The Writing Groomer: 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.