Mats, Mats, and More Mats

For the last few weeks we have had a record numbers of matted dogs walking through the door.

Even regular customer dogs are coming in matted when they have never been matted before.

This winter and all of the snow that we have been getting has caused many dogs to mat up more than usual.

We have had to clip dogs short that normally get fuller cuts.

Thankfully, (so far) the owners have been understanding about their dogs shorter cuts.

A few we have been able to demat and save the coat.

Her mats were not too bad.

Some Best Shot and Conditioner and she brushed out pretty easily.

I was able to hand scissor her to the length her owner wanted.

 I find that most matted Yorkies are fairly easy to demat.

Most of the time the mats really loosen up in the tub and with the HV dryer.

This guy normally gets a long hand scissor cut all over.

Unfortunately he missed his last two appointments.

 Thankfully his owner walked in telling me that I would have to shave him because of the mats.

I was able to get a #4F under the mats.

Forgot to take an after shot.  :(

This little guy was matted all over, but thankfully the legs were not too bad.

So, I clipped the body short and was able to quickly brush out the legs and scissor them.

This little one was also matted all over.

Again I wanted to try to save the legs so that he would not look like he was standing on toothpicks.

Only the bottom half of his legs were fairly mat free.

I was able to get a #4F under the matting.

I had to clip part of the way down each leg, but still managed to keep the lower half of the legs a little fuller so that his legs did not look like toothpicks.

It was the same for this puppies first cut.

She was such a good girl for her first groom.

This one....what can I say....the once a year shave.

Sadly, I could have dematted this dog.

I hate shaving double coated breeds.

Unfortunately, there is a language barrier with this owner.

Although I have a feeling that even if I was able to explain the damage shaving a double coat could do, this owner would still want the dog very short.

I owner was very happy with the cut, even though I was not.  :/

I have to admit.....he is adorable.

How about that smile?

 Next week I have a small Maltese scheduled.

The dog is most likely very matted because we have not seen her all winter, and she is usually a little matted when she come in regularly.

The elderly owner would like to keep her dog on the short side, but her children and grandchildren hate the dog short.

I told the owner that her children and grandchildren should brush the dog if they want her coat to stay long.

When scheduling the dog, the owner said that the dog was not matted and she did not want it cut short, but if we did find mats she only wanted us to bathe the dog and send it back home with mats.

We told her we would not do that.

Then she said that if we told her the dog was matted at drop off, she would just take the dog back home.

We told her that we could not give her an appointment if there was a chance that she was going to stiff us on it at the last second.

She decided that the dog needed grooming one way or another so she made an appointment.

I have a feeling the appointment will be blog worthy.

Happy grooming those winter matted messes.