Grooming Your Maltese Shih tzu Puppies: Best Practices and Tips
Dog Love
Grooming Your Maltese Shih Tzu Puppy: Best Practices and Tips
The Maltese Shih Tzu, or Malshi, is one of the most common breeds through our Tranmere salon, and one of the most commonly misunderstood. That soft, cloud like coat is beautiful, and it is genuinely more work than most owners are told when they bring the puppy home. Here is what actually keeps it healthy.
Why the Malshi coat is harder than it looks
A Malshi grows hair rather than shedding fur in the way a Labrador does. That is why they are often called low shedding, and it is worth being precise about what that means. Low shedding is not the same as hypoallergenic. No dog is truly hypoallergenic, because the proteins people react to come from skin and saliva as much as hair.
More importantly for grooming, the hair a Malshi does lose does not fall to the floor. It stays trapped in the coat. Left there, it twists around the growing hair and knots. This is the single reason Malshis mat so readily, and it is why brushing is not optional maintenance for this breed. It is the whole job.
The coat change nobody warns you about
Somewhere between eight and twelve months, the puppy coat is replaced by the adult coat. While that change is happening, both coats are present at once, and the fine puppy hair felts into the incoming adult hair astonishingly fast.
This is the point where owners who have been brushing happily for months suddenly arrive at the salon with a matted dog and no idea what changed. Nothing you did changed. The coat did. Brush more often through this window, not less.
If you get through the coat change without letting mats set, the adult coat is far easier to live with. If you do not, the kindest option is usually a short reset clip and starting again.
Brushing that actually reaches the skin
Most owners brush the top of the coat. The dog looks fluffy, and the knots are quietly forming underneath, against the skin. The fix is line brushing: lift a section of coat with your free hand, brush the layer underneath from the roots outward, then move up.
- Daily is best. Ten minutes daily beats an hour on a Sunday, for the coat and for the dog's patience.
- Two tools. A slicker brush does the work, a metal comb proves it. If the comb glides from skin to tip, that section is done. If it snags, it is not.
- Never brush a wet or damp coat. Moisture tightens knots as it dries.
The technique is the same one we use on Cavoodles, and our guide on how to brush properly at home walks through it step by step.
Know where mats start
Mats almost never start across the back, which is exactly where most brushing happens. They start in the friction zones:
- Behind and under the ears, where the hair is finest
- Under the collar
- Behind the front legs and across the chest, under the harness
- The armpits, groin and the base of the tail
Check those places first, every time. Our guide on managing matting in curly coats goes deeper, and if you are already seeing rubbed patches under the front legs, read harness rubbing under the arms.
If a knot is tight against the skin, leave it. Never cut a mat out with scissors. Dog skin lifts up into a mat and is caught extremely easily, and it is one of the most common reasons for an emergency vet visit after home grooming. Book it in instead.
Tear stains, honestly
Malshis are prone to tear staining because of the shape of their face. The reddish brown colour comes from porphyrins, natural pigments in tears, which darken where they sit on light hair in a permanently damp spot.
What genuinely helps is unglamorous and consistent:
- Wipe under the eyes daily with a damp cloth and dry the area afterwards
- Keep the hair around the eyes short, which is a job for your groomer, not home scissors
- Fresh water daily, and a clean bowl
Be realistic about the result. Staining already in the hair does not wash out; it grows out. What you are doing is stopping new staining while the old hair is trimmed away over time.
See your vet rather than treating it yourself if the tearing starts suddenly, only one eye is affected, the eye looks red or cloudy, or your dog is squinting or pawing at their face. Excess tearing can be a blocked tear duct, an irritated eye, or a lash sitting against the eye, and none of those are a grooming problem.
The six week rule, and the first groom
A Malshi coat holds its shape for about six weeks. Past that, the length starts working against you and the friction zones begin knotting faster than home brushing keeps up with. Regular grooms are not about appearance so much as staying ahead of the coat.
Start young. Once your puppy has finished their vaccination course, short and positive first visits matter more than a perfect haircut. A puppy who learns that the salon is calm and unremarkable is a dog who is easy to groom for the next fifteen years. A puppy whose first visit is a stressful dematting session often is not.
Ready for a professional groom?
Book your Maltese Shih Tzu in at our Tranmere boutique, whether it is a first puppy visit or a full groom.
2 comments
Fantastic tips! 🐶✨ One thing that made an even bigger difference for my Malshi than grooming alone was SpiritDog Training. Their positive, step-by-step lessons helped my pup stay calm during brushing, baths, and nail trims, turning grooming from a struggle into something we both enjoy. If you have a Maltese Shih Tzu, it’s definitely worth checking out! ❤️
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thanks for this posting, very informative. What Clippers would you recomend to trim our Shih Tzu – Lhasa. I’d like to keep his coat reasonabley close and keep his “lambs legs” fuller. were in sydney and I’m currently looking at the Wahl web site. Thanks for your advise.