Twice a year the phones do the same thing. The first properly mild week of spring arrives, everybody in southwest Ohio opens a window, and within a few days a lot of the calls we get start with somebody describing hair all over the house. The same thing happens again in early autumn. If you have ever wondered when do dogs blow their coat, the answer where you live is written into the Cincinnati calendar, and it is tighter here than it is in a warm climate.
This post is about the local timing: when each coat blow starts around Cincinnati, why a four-season climate makes it heavier than it would be further south, and when to book if you do not want to be on a waiting list. If you want the general background on shedding itself, we cover that in our dog shedding season guide.
Quick version: in the Cincinnati area the spring coat blow usually gets going through March and runs into May, and the autumn one starts around late September and runs through November. Book the deshed at the start of each window rather than in the middle of it. Brush two or three times a week while it is happening, and do not let anyone shave a double coat to stop it.
What blowing coat actually is
A double-coated dog has two layers. The topcoat is the longer, coarser hair you can see, and it stays put most of the year. Underneath it is a dense woolly undercoat that acts as insulation, and that is the layer that comes out in large amounts twice a year.
Blowing coat is the undercoat releasing all at once instead of gradually. You get clumps rather than loose hairs, and the dog can look patchy or uneven while it is happening. It is normal, it is not a skin problem, and it does not mean anything is wrong.
The trigger is mostly daylight rather than temperature. As the days get longer in spring the winter undercoat is released, and as they shorten in autumn a heavier one comes in. That is why a warm week in February does not start it and a cold snap in April does not stop it. Temperature affects how thick the coat gets, and daylight decides when it changes over.
The Cincinnati calendar
Here is roughly how the year goes for a double-coated dog in southwest Ohio. Individual dogs vary by a few weeks either way, and an indoor dog under artificial light at night will often stretch the whole thing out.
| When | What the coat is doing | What to book |
|---|---|---|
| December to February | Full winter undercoat, thickest of the year | Regular grooms, brush weekly, watch for road salt on the feet |
| March to April | Spring blow starting, undercoat releasing in clumps | Deshedding appointment early in the window |
| April to May | Peak of the spring blow | A second deshed if the first one was early |
| June to August | Lighter summer coat, humidity is the issue | Regular grooms and full drying, never a shave on a double coat |
| Late September to October | Autumn blow starting, summer coat coming out | Deshedding appointment as it starts |
| October to November | Winter undercoat coming in underneath | Brush it out before the new coat grows through the old |
The autumn one catches people out more than the spring one does. It is usually smaller, so owners skip it, and then the new winter undercoat grows in on top of the old dead coat and packs down. By January that dog has a dense mat layer against the skin that has to be worked out slowly.
A four-season climate is also why the coat is heavier here than it would be on a dog living somewhere warm all year. The dog grows what it needs for a real winter, and all of it has to come out again in spring.
Which coats blow and which do not
Not every fluffy dog is double coated, and the difference decides what your spring looks like. Double coats include huskies, malamutes, german shepherds, golden retrievers, labradors, corgis, australian shepherds, bernese mountain dogs, chow chows, pomeranians and shelties, among others.
Those dogs blow coat on a schedule. Single-coated dogs such as poodles, maltese, shih tzus, yorkies and most doodles do not, because their hair keeps growing instead of cycling out. They need haircuts rather than deshedding, and the loose hair they do lose stays in the coat and turns into mats if it is not brushed out.
If you are not sure which you have, push your fingers down into the coat on the back. On a double coat you will feel a distinct soft dense layer under the longer hair. On a single coat it is the same texture all the way down.
What a deshedding appointment actually does
A deshed is not a haircut and it does not use clippers. It is a bath with a shampoo that helps release the undercoat, then a high-velocity dryer used to blow the loose coat out of the dog, then rakes and slicker brushes to take out what is left.
The order matters. The blow-out is what separates the undercoat from the topcoat, and brushing before that just moves hair around. This is also the part that cannot really be reproduced at home, because a household hair dryer does not move enough air and gets too hot.
Expect it to take longer than a standard groom, and expect a lot of hair. A good deshed will get most of the loose undercoat out and the dog will keep releasing a bit more for a week or two afterwards. A regular dog grooming schedule through the rest of the year makes each one faster, because there is less dead coat waiting.
One thing to be firm about: do not shave a double-coated dog to reduce shedding. The topcoat protects the skin from sun and helps the dog regulate temperature, and it often grows back with a different texture. It also does not stop the shedding, it just makes the hair shorter. If a groomer offers to shave a double coat in July, ask them what it will do to the coat before you agree to it.
Brushing at home while it is happening
Through a coat blow, two or three sessions a week of fifteen minutes each will keep most of it off your floors. Doing it outside is worth the trip, because the amount that comes out is genuinely surprising the first time.
- Use an undercoat rake first, in the direction the coat grows, in short strokes.
- Work in sections and finish one before you move on, otherwise you will miss the same spots every time.
- Get the areas people forget: the trousers on the back legs, the ruff around the neck, behind the ears and along the tail.
- Follow with a slicker brush over the same area to lift what the rake loosened.
- Stop when the tool stops filling up. Going over the same patch repeatedly irritates the skin.
- Do it before a bath, never after. Water tightens loose undercoat into a mat.
If you find a section where the coat feels solid rather than loose, leave it and mention it when you book. Packed undercoat that has been left through a season usually needs to be worked out on a table rather than pulled at on the kitchen floor.
Why the suburbs book out in March and October
Here is the operations side of it, from the person looking at the dispatch board. Coat blow is the one time of year when demand is genuinely seasonal and everybody wants the same two weeks. Deshedding appointments also take longer than a regular groom, so a van fits fewer dogs into a day exactly when the most people are calling.
The practical advice that follows from that is to book at the start of the window rather than the middle. Late February for the spring blow and mid September for the autumn one will get you a slot you actually want, and an early deshed also means less hair in the house for the six weeks that follow.
The other thing that helps is booking your next appointment while the groomer is still standing in your driveway. That is how the regulars stay ahead of it. Our mobile pet grooming vans work a route, so a slot that suits your street is easier to hold than to find later.
We cover the Cincinnati area and the suburbs around it, so whether you need mobile dog grooming cincinnati, mobile dog grooming mason oh or mobile dog grooming west chester oh, the van comes to your driveway and your dog is the only dog in it. With a coat blow that is worth something on its own, because all that loose hair comes off in the van and leaves with it instead of going back in your car.
Book a deshedding appointment
If your dog is double coated and the hair has started coming out in clumps, book now rather than waiting to see how bad it gets. Tell us the breed and roughly when you last had a deshed, and we will suggest a slot. Send us a message through our contact us or book your mobile dog grooming appointment.
Thanks for reading. If you take one thing from this, make it the autumn appointment, because that is the one people skip and it is the one that causes the January problem.
