Monday, December 10, 2012

Before and After Pics 12/10/12

Sorry for the long delays in between blog posts recently; life has been pretty crazy. I have 4 more blog posts laid out after this one, though, and they only need words, so I plan on posting twice a week again for the foreseeable future.

I did this Poodle a couple of days ago. His owner can't afford to bring her dogs in very frequently anymore, so she, uh, does what she can in between grooms. Here's his before picture. I had been using that cow toy to try to get his attention, but it wasn't working, so I just set it on the table to get whatever pictures I could of this guy.


Here he is after the bath and blow dry. Now you can REALLY tell how awkwardly short his legs are compared to his body. I only wish I could have gotten a better view of his head, it was especially interesting.


His dew claws were curled all the way around and poking into his leg. I HATE seeing this. Most groom shops offer nail trimming as a walk-in service. For the price of one or two cups of coffee, you can prevent this from happening to your dog.


His owner likes him really short since she gets him groomed so infrequently. It made it easy to even out his haircut since he got such a short cut.


Here's a Collie. My secret confession is that I love doing dogs with this type of thick double coat, such as Collies, Shelties, and Chows. Here he is before the bath. She had managed to brush the top of him pretty well, but his entire belly was just PACKED with undercoat. You can see how dull his coat looks because of dirt and undercoat.


Here he is after the bath and blow dry but before any brushing. All that undercoat on the floor came out of him with the velocity dryer. 


And here is the final product, all nice and shiny and without all that undercoat. Incidentally, it's funny how many people say, "Gee, I should have weighed him before and after to see how much weight he lost." They're mostly joking, but there is enough seriousness in their voices that I want to say here that undercoat does not weigh that much. It takes up a lot of space and makes your dog look fat, but that entire massive pile of hair probably didn't even weigh one pound. It's just hair, people.


I've probably posted before and after pictures of this Bichon before, but they're so dramatic I thought I'd post them again. Even I can't believe the transformation that takes place. Here she is dirty and curly.


And here's the final product. I still can't blend her ears into her head as well as I would like, but otherwise I am pretty pleased with how good she turns out. Five years ago I never would have been able to make her look this good.


And here's a Shih Tzu puppy. They had obviously been chopping on her face, but they still wanted to keep her long. Hmmm...


I decided to bring her chin up about an inch to help blend it a little. With her body so long, I wouldn't have taken her chin that short ordinarily, but I felt the strong urge to blend it at least a little.


I trimmed the hair over her eyes but left enough on top of her head for a topknot and a bow. I think she turned out cute.


That's it for today. Keep an eye out for more blog posts coming soon!