Monday Makeover #18.....Matted Cockapoo

I have to admit, that when I checked this guy out before his owner left, I was pretty sure that he was mostly curls and very little matting.

I put him straight in the tub, and soaped him up with Best Shot Shampoo and Best Shot Conditioner.

I was hoping that the small mats that I did feel would be blown out by the HV dryer.

I knew by the time I was rubbing this dog dry with a towel that I had made a mistake.

The HV did blow out just about all of the small knots in his legs, but he had some tight spider matting all around his neck, chest, and belly, the rest of his body was in good shape.

This was only his second grooming with me.

The first grooming was basically a bath and scissor all over to shape up, because he had been growing out from a shave down at another shop.

His owner wanted him scissored again.

 The spider matting around the neck, chest, and belly were way too tight to brush out, so a call to the owner was in order.

We let the owner know that we had to take the dog shorter than she wanted to get under the mats.....she gave the okay.

Even though the dog was partially matted, I did not want to clip the entire dog short.

I had to clip the neck, chest, and belly with a #5F blade.

 I used a 3 3/4 blade on the back, sides, and tail.

I ran a yellow clip comb, with the grain, over the legs.

Then I scissored up the legs, and......

....blended the legs into the 3 3/4 length on the body.

I clipped the pads of the feet with a #40 blade.

I like to leave just a little bit of hair between the toes as a little protection for the webbing between the toes.

I used my scissors to blend the #5F blade length on the neck into the 3 3/4 length on the back.

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂