Michelle says...
One of the books I read on Cairn Terriers before I got Tucker said that when it comes to coat, Cairns are "the lazy man's terrier". I say hah to that! Dogs with higher maintenance coats you can just take to a good groomer, pay some money and pick up a dog that looks good. Take a Cairn to a groomer you're just as likely to come home with a dog whose coat texture has been ruined by being clippered instead of stripped and that looks like a Schnauzer or a Westie! When I got Tucker I had no idea what hand stripping was. I still am really bad at it, but I try. My main effort is to try to make sure he looks like a Cairn, that his coat and skin are healthy and that I'm not too embarrassed to show photos of him to his breeder. My husband and I have a philosophical difference about his ears though. I'd like to clean the hair off the top 1/3 of the ear like Cairns are supposed to be groomed but my husband really likes the ear tips to have that long hair on it. He says it's "character". We'll see.
Stripping isn't too hard on the main part of the body. I use a stripping stone, which is basically a piece of pumice stone. You stroke it with the growth direction of the hair and it pulls the dead top coat hairs, which are loosely rooted, out. I've not managed this with a stripping knife or just my fingers like the experts can, but the stone does the trick for me. The legs and tummy are another story though. I've given up doing a true strip in those areas and use a grooming tool called a coat king, which has a blade you draw through the hair that cuts the top layer out sort of like thinning shears.
Another thing I read said you should never or hardly ever bathe Cairns because it softens their hard coat. That's not going to happen with a dog who sleeps in my bed thank you very much! Though he definitely doesn't need bathed as often as many dogs, Tucker does get shampooed every two to three weeks. I just use a shampoo specially made to preserve the texture of harsh terrier coats.
Tucker says...
Today my Mom tried to pull all my hair out with a ROCK! She said that's what she was supposed to do. I can't believe somebody would tell her to do such torture to me! And my Dad said to quit being a whiner and hold still for it because my sisters who are show dogs (hi Ellie and Heidi!) have it done all the time. Well I don't care, I didn't like it! By the time she was done, there was hair everywhere. There was a pile of hair the size of another doggy! My hair is still longer than the girls' though. Mom got tired and sneezy and said we would do some more another time. THEN I had to have a bath. But I dried faster because of the hair pulling. You can see my eyes better now and I don't have such a thick ruff around my neck. Anyway, everybody write to my Mom and tell her that's not what was meant to be done at all and that what really needs done is "more treats and walks".
This is my sister, she doesn't look that much better than me, I think my Mom's putting me on about this whole pulling it out thing... 
Tucker says...
Do you like to play in the water? I love to! When I go on my walks, there is this fountain that I get to play in that is really exciting. The water comes up out of holes in the ground and I run and run and try to catch it. The bad thing about catching it is that the water can go up my nose real hard, so I mostly just chase the water and don't seriously try to catch it. At home I try and get my Dad to turn on the garden hose and let me play with the water as aften as possible. That is LOTS of fun. He sprays the water and I try to bite at it and chase the spray around the yard till I'm completely soaked and out of breath. When he stops I bark at him till he does some more! One thing though. I went to the beach a couple of weeks ago and that water I did NOT like. A big wave came and tried to knock me over and it made me scared so I only played in the sand by the edge of the water.Michelle says...
Tucker's love of playing with the garden hose was an accident. One day he was being obnoxious and barking about something so my husband gave him a squirt with the water spray hoping it would startle him into being quiet. Wouldn't you know it, Tucker thought that was great fun. Now he goes outside and sits next to the hose and moans to himself and looks at us hopefully till we give in and let him play in the spray. I've never seen him run so hard and so fast as when he is chasing the end of the water spray. Luckily his coat is the kind that doesn't hold dirt much and that dries fast. This is not the case with his little friend Sadie the Maltese! She and Tucker had a grand time playing in the water a couple of weekends ago... after which I had to give Sadie a bath... I couldn't return her home the way she was! And speaking of baths, wh
y is that Tucker loves to play in the water but does his best to leap out of the laundry tub when I'm bathing him? When he was tiny he was fascinated by the water running from the faucet and barely realized he was getting a bath. Now he struggles and looks pathetic and generally makes it more difficult than it needs to be...I guess it's that shampoo part of it.
Michelle says...
When he isn't being a total brat, Tucker really is adorable. That bed he's lounging in in this picture is an interesting story. We couldn't get him to go in it for anything for the longest time. We thought he just didn't like it and was mad that we'd taken away the one he'd had since he was little but had outgrown. Then for some reason it got moved to the area between our dining room and living room and he instantly flopped himself into it and acted like he'd been using it all his life. Apparently it was the bed's location not the bed itself that mattered. He does have a weird fleece addiction though. Every couple of days he will go up to his bed and attack it. He will dig at it with his paws till great clumps of fleece fuzz come out and he somersaults upside down into it. All the while the bed is scooting across the room. At times he digs so hard the bed flips over on top of him and he rolls around under it like it's another dog he's playing with.
Tucker says...
I am NOT a fleece addict. I could quit any time.
Tucker says... 
I love to chew. So many things are perfect to put my teeth on. I have learned those things that will get me into trouble bigtime for chewing though. Like shoes and books and furniture (including my doggie bed), and the contents of laundry baskets. Mostly I can resist temptation. Except the socks. If I can reach socks, they are fair game as far as I'm concerned. You snooze, you lose Mommy.
But that still leaves a whole world of chewing possibilities. Of the sanctioned items, my favorite would be my Booda Bimple cornstarch bones. Those are good chewing! In a week I can kill off the size meant for dogs that weigh 75 pounds. Rawhide is ok too. And I'm getting more into my Nylabone. I always get the tube from the toilet paper and the paper towels and those are pretty good, though I hate it when my Dad makes that "doo-to-doo" noise through the end of the tube at me. I bark really loud when he does that. And I definitely like Greenies, but they don't last long enough to really put into the category of good chewing, they are more like a good snack.
Then there are the not-so-sanctioned things that I like to chew. The aforementioned socks of course. And Keenex! I love to hold a tissue between my paws and rip pieces off and fling them. Very satisfactory somehow. Anything crinkly that falls on the floor is exciting. Sticks are good, and sometimes I get to chew those without being scolded, but they worry I'll swallow slivers. The apple trees are dropping lots of fruit on the ground right now and I tried them...eeew sour! But they are fun to carry around and chase like a ball.
Michelle says...
Cairns have teeth that surprise most people when they see them. They are big! Tucker is what is known as an "aggressive chewer". It is really something to see when he gets in a chewing trance. He sits with his Booda bone between his paws, ears flopped back, his eyes glazed over and chews for what seems like hours. Speaking of Kleenex, Tucker has made the connection between a human sneeze and Kleenex. I used to think he was just being sweet and concerned when he came running and looked up at me every time I sneezed. Now he's gotten bolder. He runs up and if he can, he GRABS the tissue off your nose! I'm just glad that he isn't a problem chewer as far as furniture and rugs and that sort of thing. I wasn't amused the day I had to chase him around the back yard trying to get a pair of panties he'd stolen from the laundry back though!
