Hi Fudgley - Yes they certainly are there for a function and I'm a bit horrified and sad that it appears not to be generally known.

Everyone please, please, please do NOT cut of the whiskers. They are extremely important, they provide a sense of objects which the dog might not be able to see (due to zero lux lighting which can occur, or if the dog has poor or no visual senses, ie blind)
Dr. Coran in his book 'How dogs think' explains it all in detail, a summary is that the whiskers are so sensitive that as the dogs head approaches a fixed object e.g. a wall, the reflected air from the object will deflect the whiskers and tell the dog to stop or change direction.

Just try to imagine how important that is to dog with failing eyesight or in zero lux light.

Dr. Coran also writes about a blind dog that could run around it's owners house, go up and down stairs, and generally behave like any sighted dog until one day he was sent to a dog grooming place where the obviously untrained staff cut off his whiskers. The poor animal then could only walk slowly from place to place.

While I'm in this mood can I ask any people who are Dogsey members and who are show judges why a judge (Who must surely know something about dogs) would give extra marks for cutting off whiskers, someone mentioned above that it 'looked' better, well I'm sorry but there's loads of humans I could mention who would look better if they had bits chopped off them.

The OP started by asking about whiskers so for heavens sake don't lets get into tail docking now and please don't come back with balderdash about how cutting of the whiskers is the right thing to do, it is not, it never will be, and anyone who does it is not worthy of the term dog lover. Self lover maybe, but the world is full of conceited egoists so nothing new there.

Finaly, if you've already done it inadvertantly, I think they do grow back but it takes a long time (Many years?) perhaps someone who has worked in kennels and knows how long it takes will tell us.

So far as sticking into your eyes, well surely it's sensible to NOT let your dogs mouth & tongue around your mouth nose & eyes anyway, our two dogs can lick me on the neck, cheek, ears, but I always move my head if they get near to my eyes.

I hope this isn't going to turn into a "I want more points in the ring" or I don't want them up my nose" type of trivia, lets get serious about this:-

Dogs need their whiskers
Whiskers should NEVER be cut off

I've got poodles, bit difficult to shave their faces and leave the whiskers!
Becky

Kingsley (my Yorkie) has never been groomed without having his whiskers clipped too.

i do trim their nose and leave their whiskers. i like them and i think they need them to stab me into my eyes if nothing else

please leave my whiskers (i dont trim her tho )


cute whiskers here too

i've been trimming all the dogs i've had for 40 years, it makes them look tidier and keeps their faces clean after scoffing their meals down .

Agree with Losos. The whiskers are highly developed snsory organs. It may be harmful to the dog to remove them. A good website on this.

http://www.winweim.com/whiskers.pdf#...gs%20remove%22

I'm one judge who certainly doesn't prefer them removed. I know it's unavoidable in some breeds but I can't bear it, especially in non clipped breeds.

I don't. First, she doesn't show and she's a mix. They seem too sensitive to be cutting anyways... I tried trimming them once, she didn't like it and nor did I. Any time you touch her face, all you could feel was the prickly ends of whiskers, I like it a lot better when they sort of come to a natural, "rounded" tip.



Plus... I like her whiskers, they're pretty!

Poodles are highly intelligent and make wonderful companions. Never having owned one I don't know if it's possible but could you not shave up to the nose and 'tidy up' around the whiskers with small hand scissors???

If you don't show him I can't see the point now that you're aware of the importance of these whiskas.

Lovely dogs, especially the Newfie.


But facts are facts, and the fact is these whiskers are more important than mere looks, have to admire you're honesty in admitting you've been doing it for 40 years, I assume you will take the advice of Dr. Coran and others and not do it anymore.

Thanks for that link Pod - Somehow I get the feeling some people will not look at it, nor buy the book I quoted from, nor listen to you (Who I previously judged to have some expertise) I was hoping there would be some judges with sensitivity out there

That's a point I hadn't considered but an extremely valid one, thanks for mentioning it

I don't trim Jacks whiskers, my mornings wouldn't be the same without being woken up by a poke in the face by a wet nose, then the tickling of his wiskers as he tries desperatly to wake me

CLMG

and if none of that works the licking of any part of you that happens to be outside the duvet