I've a Cairn Terrier and I've never had a problem with his hair matting tight to the skin. A big advantage of that wirey Terrier coat. So I use just a regular pair of scissors and just make sure my finger is between the mat and the scissors. That way, if anything gets nicked with the scissors, it's me not him.

I prefer doing this vs trying to brush or rake out any lil' mats he gets, because his skin is a lil' sensitive to any kind of tugging.

Par...