Grooming Pomeranians

I have been amazed at the number of hits that my blog about a Lion Cut on a Pomeranian has gotten.

Apparently a lot of people Google that particular cut for a Pomeranian.

Although I do think that that cut can be cute on the Pom, I do not recommend it to my customers.

Of course if it is the cut they want, they are the paying customer, and I will do the cut they want.

Before I agree to do the cut, I like to educate my customers about what the Lion cut or any kind of clipping could do to their dogs coat, if not right away, over time.

I tell my customers that the Pomeranian's double coat is not meant to be cut much less shaved.

 This is my girl 'Sparkle'.

This is a picture of her right after I got her in Dec. of 2001.

I have had customers bring in Pom puppies and ask to cut their hair because the coat looks so scrappy.

I will talk myself blue-in-the-face to get a customer to change their mind about clipping a Pom puppy.

This is 'Sparkle' 4 monthes later.

She was a skinny, scrawny looking little thing.

I explain to the customer that it takes time for a Pomeranian's coat to come in.

They will go through the 'puppie uglies' before they get their beautiful adult coat.

I also inform the owner that  their Pomeranian's true coat will not come in until the dog is a year to a year and a half old.

 This is 'Sparkle' with her adult coat.

I manage to talk about 95% of my customers out of clipping their Pomeranian's.

I have seen the damage it can do to a coat over the years.

I have also heard stories of Pomeranian's coats that never grow back after the first clip.

Over the years I have taken pictures of Pomeranian's and Pom mixes that I have groomed.

This little guy is a Pom Mix,  he is mostly Pomeranian, and has a Pom's coat.

This picture was taken in 2005.

This little guy had just started getting his coat scissored shorter.

This is what he looked like after his scissor cut.  The cut was an outline trim, where all of the feathering and flyaway hair was trimmed to give the dog a neat appearance without taking him too short.

Over time the owners asked for the scissoring to be a little tighter, but still not too short.

For a long time the coat did grow back between groomings.

Fast forward 4 years to 2009.

This is the same little guy from the pictures above.

This picture is after his bath and before he is scissored.

Because his coat type was not meant to be cut and regrow over and over again, the coat has slowly started  to not grow back anymore.

The coat has been damaged from scissoring.

He still gets scissored to make him look all nice and neat again, but as you can see now, the coat only grows back in some sections, causing him to look all chopped up.

Obviously this is not a Pomeranian. :)

I am using this picture because this dog had the same type of coat as a Pom before the owner started getting her clipped.

At first the coat grow back looking fairly normal.

After about five years of being shaved with a #5f blade a couple of times a year, the coat no longer grows back in fully.

After a couple more years, towards the end of the dogs life, the coat barely grow back at all.

The picture above and on the left were both taken after the bath and before any clipping was done.

This is the reason that I try so hard to talk customers out of clipping double coated breeds.

This customer was warned years before, when she first asked for her dog to be shaved, that this would happen.

By the time the hair stopped growing back, the owner had forgotten that I had warned her that this would happen and she wanted to know what I had done to her dog to cause this.

She was kind enough to admit that remembered me warning her when I reminded her of our conversation so many years before.

The owner of the dog above was physically unable to take care of her dogs thick double coat, and opted to have it clipped short.

As I said before it is ultimately up to the customer, and they are paying me to groom their dog the way they want it.

As groomers I feel it is our responsibility to educate our customers whenever possible.

It also helps to cover our own butts.

I don't want a customer to come back and accuse me of ruining their pets coat.

A lot of Pomeranian's come in looking like this guy.

Full and thick with undercoat.

The owner asks to have them clipped to help stop the shedding and take some of the thickness away because they think that their dog is hot.

I explain to the customer that removing the undercoat will reduce the thickness and shedding considerably.

Even after all of my explaining and talking some customers still insist on having their Pomeranian's or PomX's clipped or scissored.

Below are some different clips and scissor jobs I have done.

<--Before

This is a Pom Mix who wanted her clipped very short but not too short.

 After-->

 I used a 5/8F blade and scissored up to blend in the head and the tail.

This cut left her very short but not shaved to the skin.

The owners were very happy with this length.

This little guy had his whole outline scissored up tight to give him a nice neat appearance.

The feathering and all of the flyaway hair was scissored to match the length on the rest of the body.

This is a front view of the same scissor cut as the dog above, but on a different dog.

This Pomeranian also had his feathering trimmed, but it was only trimmed lightly to neaten him up.

The owner of this Pomeranian has two of them, and he likes both of them clipped very short.

When told that the coat may not grow back, he said, "good."

Both of his Pomeranian's get clipped with a #4F blade, scissor to blend the head and tail.

Then of course, there is my girl as she is now.

The only things that I trim on her are her feet and right around her rectum.

Can you tell by now that I love the natural look?

Why get a Pomeranian if your going to clip all of it's hair off?

Just one of those things in life I don't understand.

Last but not least, the Lion Clip.

The body was clipped with a #4F from the shoulders back.

Some groomers like to leave a sharp line between the main and the clipped body.

I choose to lightly blend the main and body.

I also lightly scissored the main to neaten it.

Sorry about the quality of some of the pictures.

Some are pretty old, when my first camera had low pixels.

Some are even pre-digital.

I hope that this blog helps some Pomeranian owners decide what clip is good for them and their dog.

Happy Grooming, MFF