Recent Before & After Pics

I'm so sorry I haven't posted anything for so long. Work has been slow and life has been busy, which isn't a great combination for taking pictures and writing blog posts. But this blog post is well worth the wait, I promise!

I've been trying to get better about taking before and after pictures of all my dogs, or at least the ones that will look dramatically different. Sometimes I get too busy, and sometimes I forget, but I have amassed a nice selection of before and after pics from the last week or so for your viewing pleasure.

I did this Schnauzer a week ago. He came in with quite an...interesting pattern. Here's his before picture.

Do you see how poofy and uneven it is? Probably, but just in case, I traced it for you in this next picture. Needless to say, the pattern should not look like that.

Here's his after picture. I couldn't get his back leg quite as blended as I would have liked, but it is much better than it was to start with as far as placement and blending, so I'll take it. I think the strange owner was happy about it, too.

For my non-groomer readers, I traced the outline of his skirt again. This is what the pattern should look like on Schnauzers and most terriers.

I did this Bichon a few days ago. It was a new client, and when the dog walked in with that giant head, I cringed. I hate doing giant Bichon heads. Much to my surprise, the owner said she doesn't like his head like that, is there something else I could do that was shorter?

Yes, I can do shorter. I was afraid to take his ears too short, so they look a little disproportionate to his head, but oh well. Anyway, she loved his new, smaller head. Man, I groomed the dog and took the pictures, and I still can't believe that is the same dog. What a difference a good brushing and haircut can make!

This next dog is a Black Russian Terrier. To this day, he and his sister are the only ones I have ever seen (in person). I used to groom this dog every time he came in, but when my schedule changed, they started seeing somebody else. I got to do him again the other day, and I was shocked when I saw him with this haircut.

He's supposed to have a skirt. The pattern on his legs is wrong for the terrier cut, and it's also wrong for a lamb cut. It's also poofy and not blended at all. Since he's black, it's pretty hard to see the pattern lines, so I highlighted them for you.

Here's a close-up of his hip. You see that poofy hair on his butt? That isn't supposed to be there.

Here's the outline of the pattern on his hip. What is that? It's not from any pattern I've ever seen.

This gave me an idea. I decided to show you all on one picture how a lamb cut and a terrier cut would look compared to how he actually looked. Those drawn-in lines aren't perfect, but they're close enough for you to get the picture. No pun intended. 

Now here's his after picture. It's going to take some time for his skirt to grow in a little, and his legs aren't much longer than his body, so it isn't even obvious that he has a pattern cut - which is really how it should be. No pattern should be blatantly obvious on any dog or breed.

So to give you an idea, I drew it in again. See the difference between the before and after? Crazy, right? I'm really not trying to knock inexperienced groomers here. I was inexperienced once, too, and I'm sure I sent dogs out looking as bad as the dogs that I now have to fix. It's just the circle of life as a dog groomer, I suppose. 

Here's the best shot I could get of his face and fall. Between him being black and not wanting to look at me, it was impossible to get anything better than this. Frankly, this picture turned out better than I expected.

Next for a Doodle I did yesterday. I neither remember nor care whether it was a Goldendoodle or Labradoodle. They're all the same to me. I REALLY wish I had taken his picture before I washed him. He was so filthy that I had to scrub him three times. Just to look at him, he looked matted, and the owner was terrified I was going to have to shave him, but I could tell that his hair was stuck together with dirt and not mats. Anyway, here he is clean and fluffy, just shaggy.

And here he is all finished. I took about half the length off of his body, but as you can see, he is still plenty fluffy. His head shaped up really nicely if I say so myself.

Lastly, here's a sweet Cockapoo I did yesterday morning. She was sweet, but MAN was she wiggly!!! Of course the owner just wanted a light trim all over. I thought my longest snap-on comb might take her too short, and I wanted to practice my scissoring skills, so I decided to hand scissor the entire dog. Yep, you read that right, without using a guard comb to set the length first, I hand-scissored the entire dog, head to tail. I'm pretty sure this is the very first time I've tried that (except maybe the odd Pomeranian). It was an interesting experiment. Anyway, here's her before. It clearly hadn't been too long since the last time she was groomed.

She doesn't look very scruffy at all.

Here's a close-up of all the frizziness that the owner wanted me to take off. It's not much in the way of length, but it would make a big difference in terms of her having a tidier look about her.

Here are her after pictures. As you can see, there's not much difference in length, she just looks much neater. I couldn't get her head to look right because she was SO wiggly, but all things considered, I'm pretty pleased with the way her cut turned out. I will definitely be willing to try hand-scissoring again when the opportunity comes up again (but hopefully on a dog that will hold still!).

Here you can tell that all the frizzies are gone and she looks much smoother.

And one more for good measure.

So, there you have it. Plenty of before and after pictures and a little bit of explanation of dog grooming patterns. I hope you enjoyed this, and I will try not to wait so long between posts.