Scissoring a Yorkie

Yorkies come in so many different sizes and body shapes.

They also come in different coat types.

Some have very thick hair, some have thin silky type hair.

The thick coated Yorkies are pretty easy to clip or scissor and to get a nice finish on, the thin silky type coat can be harder to work with.

 This type of coat can be hard to get the desired length using a blade.

Most of the time the hair will just feed through the blade without taking much off, unless you use a short blade.

If you use a shorter blade to clip these dogs, it can come out looking very choppy and looking like you skinned the dog.

The owner of the dog above was having me just shorten the outline of her Yorkie for previous grooms.

The last time she was in she wanted some length taken off of the body, but not too much.

I decided that a 5/8th blade would give me the desired length, only the 5/8 blade just glided over the hair without cutting anything.

Then I tried the 3/4 blade to see if it would take anything off.

It only took a little off, but not as much as I wanted.

I moved on to the 4F blade.

 The 4F blade took off just the amount of hair I wanted to take off.

The 4F blade was taking off the length that the 5/8th blade would have taken off a thick coated Yorkie.

I only ran the blade down the back and sides.

I want the dog to have a hand scissored appearance.

With each clip start down the back and slowly turn the blade to go down the sides.

Clip with the growth of the hair.

I also clipped half way down the back leg.

I have left the legs, chest, and skirt to be blended in and hand scissored.

Next, I want to do the outline trim that the dog had been getting.

I comb the hair to the front of the leg and scissor.

Do the same for the back of the leg and rear.

Comb up the hair on the inside of the back legs and scissor to the desired length.

Comb the same way on the front legs and scissor.

You can also lift the front leg forward, comb the hair downward and scissor.

When scissoring this way, be very careful not to scissor too much hair off, exposing the cow lick on the back of the leg.

Once you set the leg back down, comb it out to see what more you need to scissor.

 Comb the hair up on the leg and let it fall naturally.

Neaten up any stray or uneven hairs.

The blade 4F blade took off just enough hair to neaten up the body leaving it looking natural at the same time.

The Groom:

Body: #4F blade, clipped with the growth of the hair.
Legs: Scissor to blend in with the body.
Head: Bangs with a bow, scissor beard in proportion with the rest of the body.
Ears: Neaten only

Happy Grooming, MFF