Two Posts....

......Rolled into one.

A Monday Makeover and a Tuesdays Tip.

Okay, I am going to keep my fingers crossed while writing this post.

So far, so good.

This post is a Monday makeover post with a tip mixed in.

 This little one was a little over due for a grooming.

Time for a makeover. :)

I actually like grooming these overgrown dogs.

Don't get me wrong, I don't like seeing them overgrown, but I do love making them feel better.

And I knew she was going to feel good when I was done.

What was I going to do with this face?

I warned the owner, at drop off, that I would do what I could but the dog was pretty matted.

I also made sure to warn the owner that the ear hair may have to be shaved off.

Let me stop a second to give some advice.

Be careful how you inform customers about how you are going to groom their dog. (what terms you use)

I once told a customer that her dogs ears were so matted that I was going to have to cut them off.

Now as groomers, you and I know exactly what I meant by that statement.

I would have to shave all of the matted hair off the ears.

What the pet owner heard..."Your dogs ears are matted and I am going to have to cut the ears off your dogs head."

I knew the second I saw the terror cross the owners face that I had to correct my statement.

I quickly reassured the owner of that other dog that I was not going to 'cut the ears off' and explained that 'the hair' would have to shaved 'off' of the ear.

Remember, pet owners don't always understand 'groomers speak'.

Okay, back to this little one.

Oh.....here is the Tuesday Tip.

It is a little hard to see in this picture, but this little one has a lot of crazy whiskers that shoot out in all different directions and into her eyes. (she had a lot of eye crust all around her eyes)

Sometimes with dogs with long hair on their faces, it is hard to cut the whiskers back without cutting hair that you don't want to be cut.

Try this little trick.

While all of the face hair is wet or soaped up and plastered to the face, scissor the whiskers off while they are sticking out of the wet hair.

It is much easier to scissor the whiskers off as close as you want without cut the face hair.

To any new groomers, or pet owners that did not know...Yes, it is okay to cut a dogs whiskers.

It does not harm them in any way.

BUT, never ever cut a cats whiskers!!

The crazy whiskers on this little dog are poking her eyes and causing them to run more than normal.

Back to her makeover.

All clean, fluffed out and ready for her clip.

The HV had blown the mats away from the skin just enough to get a #4F under them.

Unfortunately her face is still pretty matted.

I started out by shaving out the corner of her eyes and top of her nose with a #15.

Yes, I shaved the top of the nose. (light pressure)

As I stated before, this little Shih-Tzu has issues with her eyes.

All of the hair around her eyes was tangled with eye crust.

The shorter the better for the hair around her eyes.

I also used scissors to scissor all of the hair just above and around her eyes very short to open the eyes up and hopefully keeping the crust from forming around the eyes again for a while.

The chin was so matted that I clipped the chin with a #5F blade.

Hmmmmm I am thinking a little Asian style here about now.

easi

Look at those ears!

I could have easily dematted one of the ears, but the other was too badly matted. 

I decided that the best thing to do was to clip the ears short.

I clipped the top of the head with the #4F blade and followed it down into the ear and under all of the mat.

**When using a longer blade on the ears (#4F, 5F, 7F,) be very aware and careful of the edges of the ear leather.

 I also made sure to pull all of the yucky hair, under the nose that the dog licks back into its mouth, out and scissor it off.

I had to tickle her tongue with my finger to make her put it back into her mouth so that I could scissor or clip safely.

Oh, a little prayer doesn't hurt at time like these too.  :)

Sorry the words are so small in the picture. 

Green arrows: I used a #4F on the top of the head and ears.

Blue arrows: clipped the mats off of the sides of the head and cheeks with a #5F blade.

Orange arrow: scissor to round off and shorten mustache.

I also blended the edges to soften the cut.

Next I took my comb (green arrows) and combed the hair up.

Then I took the scissors (orange arrows) or thinning shears and blend and round off the mustache.

Have you ever had an owner come back in with their dog and say; "Can you do something different with the face, because I don't like how the hair on the side of his/her face sticks out to the side, or up."

You know that look....you have combed, brushed and scissored the face, and it looks great.

The mustache and beard are laying great, then the dog shakes its face and that nice, neat mustache and bread is suddenly sticking up and out to the side.

That is why I comb up the mustache and round off the edges, sometimes a lot, sometimes just a little bit.

It depends on the look I am looking for.

How's that?

Do you think she feels better?

This is a side view.

There!!!!

I finished.

Only one scare.

The screen blinked a few times, but she didn't freeze up on me.

Now lets see if this post will publish.

If you are reading this....it did!