Makeover Monday....Australian Shepard

Isn't he gorgeous?

He looks pretty happy in this picture, doesn't he?

Don't be fooled....he is a scared, nervous wreck.

A very sweet nervous wreck.

Most likely because he only comes in once a year for a good bath and shape up.

His owner wants everything short and tight, but not shaved.

He was bathed in a mixture of Oatmella by DoubleK® and The Stuff®.

His owners keep him nicely brushed out, so there was not any undercoat to get out.

Because this dog was so nervous about every sound, and I had a very good feeling that the HV dryer was not going to be something he would like, I packed his ears with cotton before starting to dry him.

 I also decided to use the Happy Hoodie®, to reduce the sound of the dryer even more.

When putting on the Happy Hoodie®, take it over the head all of the way back to the neck, then pick up the back end of the Hoodie and pull it back up, snug over the ears.

This way it is not pulling the hair and skin on the top of dogs head.

 I also used the flat blower attachment on my new HV dryer to get a lot if the water off of the coat.

I like this attachment for removing excess water a lot more than the pointy blower tip.

 

I held this flat blower about three to four inches from the coat, blowing the water off with the lay of the coat.

It took less than 5 minutes to blow all of the excess water off of this dog.

I took the flat blower tip off and continued to HV the dog the way I normally do, with the wide round end of the hose right up against the skin.

All dry and ready to scissor.

The owner wants all of the feathering and wild hair tight and neat.

Before doing any scissoring make sure that the  coat is completely brushed and combed out.

Take a comb through the coat making sure that the teeth are going all of the way down to the skin.

When scissoring the rear feathering, I like to round of the rear to keep a natural look.

I don't like to scissor  the rear straight down.

The curve gives a nice soft look.

 If the rear feathering is extremely thick and bushy you can use thinning shears to go up and under the feathering, take a couple of cuts and then comb out some of the thickness.

Or, you can use the Coat King to thin out the rear feathering before you scissor.

 Scissor to match up each side.

 Even though it has been a year, you can still see the cut line from the last grooming.

I cut the hair on the sides up to the under belly.

Then I lightly scissor and blend any fly away hair on the sides to give a soft look.

 This can be done with scissors, thinners, or chunkers.

I have really got to get me a pair of chunkers.

I would have loved to use them on this dog.

The tuck-up is scissored and blended into the back leg.

 I also scissor up all stray wispy hair on the back and the rest of the body.

Be careful not to scissor to deep into the coat.

I like to leave the gorgeous waves that this dog has in his coat.

I am just cleaning them up and making them look neat.

I do the same with the chest.

I like to tease the hair out so that I can see where the meat of the coat is so that I will not cut into it.

 I scissored the chest and around the neck nice and tight, but still leave the waves behind.

Even though I am using scissors to do all of my trimming I am very careful not to leave any scissor lines behind.

I also like to keep a curved look in the chest.

Some owners like to keep all of the long wispy hair around the ears, so be sure to check with the owner before you scissor this hair away.

This owner did want the ears scissored up.

I wanted the ear to look natural.

Here again you could use thinning shears or chunkers.

I used my scissors and still kept the soft look.

I brushed up the hair between the toes and scissored the feet.

I brushed up the hair on the hocks and scissored it tight.

I scissor to blend into the shorter hair on the sides of the leg.

He liked watching out of the window for his owner.

Now he looks short without being shaved.

This grooming is not a drastic change on this dog, but it makes him look nice and neat.

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂