Scissoring Feet & Legs

As I was cropping my pictures for this blog entry, I wanted to pick up some scissors and scissor some of the hair I saw sticking out here and there.

It is not the first time.

I think it would be a good idea for everyone to take pictures of their work and look them over to see what they could do better.

Or maybe not, it can be depressing.

I do that with my art also.

I never feel like I am finished.

I could always improve something.

I used to be like that with my grooms.

I had to teach myself to stop on some dogs, or I would have them on the table forever touching things up.

One day shortly after I first opened my shop, I was doing the finish work on a dog.

I was going over him and going over him.

My bather was leaning against the wall talking and watching me groom.

After a while I looked over at her and asked, "Does he look okay?"

She laughed and shook her head, "I thought he looked good about 10 minutes ago, you knit pick too much."

She was right, I was taking too long on my finishes.

It was hard to learn when to stop.

It still is on some dogs, even after all of these years.

I have written about using a routine when you groom to help with your time.

I also use a routine when I scissor my dogs feet and legs.

I start with the back leg first.

I clean out the pads.

Scissor around the feet.

Then work my way up the leg to the body.

I finish with scissoring the inside of the leg.

Finally, I comb the foot and leg hair up, down, back, and forward, scissoring anything I missed, then move on.

Below are a series of pictures as I scissor the first leg.

Clip the pads.

I scissor all around the bottom of the foot, on an angle away from the foot and leg so I don't cut too much off.

When I set the foot back down on the table, I comb the hair to see what needs to be cut to shape the foot into the leg.

Comb, comb, comb.

You can't comb enough in my book.

 

I scissor around the bottom of the leg to match the length I set with the feet.

 

Rear view of the leg.

Side view.

TIP: If you tend to expose the toe nails when you scissor the feet, or tend to take the feet too short, use this trick:

Clip the nails after you scissor the feet.

That way the nails stop you from cutting too much hair off.

After you have shaped the foot, then clip the nails.

The front leg.

The same routine.

I angle my scissors outward, away from the leg and foot. (the green arrow)

If you scissor straight up, you can take a chance of scissoring more hair off then you want to. (the red arrow)

I do tend to twist myself in many different directions to scissor at the angle I want.

After I put the foot back down on the table, I comb and then scissor to shape up the foot.

 Even though it may not look like it in this picture, I always hold the leg at an angle that is comfortable for the dog, then I twist myself in whatever direction that I need to to scissor.

The more comfortable I make it for the dog, the less he will move while I scissor.

As you can see in the pictures, I do tend to pick up, put down, and pick up the front leg quite a lot.

I comb, comb, comb.

After I think that I am finished the leg, I pick it up and give it a little shake to make sure there won't be any sticky outies.

I do this routine on the legs and feet even with dogs that I have clipped down short.

Yes, I still brush up on shaved legs and go over them with scissors.

I think it is a sickness.

I just like to scissor everything.  :)

This is a Yorkie-poo.

I scissored off about 1/2 an inch all over.

I also scissored his head in proportion with his body.

Oh, if you saw any sticky outies....just pretend you didn't....please. 

I saw them.

It drives me crazy, looking at the picture and I can't fix it.  :(

Happy Grooming, MFF