Makeover Monday...Two Standards

I missed Makeover Monday last week, so I will be showing two dogs today.

Both just happen to be Standard Poodles.

This is my girl 'Lilly'.

I got her from one of my customers eight years ago.

She was the runt of 9 puppies that came in to have their faces and feet clipped before they went to their new homes.

I ended up keeping the runt....'Lily' :)

I continued to groom Lily's mother and grandmother for awhile before the owner took over grooming them herself.

Last week Lily's grandmother came in for a grooming.

I have not groomed her in over 3 years.

She is very sweet and has a lot of the same facial expressions that my girl has. :)

When her owner brought her in, I noticed that she had been giving her pom-poms.

I asked her if she would still like to have the pom-pom cut.

"Not pom-poms. I want bells."

She did not want the pom-poms to look round, she wanted them to look like bells.

So, here is what I did.

After shaving her feet and face, we put her in the tub and scrubbed her clean.

We used a mixture of  DoubleK's® Oat Mella and Dynamic Duo on the body, head, and ears.

We used Ring5® Mediseptic on the face, feet, tail, and belly. 

Her owner did not want her body too short, because of winter.

I clipped the body and legs with  the yellow clip comb attachment.

I clipped the leg as if I were going to scissor a regular pom-pom.

Then I combed all of the hair straight down.

Already looks  a little like a bell, doesn't it?

Next, I scissored only the bottom of the pom-pom, giving just a slight curve.

I scissored all  of the way around the bottom of the pom-pom.

Ta-DA!

A bell!

This is sooooo much easier than scissoring pom-poms!!!

So, there she is...one side done.

The tail is scissored as a bell also.

1~Brush and comb the hair straight down.

2~ Wrap your hand around the top of the tail and run your hand down to the end of the tail stub. Still holding the hair, start to twist the hair a couple of times, at the bottom of the tail.

3~While still holding the twisted hair, cut off the bottom 1/4 to 1/2 an inch of hair. **Make sure that you are clear of the tail stub and only cutting hair!

Let go of the tail, comb the hair down again and shape the very bottom if needed.

I don't know...kind of looks like a feather duster to me. :)

Doesn't she look younger? :)

On to the next Poodle.

This makeover is a new customer.

She waited a while for this appointment.

She is new to the area and has been looking for a new groomer.

This owner has been to two other groomers and was not happy with them.

 Isn't she pretty?

(I shaved her face before I remembered to take pictures.)

The owner brought pictures with her to show me exactly how she wanted her dog groomed.

There were four pictures, each with different things that she wanted.

Oh.....there was not a single mat in this dog. (happy dance!)

This owner wanted the dreaded Poodle angles.

I say 'dreaded', because I am terrible at scissoring those sharp angles.

I do okay if I have a really great Poodle coat to work with....but only okay.

Unfortunately, this little lady's coat is a lot like my white standards coat.

Thin, wispy, and soft.

The owner wanted the body short, but not too short.

The legs full.

The pom tail off.

The ears curved at the bottom.

A full topknot with a nice crown on the neck.

She was bathed with a mixture of  Ring5® Bright White shampoo and DoubleK® Oat Mella shampoo.

Ring5® Mediseptic was used on her face, feet and belly.

She was  95% dried  with the HV dryer, and fluffed with my hand dryer.

The way we dry our grooms was a major point with this owner.

She told me that everywhere she called told her that they kennel dry Standards. 

 Oh.....there was not a single mat in this dog! (happy dance!) 

The green lines are the dreaded angles that I was going for.

The orange lines are where I used my clipper.

The blue squiggly lines are where I didn't clip, and  left the hair long to hand scissor.

I am sorry I didn't get a better picture to show her angles.

I thought that I did, but when I loaded the pictures, I noticed that I didn't have any.

Alright, alright!.....I must have done it subconsciously.

The angles were there, they just were not great.

I was not happy.

I just could not get my angles to look sharp. :(

But....the owner was happy.

That is the most important thing. :)

This dog was an absolute sweetheart to work on!

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂