I get a lot of questions about the difference between an adult coat and the puppy coat. Below we explain in photos.  You can see that the puppy coat is soft, fluffy and can be full of mats.  The adult coat is harsher with less undercoat coming off...it also doesn't stick together like the puppy coat does.  This is why grooming out that puppy coat is so very important. That dense, soft and prone to matt layer in puppies will prevent your harsher wire coat from coming in, as it blocks the hair shaft from new growth.  With the correct tools, some patience and regular grooming your dog will have the opportunity to have a more healthy wire coat that is less maintenance for you.
Remember, every Griff is different and some will have more coat than others. Regular grooming is helpful to check your dog for burrs, cuts and ewwww ticks!

 You bought a Wire-Haired Dog.  What does this mean anyway?

The Griffon coat is a double coat. This means it has 2 hair types. The longer coarser hair with a wiry texture and a softer more downy undercoat that is felt underneath the longer wire hairs and is more abundant on the ears/head.
The wire coat and the long course hair can look a bit unruly with the beard and brows, giving your griffon that lovable scruffy look.
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Understanding the coat is important, this will help to make grooming your Griffon easier to understand.
​Dogs with this type of coat are able to tolerate a wide range of weather conditions, the coat protects them from both the heat, the cold and debris in the field like burrs.  This is why you NEVER EVER SHAVE A GRIFFON. It will ruin the coat.
The hallmark of this breed is its double coat.
In Canada, lack of undercoat is a disqualification in this breed. There is no such thing as a slick coated griffon, only one that is poorly bred with a bad coat. (I may be unpopular with some for speaking this truth.)

The Griffon goes through a series of coat changes as it matures/hormonal cycles etc. The puppy coats of a Griffon are much softer, and generally need to be "Stripped out" at around 5-7 months of age to allow the coarser adult coat to come in.
Before we get into what hand stripping is and is not, it's important to understand how the wire coat grows.

The canine hair follicle supports more than 1 single hair. The follicle can contain 1 or two primary hairs and just a few to up to 22 secondary hairs that make up the undercoat.  The undercoat has a soft, downy appearance and works in conjunction with the guard hairs to protect the skin from superficial injuries, cold & wet weather and bug bites.  The new hair that comes up pushes up next to the old hair, the old hair is either shed or stripped out. To create a healthy coat, the older hair must be removed to allow the growth of new healthy hair.
With puppies especially, stripping & carding are necessary as the softer undercoat grows more profusely than the harsher top coat and can block the wire hair from coming in. Excess puppy coat during this age of hair transition is what often frustrates owners with matts, snarls & debris in the coat. 
Groom that puppy coat correctly and the harsher adult coat is a lot less maintenance.
It is true that Griffons have some variation in the coat, some with need more regular grooming than others, largely dependent upon the rate of growth, the harshness of outercoat and the amount of undercoat.  It is very possible to improve a griffon coat through correct hand stripping/grooming.

If you end up having someone shave your griffon, the old hair along with the natural oils and debris can block the hair follicle causing clogged follicles and sores along with a soft coat that is difficult to strip and does not grow properly, it also removes the hair pigment giving that faded look. NEVER SHAVE YOUR GRIFF.

The art of hand stripping is simply removing the hair by pulling it from the follicle. By pulling the hair the body provides a rapid response of growth with a harsher healthier hair.

Resources:

• Notes From The Grooming Table

Volume one. Second ed By Melissa Verplank, CMG

• The Art of Handstripping by Scott Wasserman 2020
• Pet Massage-The Dogs Undercoat. By Nicole Mara July 2016

Reprinted with Permission from the author:  Amy Caswell-O'Clair

​Grooming Out The Puppy Coat.
 
 
There are many different opinions on how much work should be done on the Griffon coat some say to strip out the coat and others feel it should fall out naturally. I will discuss stripping out the puppy coat in this article.  Since there is such a variance in coats some puppies will need less grooming that have shorter tighter coats and the time frame on grooming / stripping may be months later, coats with softer heavier coats will need more grooming more often and sooner. 
 
It seems that the average griff puppy coat starts to grow in abundance and mat around 4 months old. The adult coat starts to come in and the puppy coat needs to come out.  I try to stress to all of my puppy buyers the necessity to comb their pups weekly from the time they pick them up until around 3.5-4 months old, at this time when they get an abundance of hair.  I suggest they comb them daily or every other day paying special attention to the beard, which gets wet and gathers a lot of debris and can quickly become a matted mess within a few days.
 
The basic tools I use are a face and finishing comb  (a flea comb could work as well) a regular medium/coarse steel comb, a mars rake (12 teeth) , a MiKki/McClellan/ Madan “stripping knife” ( coarse) and a pumice stone, oh and really important a mat buster!
 
What I like to do with the coat is comb weekly at 8 weeks with the regular comb and then use the finishing comb to get out any other lose hairs. Paying special attention to the beard, front legs and underside where the hair starts to mat first.  You may need a helper to help hold the pup and to do the belly I usually sit on floor & put the between my legs on their backs, if they start to fight I just rub their bellies until the calm down and with in a minute you will have a calm relaxed puppy.
 
Around 12 weeks the hair starts growing more and at this time I personally like to start taking out some of the puppy coat, I comb the eyebrows, top of head and ears with the stripping knife to thin it out some and keep it a reasonable length (I don’t like mop heads)   At this time I also start combing them every other day.
 
A pup with a softer coat you may want to start stripping out around 3 months, and a dog with a better harsher tighter coat may need to be done around 8-12 months  and just  once or twice a year after that to take out the dead coat.
 
To strip:
 
Comb hair out with regular comb
 
Take the mars rake and start at top of neck and go down the body in short strokes, I start from top of neck straight down back, then do under beard to the middle point in chest, then I start going down the sides, from top side of neck down along the body.  I use the rake until no more hair comes out easily.   Depending if you want to show your pup or not will depend how much you take out of the chest and legs, if you do not plan to show you can use the rake until no more comes out on chest and legs and belly, if you want to show just take a couple passes on the chest and legs and belly to remove the excess dead hairs.
 
The next step is the stripping knife, I make the same pattern starting at the top of neck and going down back then along the side of the body. I again do this until no more hairs come out. 
 
I also like to comb the eyebrows, top of head and ears with the stripping knife and under the ear and cheeks I use the mars rake first then the stripping knife to thin this out. 
 
If your puppy still has a lot of very fine hairs sticking out it would be good to use a pumice stone, just use it like a brush and in the same directions as before to take any fine hairs out, they will collect on the pumice stone and you will need to pick them off of the stone as you go.
 
Grooming like this will not make your puppy bald (unless maybe he has an open coat) , I like to do this once a week for several weeks until the harsher adult coat comes in and then about once a month after that.