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