I always try...

...to save something on the face.

Why?

I feel like the face, tail and ears are a dogs personality.

It is just one of my many crazy beliefs.

I have known many other groomers that think I am crazy for saving anything on a matted dog.

Other groomers have told me that the owner didn't deserve for me to save anything.

Well, I will say right now, that I do not do it for the owner.

I do it for the dog.

I do it to leave them a little personality.

I do it so they will not look like a drowned rat.

I do it, so that hopefully, the owners will not laugh at their dog.

Today I took in a same day appointment.

I almost never do this, because it usually comes back to bite me in the butt.

Once again I did it for the dog.

I have groomed this dog a few times before.

The last time I had groomed her was July 2009.

That was the last time she was groomed!

This is 'Dixie'.

She is 3 years old.

I have been grooming her since she was a puppy.

I have groomed her three times.

Unfortunately, the owners wait until 'Dixie' gets overgrown and matted to bring her in and get shaved down to start all over again.

'Dixie's' owner called today saying that 'Dixie' was very matted and infested with fleas, and could we groom her today or tomorrow.

I had had two late cancellations, so I decided to take her.

The ONLY reason I decided to take her was for 'Dixie'.

I did not want her to go another day with mats and fleas.

This was her face when she came in.

Her owners have been bathing her, and once again, her mats are very tight.

This is a picture of the fleas and blood from the flea dirt all around her face.

I gave her three different baths.

She soaked for five minutes each time to suffocate the fleas.

I always try to use the longest blade possible on white dogs.

I was able to clip her down in a #5F blade.

I saved the face to groom last.

The first thing is to scissor out the small food mats that would not wash out in the bath.

I use the very tip of my scissors to cut off just the tiny food mats.

Then I have a mild heart attack, and move on.

After the food mats were removed, I scissor out any hanging, clump mats under the chin.

I carefully move the unmatted hair out of the way so that I can save as much good hair as possible.

Then I lifted the good, unmatted hair from the cheeks and clipped out the large chunk mats on the jaw line.

Then I clip out the corner of the eyes...

And scissor above the eyes.

I also go a head and shape up the face before I demat it.

I do this so that I don't spend time dematting hair that I am just going to cut off anyway.

I then use my trusty mat splitter to split up the large mat on the side of 'Dixie's' mouth.

Now that the large mat is a lot of tiny mats, I can easily, and gently brush them out.

I then did the same with the other side.

Almost done.

Now, that is a cute face.

So much better then a rat face.

As I took this picture, I saw something that I needed to fix.

Can you see what it is?

EARS!

They drive me crazy!

I always have to go back and fix something.

I know she feels better, even though she does not look happy.

'Dixie' is such a sad looking little dog.

Her owners do seem to care about her, I just can't seem to get them to groom her more often.

They say that she stays nice for a long time, and they will bring her in when they need to start over again.

Some owners just drive me insane.

I hate when I see a dog that just gives off the vibe of being unhappy.

'Dixie' is ready for a nap now.

I know she feels better now.

I am glad I took her as a same day appointment.

I did it for 'Dixie'.

This is why I groom.

Happy Grooming, MFF