooming blog.