Something New

Well, at least it is something new to me.

I have read of groomers doing this on grooming boards before, but have yet to try it myself.

What?????

Oh sorry.

I did it again, you want to know what the heck I am talking about, right?

Blowing wet undercoat out of a dog, while you are still bathing it, that is what I am talking about.

I have read about other groomers using the HV dryer to blow wet, soapy undercoat out of a dog to help cut down on the amount of undercoat blowing around when you blow dry the dog.

Got that?

I am not sure that I understood that, and I am the one who just wrote it. :p

Okay, I'll just show you.....

I had this little lady in yesterday.

As you can see, she was loaded with undercoat.

Undercoat just waiting to fly all over the bathing room.

Her back legs and feathering were loaded with thick, tight undercoat.

I have had plenty of these kinds of packed undercoats to try this on before, but I always forget until it is too late.

Today, as soon as I saw her, I thought about trying out this technique of removing undercoat.

 So my son bathe her while I was finishing another dog.

Then he rubbed conditioner all through her coat.

 I put my pointy thingamajig back on the end of my dryer hose.

I'll be honest, I rarely ever use this thing.

I personally think that it scares most dogs to death.

I won't even use it on a small and medium size dog.

I spent about 10 minutes looking for the darn thing.

The reason that I used it on this particular dog is, because she is so large, and I know that she can handle the powerful air that the pointy tip generates.

Keep the tip of the hose at least 6 inches or more away form the skin.

 I went all over the dog, blowing as much wet undercoat out as I could get to blow out.

I am not trying to dry the coat.

It still has conditioner in it.

I got a pretty good amount out of her coat.

I was also able to get a good amount out of her rear and loosen the rest up.

It did make a mess in the tub.

 Wet undercoat all over the walls.

It was also all over my arms.

Soooo, which would I rather deal with....

Wet blowing hair or,....

dry blowing hair...

Well, to be honest, doing it this way you have to deal with both, because there is still more hair to come out while you are drying.

 So, for me, I think that I will stick with blowing all of the undercoat out while I am drying the dog.

I would still rather have all of that clean, dry undercoat blowing around me then the wet, undercoat sticking to my skin.

I would also rather deal with undercoat blowing all over the bathing room, then spending a half an hour to an hour brushing all of that undercoat out before the bath, and killing my wrists.

So I tried something different.

Who knows, I may try it again if another dog comes in with a ton of undercoat, and I don't feel like I am getting the dog clean enough.

I'll just blow some of that wet undercoat out and re-bathe the the dog.

So you never know.

Even when you are not crazy about a certain grooming technique, or like using one technique over another, you never know when that little used technique may come in handy sometime. 

So try something new, and see how you like it.

Okay, I am done.

I have so many run on sentences in this post that it would make an English Teacher cringe. :)

Happy Grooming, MFF