Sweaters

Dog sweater to be exact.

It has already started.

The dog sweater dogs are already showing up and it is only November.

What is a 'dog sweater' dog?

It is those dogs whose owners think that their dogs are freezing, and keep a sweater on their dog 24/7.

Then a lot of them are surprised that their dog is matted and has to be shaved down in the middle of the winter.

I had a 'sweater dog' in the other day.

His Mom did realize that the dog was very matted...thankfully.

We had a long talk about how it was not necessary for her dog to wear a sweater in the house.

We also talked about how the friction and static of the sweater rubbing against the coat causes bad mats.

 In my opinion, this dog had more than enough coat on it that it did not need a sweater.

Especially in the house.

This coat is so fine and cottony that a sweater really reeks havoc on the hair.

I could tell that she had also been bathing the dog with those mats.

 So, what did I do?

I bathed it too.  :)

Only I was trying to get the mats to loosen up enough to get a #4F blade through the coat.

I really didn't want to take this little, thin, white coat any shorter than I had to.

 The shampoo and conditioner did not loosen the mating as much as I hoped that it would.

Hopefully the HV dryer will come through for me.

Well, it did loosen the mat a little, but not as much as I wanted.

Little did I know that this  friendly, cute face could get very upset, very quickly.

He had a nice airspace on the back of his head, between his ears to start getting  a blade through the mats.

He wanted nothing to do with having the clipper behind his head.

I had to find a spot lower, between the shoulder blades.

I also had to use a #5F blade.

At least bathing him before the clip is leaving the coat looking velvety.

Of course the mats on and behind the ears had to be clipped off with a #10 blade.

I tried to use a light touch and pick at the mat so that the ear would not look too skinned.

The mats on this dog were mainly on the body.

The lower part of the legs were not matted at all.

I was planing on trying to do a Lamb type clip, and leaving the legs a little longer than the body.

As I was clipping, I noticed how long the hair was on the legs, and it reminded me of a question someone asked me on my blog.

This person had asked me if I had any pictures of a Shih-Tzu with a 'Bellbottoms' cut.

I have seen that cut on one Shih-Tzu and a couple of Yorkies over the years, but have never done the clip myself.

So I tried it on this little guy.

How silly does that look?

It didn't really turn out the way that I wanted.

He needed more hair on the lower part of the legs.

It looked a little better from the front.

Only a little better.

This is the way that I sent him home.

Nope, I did not keep the 'Bellbottoms."

The 'Bellbottoms' that I saw on the two Yorkies looked really cute.

I wish that I could find that old picture, but that was 20 years ago.

The 'Bellbottoms' defiantly look nicer on dogs with long, straight hair, and a little thickness to the coat, so that you can bevel the bottoms of the feet.

Oh, and so much for having that long talk with the owner.

As soon as the owner saw the dog, she asked my husband if it was okay for the dog to wear it's sweater all of the time, now that the hair was so short.  :p

Happy Grooming, MFF