What Would You Do? Poodle Mix

What would I do?

Bang my head against a wall.

At least that is what I feel like doing sometimes after waiting on a customer.

I had a  customer like that yesterday.

We had two new customers scheduled to come in at 8 am.

When we pulled up to the shop at 7:45, one of the new customers was already waiting.

Before I got the key in the door the other new customer was pulling up.

So much for getting ready for the day before the customers got there.

The first new customer follows me in the door.

She was a very nice lady with the largest 4 month old Yorkie I think I have ever seen.

Nice dog, but wild doesn't even come close to describing that puppy.

I handed the first new customer a new client information sheet to fill out while I attempted to pick up her puppy.

At four months old that puppy was already pro at avoiding being picked up.

As I was attempting to pick the puppy up, the next new customer came in.

She brought herself and her dog right up into my space.

I had to place my body between her and her dog and the puppy.

I finally managed to get the super wiggly puppy into my arms as he showered me in pee.

"Oh, poor puppy," the second new customer cooed.

Poor puppy!

He looked pretty darn happy, wiggly, and wet to me.

As I took the puppy around the counter to wait for his owner to finish filling out her client information, the second new customer followed me up to the gate.

I could tell right away that she did not want to wait her turn.

So I reached for another new client form for her to fill out.

I slid the form over to her with a pen and said; "If you could fill this out for me I will be with you as soon as I finish waiting on this customer."

"I already filled one of those out when I was here last May," she told me in an irritated tone.

Last May, I thought.

We didn't have her in the computer.

We didn't have a paper file either. (yes we have both)

"I want the same girl who groomed him last year to do him again," she told me. "Is she still here?"

"My daughter and I are the only groomers here," I told her.

Good grief, she hasn't been to us in over a year, I have no record of her, and she is giving me attitude!?

I am still holding the wiggly, wet puppy, in my wet smock, who is killing me arm, because he is already a mutant Yorkie at 4 months old.

I said that already, didn't I?

I called my daughter out to the lobby to wait on the attitude lady.

I knew that she was not going to wait for her turn.

She went right into detailed instructions on how she wanted her dog groomed.

I was still waiting for the first new customer to finish filling out her information sheet.

Was it just me or was she taking forever to fill it out as my arm was turning to jello by the second?

Meanwhile, I was catching bits and pieces of what the  second new/old customer was telling my daughter.

"I want this cut out," she was saying, holding the side of his face, "but don't shave it."

"I want this part," she continued, holding the front of his face, "left full."

The Yorkie owner was finally finished filling out her client sheet and I spent the next few minutes talking to her about the cut she wanted on her puppy.

Jessica and I finished talking to each of the owners about the same time.

Jessica took the Poodle mix back to the grooming room.

His owner owner turned to me and asked when her dog would be finished.

I was pretty sure that my daughter had already told her.

"He will be ready about 11 o'clock," I told her.

"Okay, I am going to stay right here in the neighborhood," she told me.

I took the Yorkie back to the grooming room and tried to get some life back into my arm.

My daughter was waiting right by the door.

"Did you hear all of that," she asked me.

"I heard parts of it," I told her, "Why?"

"Do you see the dog?" she said, pointing to the Poodle mix in its kennel. 

"He hardly has any hair on him and she wants a Lamb cut like in the dog shows," she continued.

"There is no such cut in the show rin..... I started to say.

"I know!" Jess said in exasperation."That is what she said!"

"She said that she wanted the body short but not shaved, and the legs just a tad longer. She also wants a big, puffy topknot," she continued, "did you see his head? He hardly has any hair on it!"

"She was not a nice lady," she huffed.

"Did you hear the hard time she gave me about when I told her what time her dog would be done?"

I shook my head.

"I told her 11 o'clock and she got mad. She said; Why so long? Aren't you going to start him right away? You're not going to start him right away are you? She wasn't nice at all!" Jessica finished.

So...what would you do?

This is the Poodle mix.

As you can see...he didn't have much hair on him to begin with.

Lamb cut right?

Okay, I'll do my lamb cut.

 All cleaned and fluffed up.

Still not much hair.

The owner wants the body short but not shaved.

Okay....

I tried a 5/8HT blade first.

It didn't take off much, so I went to a 3/4 blade.

The owner wanted the sides of the face short but not shaved.

She also wanted under the eyes short and the mustache left full.

Well, I took a #5F to the sides of his face.

Then I took the #10 on the Moser and skimmed out under the eyes.

Then...........

 .......he jerked his head back!

My blade sliced right through that thin, fine hair like a hot knife through butter before I could jerk the clipper away.

From under his eye, almost to the tip of his nose.

This was not the look I was going for.

The owner wanted a full mustache.

Of all dogs, this had to happen with this dog...with his owner!

Ugh.

Oh well, what could I do?

I matched the other side and shaped the rest of the mustache and beard, leaving it as full as I could.

Next was that topknot.

The owner wanted it full and high on the head.

She also insisted, several times, that she wanted the line of the topknot cut over top of the ears.

A lot easier said than done.

His ears are set very high on his head and do not line up with the eyes.

So, in order to get as nice a topknot as I could, with very little hair to work with, I concentrated on mainly scissoring the sides of the topknot.

I wanted to bring in the sides of the topknot to give the illusion of more hair on the top of his head than he really had.

All I did to the very top of his head was, very lightly, shape it without taking much off.

And, carefully scissor over top of the ears.

I think that he looks like a Poodle.

Don't you?

His owner actually wanted him to look like a Poodle.

Really!

 Oh....

The owner wanted a Pom-pom on the tail.

The only problem was, he had a full tail, it wasn't docked.

So, I clipped a 2 inch band and rounded up the rest of the tail as best I could.

 Here is what I did:

Body: #3/4F blade
Legs: scissored to shape.
Ears: neaten
Face: clip cheeks out with #5F, skim under eyes     with #10 blade. Scissor round mustache.
Head: Scissor Topknot
Tail: 2" band, scissor rest of tail as round as possible.

Did the owner like it?

Yes.

Did she pick her dog up at 11am?

Nope....11:30.

Do I have a picture of the giant Yorkie puppy?

Nope....not unless you wanted to see a blur of black and tan. :)

Kudos to my daughter for even being able to give him a hair cut. :)

Happy Grooming, MFF

Hand Scissoring

I have been working on this post for a few days now.

I have to say....I am no expert on Hand Scissoring.

I mean, I am pretty good at making my hand scissored dogs look nice, but I am sure if one of the top scissor groomers looked at my videos they would either cringe, or laugh their butts off.

There is no rhyme or reason to my scissoring.

I am all over the place when I scissor.

I have watched competition groomers scissor, and am always in all at the way they only move their thumb when scissoring.

I am really good at doing the thumb exercise that I was taught in school.

Hold your hand still, with fingers together, then move your thumb back and fourth like you are scissoring without moving the rest of your fingers. (This will help strengthen your thumb for scissoring)

Do this exercise with your fingers closed, open, and bent like you were holding scissors.

Your goal is to only move your thumb while keeping the rest of your fingers still.

I am very good at doing this exercise.

The only problem is, when I am actually scissoring I still move my other fingers a little. :/

Maybe it is because I am left handed, but I scissor with my right hand. (couldn't find left handed scissors when I was in grooming school)

I have actually been doing that exercise with my left hand lately, because I am planning on buying a pair of scissors that I was shown at Hershey last year.

 They can be use both right handed and left handed.

I am planning on teaching myself to scissor with my left hand.

After all of these years. :p

I have always wondered if I would scissor faster using the hand I naturally use.

Okay, back to this post.

Last week I videoed myself scissoring two different coats.

This little one was the first dog I scissored for this post.

I picked this dog because of the difficulty with scissoring this type of coat.

The coat has a slight wave, but is mostly a drop coat.

This dog had some matting in the tuck up area and in the hips, so the hair was a little thinned out in those areas.

The owners wanted about 1/2 an inch off.

I always start scissoring with the back foot.

Don't ask my why.

I like to scissor the feet first and work my way up the leg.

I like to comb the hair up, even on drop coated breeds.

Then I start to scissor.

Then I comb again.

Comb, scissor, comb, scissor.....

 If you are not sure how much to scissor off at first, just take a little bit at a time.

Comb the hair up again and scissor more if needed.

You can always scissor more off, but you can't put the hair back on if you cut too much.

Always be prepared to freeze, encase the dog sidesteps towards you, so that you don't scissor a chunk of hair out.

I also use my comb to pluck the hair up on the back.

For hair that is too heavy, or silky to stand up, I use my comb to hold the hair up while I scissor.

I move up the back and sides of the dog.

For nice, smooth results you want to keep your scissors from bouncing up and down as you scissor.

You want to keep the scissors as steady as possible as you move over the coat.

To get the inside of  the legs, lift the leg that you are not scissoring to get to the inside of the leg you want to scissor.

Comb the hair up and scissor.

To check if my scissoring is even, I comb the hair up, down and pluck it up to see if it is even no matter how the hair lays.

I videoed myself scissoring this side of this dog.

I have posted the video to youtube.

Here is the link:

Hand Scissoring Part 1

I also did a video on scissoring this Poodle.

As with the Maltese, I start scissoring the back foot first.

Comb up the leg...

...then start scissoring.

My best advice for getting a nice scissor cut is that the coat must be clean, blow dried, and mat free.

You can not get a nice even cut on a dog that has been kennel dried, or that you can't get a comb through easily.

You will notice if you watch the videos, that I scissor in all directions.

I scissor in whatever direction gives me the results that I want, or is comfortable for the dog.

Here is the link for the video of me scissoring one side of this Poodle.

Hand Scissoring Part 2

Sorry that the videos are a little long.

Once I realized that describing, in words, how to scissor is difficult, I thought that the videos would be much better to show how I scissor.

Once again I'll warn you that I am no expert scissorerererer. ;)

But, I get the job done.

Maybe if you watch  the videos, they would help you to pick up some tips.

I was scissoring slowly so that everything I did could be seen.

Maybe a little too slowly, because I had to speed up the video in some places in order to show the whole one side being scissored.

I hope the videos help some groomers.

If you have any questions about what you see, just ask in the comments. :)

Happy Grooming, MFF

Getting Ready....

....for another creative grooming.

I know, I said last year that Hershey would be Hanna's last creative grooming competition.

I did mean it at the time, because she is getting older now.

Although you wouldn't know it when you take her for a walk and run. :)

Anyway, I was very disappointed that I ran out of time last year, and didn't get to do everything I had planed for her creative.

So, I may try one more time.

I say may, because if I mess up the pre-groom I won't have time to grow her hair out again before Hershey.

Hanna's hair grows slowly, and I have already started some of the pattern I want to do on her, so she is pretty shaggy right now.

I have been letting her head and neck grow out.

It is a  pain keeping the hair out of her eyes, because she loves to rub her head.

I'll put her hair up and about 15 minutes later she has rubbed the bands out.

So, after work on Saturday I bathed her and decided to try something different with the top of her head.

I know that I could band her hair, but I am afraid, with the way she rubs her head, she will break off her hair.

So I decided to try to french braid the hair on top of her head.

It's funny, I can french braid my own hair, but I have a terrible time braiding someone else.

I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out.

I started by parting her hair to make two braids.

I pulled one side up while I worked on the other side.

It isn't pretty, but I got it done.

It wasn't easy either. 

I kept losing track of which section I was supposed to be crossing over.

Hanna was so good.

Actually it's pretty messy looking. :/

At the same time, it turned out better than I thought it would.

 So I tried the other side.

It looked a lot nicer, but it was much looser than the other side.

I kind of like it.

I already know what she is thinking.

"Just wait till I get in the car where I can rub the heck out of my head. Hehehehe"

So, how long do you think it lasted?

I really wanted it to last for a while, because I go away in July for a week, and I need her hair to stay up while I am gone.

Who am I kidding?

That's not going to happen.

 The looser side lasted for about half an hour.

She wrecked it right before we got home.

The first side that I braided lasted about 23 hours before she managed to rub some hair loose from that braid too.

She looks quite pleased with herself doesn't she?

 

So tonight I banded it.

I used elastic bands that aren't supposed to break the hair.

I'll see how long that stays in.

Three more months of keeping up with this long hair, then I can give her a regular topknot again. :)

Happy Grooming, MFF