The Three Things That Drive Me Crazy

There are three things that drive me crazy when I groom.

They don't happen with every dog, or even everyday.

Well....may be one of  them happens at least once a day.

Now let me say, before I tell you what the three things are, I have spent a major amount of time trying to find ways of grooming so that these things that drive me crazy will stop driving me crazy.

I am also going to bet that a lot of other groomers out there have the same things happen to them.

Okay, here is the first thing....

Feet.

Pads to be exact.

I brush the hair down.

I brush the hair up.

I get all of the hair out from between the toes and ready to clip.

Then I clip between the pads.

With a #30 blade.

I skim all around the edges of the foot.

Then I use my fingers to pull up any of those stubborn long hairs between the toes.

**Be careful how much hair you pull up from between the middle toes.

If you pull too much and clip it off, it may effect how the top of the foot turns out.

Then I clip off the piece of hair that I pulled up.

Nice clean pads.

All ready to scissor the rest of the foot.

That is exactly what I do.

I scissor the feet and finish the rest of the groom.

Then, after I am all done grooming the dog, I go back and check the feet.

Most times everything looks good.

But sometimes........

Sometimes I find some more hair in the pads.

Or, sometimes I fine one single loooong tag of hair that I somehow missed.

 How I missed these hairs...I don't know.

I brushed.

I combed.

I pulled up hair with my fingers.

The feet looked good to me.

So once again I pick up the clipper and get those last few hairs.

The really sad thing is that sometimes even after double checking, I will be getting a dog out to take it up to its owner, look down, and there...there is another tag of hair.

It's enough to drive you crazy!!!

That was one.

This is the next thing that drives me crazy.

 Trimming heads.

Specifically over the eyes.

This little guy looks okay, right?

Wrong.

Look now, when I drop his head as if he were looking down.

See it?

I drives me crazy.

When I scissored those bangs, I scissored them nice and straight across.

Then I finished trimming the face.

Then the dog looked down.

Then I swear that that hair grow back that fast!

It had to have, right?

It was straight a minute ago...it was....I swear it was!!

So I scissor it again.

How much do you want to make a bet that I may have to scissor it again right before the dog goes home?

Thankfully this does not happen very often to me anymore.

I must be doing something right now.

Actually, I drop every dogs head (as though they were looking down) and scissor their bangs.

That little trick seems to work most of the time.

Now, I have to say that this third thing drives me crazy the most.

Every time I think that I have figured out a new way to stop it...it happens again.

I know that this happens to every groomer. 

Can you see it?

I know that you can see it.

It drives me insane!!!

 At least once a day!

Once a day I have that stupid little piece of ear hair that hangs down after I think that I have trimmed the ears evenly.

Sometimes it doesn't even show up when the dog is still on the table.

I walk by a kennel and look at the dog, AND THERE IT IS!

A long piece of hair hanging off the end of the ear(s).

I have tried several different tricks to stop this from happening.

On some dogs those tricks work great, but there almost always seems to be one....one dog....a day....that will have that darn long piece of hair hanging off the ear. 

One, two, three, four....calming breath,

 five, six, seven, eight....calming breath, nine tennnnnn.

Okay, rant over.

I am okay.

I just needed to get that off of my chest. :)

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂