More recent pics

These pictures have all been taken within the last couple of weeks; I just haven't had a chance to use them yet.

This first guy is a puppy I do; he just turned 9 months old. He is a Yorkie/Bichon mix, and his hair color and texture has changed several times already. He started off Yorkie-colored with rough hair, then it got lighter colored and fine and frizzy, and now it's turning tan and wiry. I can't wait to see what the end result turns out to be!

Here's another puppy, a Westie this time. She's 4 or 5 months old (I've done two Westie puppies recently; one was 4 months and one was 5 months, and I don't really remember which was which.). This was her first grooming, so we went with the standard minimal trimming we like to do on puppies: the face, feet, and potty areas.

This guy is a new client. I had done a quick-service face, feet, and nail trim on him a few weeks ago, but this time he got the full grooming. Mom loved that crazy beard/goatee thing, so I had to leave it. I wish his face wasn't so blurry; the rest of it was cute. He was also a really well-behaved dog.

This is a Standard Poodle request I've been doing since I started working at the other groom shop a year and a half ago. She's a really good dog, but I'm still not that great at her pom feet. I've definitely gotten better over the last year and a half, and the owners are happy with them, but I know someday I will get them to look even better.

These two Yorkie sisters were both really well-behaved. One of them was "involved in a shaving incident," which is code for "we tried to groom her ourselves and failed miserably." I've seen worse home jobs before. I can tell she had grown in some, but I still think what they did looked okay - there were just a lot of spots they missed, like her neck and knees. Anyway, I fixed her up and the owners were very happy. 

I think I've shown pictures of this Westie before. The owner likes her to look as close to a show dog as I can get. I don't do any hand stripping, so I have to accomplish that same look with a clipper cut. I feel like I'm really good at blending her skirt, which is why I took this side view. A note for any groomers reading this:  I hold my thinning shears vertically against the dog where the pattern meets the skirt and use my thinning shears to blend the entire pattern. It makes a BIG difference over just skimming with a blade (in my opinion).

Here't the front view. Even with hairspray, I can't get her head quite tall enough, but this is the biggest and roundest I've gotten it yet. I'm so much better at smaller, pet-sized Westie heads, but what can you do?

Here's a Poodle/Bichon mix that I do. I just love him to pieces; he has such a great personality! His hair sucks a little bit, but I've been doing just short enough of a cut and she brings him just frequently enough to avoid  a matted nightmare.

This was another new client, a Havanese I think. She was really sweet and had really good hair. I'm really happy with the way she came out, and so were her owners. 

And here are a couple pictures of the other Westie puppy I recently did. I had really vague instructions about the haircut, so I decided to trim the ears but not tip them yet and do just over 1/2" on her back - this was just enough of a haircut for her to look like a Westie, but I didn't take too much of her puppy-ness away. Her hair was SO fine that I couldn't get bows behind her ears, so I decided to scrounge up enough hair on top of her head for one bow.

Here's a side view so you can see how smooth her back is without being shaved as short as a usual Westie cut.

And here's a Schnauzer mix I did. I think this one got a light trim all over. As you can see, the owner didn't want the traditional Schnauzer head with a long beard and pointy eyebrows. I think they look a little strange without their signature face, but I admit that this guy's face turned out awfully cute.

Well, that's all the pictures I have today. I'll bring you more soon!

Grooming Tips on a Springer

I groomed this older Springer Spaniel a couple of weeks ago and realized that there were so many things I could talk about with just this one dog, so I took a lot of different pictures.

For starters, when a groomer tells you that you shouldn't shave your double-coated breed because their hair might not grown back, they aren't joking. I've also seen this happen with Cocker Spaniels and Springers, like the one below.

This is his before picture. He is washed and dry, but  I have not cut any of his hair. See how his back already looks shaved except for a few tufts of hair? The hair on his back isn't growing any more. I think he had a health issue, but I don't remember what it was. Either way, this is a great example of why we refuse to shave Labs, Goldens, and all other double-coated breeds where I work. It's not good for their coat and can, clearly, even mess up the coat of dogs it is normal to shave.

Here's a close-up of his back and the tufts of hair still growing there.

And here's a front view just because.

The feathers on his front legs had massive mats in them. He did not have any other mats, and it would have looked awful to have shaved the feathers off of his front legs entirely and left the rest of his feathers. Here is a close-up of the feathers on his front left leg.

This isn't the greatest picture, but here I was lifting up the hair that was not matted to show the giant mat underneath. All of the hair growing in strange directions is the mat.

I have a tiny pair of thinning shears that I have had since I first started grooming that I now only use for cutting mats out. Between the small, thin, flat side being able to get between mats and skin and the thinning part not having to cut so bluntly, I find them to be the perfect tool for this task. I don't have them sharpened because it seems safer to use a blunt tool for such delicate work. NOTE: I do not advocate this technique for new groomers! It can be extremely dangerous! I have been grooming for long enough now that I am comfortable with my skills and my tools, but the first time my boss cut mats out of a dog I was grooming as a new groomer, she told me to never ever ever do the same thing. I disagree with that statement, but I do think you should be an experienced, confident groomer before trying this.

Anyway, here is the mat I cut out of the leg. As you can see, it was nearly an inch wide and several inches long.

Here is a back view of that leg. Since I moved away all the hair that was not matted while I cut the mat out, there is enough hair left to cover the hole that was created.

Lifting up that hair, you can see the bald spot that does exist after removing that large mat.

Here are some after shots. I was able to trim that front leg to look nice without exposing the hole I had created by cutting the mat out. Nobody would ever know I took a huge chunk of hair out of that leg. 

I also dropped and blended the skirt line. It looks strange because the hair that still grows is darker than the hair on his back that is no longer growing, so it's hard to tell, but the pattern is where it should be. Maybe the pattern was out of place long enough that some of it still grows? I don't know.

And here he is smiling, looking happy to be done!

Was this blog post useful for any groomers who read this? I may do more posts like this in the future if people are interested in more grooming tips.

As always, thanks for reading and comments are always welcome!

Weekly Round-Up

Today I'm bringing you a bunch of dog pictures from the last couple of weeks. I know you all don't mind picture-heavy blog posts. :-)

This Golden is one of my regulars that followed me from my old location to the new location. She's been my request for over a year, and I barely trim anything except her feet and sometimes her front legs. During the holidays last year, she couldn't get an appointment with me, so she went to a different groomer - who cut off her butt and tail. It's just now growing back properly. Dogs with long feathers make me a little crazy because I like to trim feathers short, but she really is quite pretty if I say so myself.

This Shih Tzu was a new client whose owner wasn't very specific other than "Don't take his ears too short." I left just over half an inch, and she loved it! I think he turned out cute, and he was very well-behaved.

This is another of my requests who followed me. He's a very sweet poodle mix who gets nervous. I am happy to report, though, that he is far less nervous than he was when I first started grooming him - I suspect that's why his owners were more than happy to follow me. Anyway, here's his before. He always looks this shaggy when he comes in.

And here's his after picture. For the life of me I couldn't get him to look at the camera.

These next two dogs I did on Sunday or Monday back at the old place.

This first guy is a cute Maltese (mix?). He gets an extremely short haircut, as you can tell. You can't tell by the way he's sitting, but he was stepped on as a puppy (before his current owners got him) and his back right leg is messed up. He can still walk, but I think it bothers him to stand on it much, so I let him sit as much as I can.

And here's a Yorkie that's been going to that location since long before I started. He used to get a Westie cut, with a short back and longer skirt and legs, but his skirt was always matted, so the owner agreed to start going short all over. He can be obnoxious (mostly for the dryer) but he's still sweet.

Back to my new location, here's a Schnauzer mix. He was very sweet and very nervous.

OK, that's enough pictures for today, I'll have more soon.

Matted Wheaten

Another grooming blog I follow (Pet Grooming: The Good, The Bad, and The Furry) recently discussed grooming matted dogs. There are several different ways to go. If the dog isn't very matted, sometimes you can brush the mats out and do a longer haircut. If the dog is extremely matted, you have no choice but to shave the dog bald and start all over again.

Then there are the dogs in the middle. They're too matted to brush, but not necessarily matted enough to 10 strip (shave bald) the dog. Some groomers will shave the dog bald anyway, either because they don't know better or else don't care. But I don't like sending dogs home bald unless I really have to. Also, I have too soft of a heart to say no when a customer begs me to leave as much hair as I can.

So here are a whole bunch of pictures to show the process of grooming a fairly matted dog while still leaving some hair. Yes, it is more work to do all this than to shave the dog entirely, but I like happy customers, so here we go.

This Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier came in to be groomed today. It was a new client, so I'm not sure how long it had been since she was groomed, but I'd estimate 4-6 months.

The dog came up to greet me and I bent down to feel her. I instantly felt the mats in her chest and front legs. 

"Oh, she's matted," I said. "She's REALLY matted; I'm going to have to shave her."

"I was afraid you'd say that," he replied. "We used to be really good about brushing her every day, then we got busy. But it's really only her neck and chest, leave everything else as long as you can."

I told him I would see what I could do.

This is the before picture.

Here's the side view.

Some dogs that come in like this I will wash and blow out first. Since this was a new dog, and a Wheaten (Wheatens generally are not big fans of the velocity dryer), I decided I'd be better off shaving her before the bath. (Incidentally, this turned out to be a good decision. There's no way she would have let me blow out all that hair with throwing a...how do I say this...poopy tantrum.)

In this next picture, I wanted to show you how much of the dog was not matted at all. I got a 5/8" blade through some of her hair. So much for the matting only being on her neck and chest, huh?

I didn't bother with my 1/2" blade, I went straight down to my 3/8" blade. This is how much I got off with that.

OK, I had to use my 1/4" and 1/8" blade to finish the back legs and do the front legs. You can't see her tail, but I had to take it off with a 10 blade - it's a very short blade, 1/16", that we use on sensitive areas like the potty areas. Now for that awful mane...

This is definitely where the matting was the worst. You see that whole flap of hair hanging down, still attached to her skin? Yeah, hair isn't supposed to do that. When we tell you we have to shave your dog due to matting, this is why. (For more matted dog pictures, see here.)

Here's a different view of that hair flap.

I had to shave her ears, too, even though that isn't what the owner would have preferred. The only way I can demat ears that are in that bad of shape is to split the mats, but I can only do that if I can tell where the edges of the ear are. Her ears were so matted that I couldn't tell what was ear and what was matted hair. Anyway, here she is all shaved and ready for the bath.

Here is a picture of her after the bath. I haven't brushed her head at all. Can you see what an effect scrubbing all the grease and dirt and grime out of her had on her head? It looks better already. And yes, it's not the lighting, she was so dirty that she changed colors slightly after the bath.

Here's a slightly better view of her head.

Here are the pictures of the end result. I think she turned out pretty good if I say so myself. You couldn't really tell that some spots were much shorter than other because I blended it really well. She still has about 1/2" of hair on most of her body, so she isn't bald. And her face turned out pretty cute.

Here's a front view. Sorry if any of these pics are a little blurry, she wouldn't hold still.

See?

So there you have it. That somewhat describes the process of leaving as much hair as possible. It's a pain in the behind to change blades constantly from long to short and finagling blades under the mats, but I tend to think the finished product is worth it. To my fellow groomers: would you have done the same thing? I'm curious. 

Ungroomable?

I've been grooming dogs for about 8 1/2 years now. Sometimes it astounds me how far I've come.

For example, when I was first learning how to groom, my boss at the time (I found out later) honestly thought I was not going to make it as a groomer. I had too many breakdowns, got too flustered, let the customers get to me...

Now, I'm the groomer people can bring their naughty dogs to. The women who answer the phones have taken to recommending all the difficult dogs to me.

Saturday morning, I got one such dog. This dog had been turned away from both PetSmart and PetCo and was labeled "ungroomable." The girl who took the phone call assured the customer that I was really good with naughty dogs and I would almost certainly be able to groom the dog. I was warned by the girl who had made the appointment that this dog was difficult, so I was prepared when the woman came in with her terrified Japanese Chin.

The owner was already flustered, worried that he dog would never be able to be groomed. I listened to her about the bad past experiences, talked about what she wanted done, and then shooed her out the door so I could get started.

Now, for those of you who aren't groomers, let me clarify why I didn't want the owner to stick around. Many many many nervous dogs are picking up their owner's nervous energy, and having them around tends to make things worse. It also makes me more nervous, and I wind up worrying about the owner instead of the dog, and that will get somebody bitten very quickly.

So I sent her out - she refused to leave the property; she sat in her car and read a book, certain I would come out any minute telling her I couldn't groom the dog.

Anyway, I could tell immediately that this dog was not mean, he was just terrified, and fear biters can be the most vicious dogs of all.

So what did I do?

I sat on the floor for half an hour.

I'm SO glad to work in a place where we only do one dog at a time; it allows me to focus all of my energy on the dog at hand and not worry about all the dogs I have drying in kennels that need to be finished.

Why did I sit on the floor? What good would that do? You can't groom a dog on the floor (at least not very easily).

I needed the dog to trust me. If I tried to pick him up too quickly, he would freak out and be a whirling mass of teeth and terror for the entire groom. So I sat on the floor and only gave him about 2 feet of leash to start. That gave me enough room to stay away from his teeth during his initial freak out. Slowly, ever so slowly, I crept closer and closer. I let him smell my hand a few times, but he was still too skittish for me to touch, so we got up and walked over to grab a towel. He was perfectly happy to walk on the leash, so I was really optimistic.

I sat on the floor again and only gave him about 18". I started introducing the towel to him. If he was going to bite, I would rather he bite the towel than my hand. I eventually got so I could pet him with the towel and swing it near his head. Slowly, I was able to pet him. Once I could pet him a little, I picked him up and put him on the table.

He was still skittish, but I got through the entire groom (except the toenails) without a problem. He bit me when I tried to do his nails, but hey, nobody's perfect, right?

His mom came in before I was done and was in shock when the girls said I was still grooming him. The haircut wasn't perfect because I didn't want to push him too far, but the owner was SO thrilled that I got him done; I have a customer for life.

All that "ungroomable" dog needed was a groomer with experience, time, and patience.

I think he'll always be nervous, but once he gets to know me better, I think he'll be okay.

Oh, did I mention I never needed to muzzle this dog either? I maybe should have for the nails, but now I know. Not all difficult dogs need to be muzzled, restrained, or sedated.

Anyway, it just amazes me that I have grown from somebody who would cry from the smallest dog problems to somebody who can do "ungroomable" dogs. I guess practice does make perfect.

Although...dog grooming is not for everybody. Not all groomers will learn to have patience or work in a place where they have time to spend half an hour just sitting on the floor.

Sorry there aren't any pictures today, I didn't think this post would be so long from one story. More pics soon!