This is Sapphire.  I've posted her picture in my before and after photos, but this time she got a little bit of a different style.

Mom's son likes to go running with her, and wanted her coat left long for warmth.  I normally do a regular Schnauzer clip with short furnishings on her, this time I did her in an Asian Fusion style, with a  teddy bear body and Asian face.  She was really matted on all her furnishings (lots of outdoor time means wet dog + no brushing = matting)  Schnauzer fur does demat fairly easily, but the hair is so fine on the legs that it just breaks really, so you can see in her after picture that her furnishings are pretty sparse after dematting.

This is Suki, I groomed her just recently.  Now today, I groomed her brother.. actually her litter mate.

They both have the same sweet face, but other than that they are completely different! Suki has soft fluffy and full fur, Cooper has a wiry almost terrier like coat, sparse and thin.  Is it any wonder when this is the variance in one litter how many different sizes, shapes and types of dogs we have?

Suki is my little super star, in my eyes anyway :D  Her mom is a photographer and loves to photograph Suki, so she gets her own Facebook page which I am a fan of, and thoroughly enjoy seeing all her antics.

This was Cooper's first time coming to me, and he is just as sweet as his sister.  He had been growing his coat out for a while, so his before and after is pretty fun, he looks like a completely different dog!

Happy Tails!

Miriam

Late winter and spring are the seasons for grooming matted dogs, lol.  It makes sense to grow out coat for the cold season, but all that extra fur can get a bit much to take care of.

I encourage bath and brush or bath and tidy appointments for anyone who is trying to grow their dogs coat out.  Mats happen when the fur gets wet in the rain or snow, and doesn't get brushed out immediately. 

mud, but didn't realize that by not blow drying and brushing after the bath it was causing the matting.

Now Mom only has head and tail to brush, and she will certainly be easier to keep clean!

Happy Tails!

Miriam

Her name is Trouble, and from what her Mom says about how she plays with her brother's and sister's, she sounds like a whole lot of fun and trouble!  She likes to play and instigate play, and had the mats on her head and neck to prove it. 

I have heard of wet clipping matted dogs before, and finally figured out the amount of moisture in the coat that really makes it work.  It can't be too wet or the hair is still clumpy and won't go through the blade.  It has to be HV dried until it is just still damp, and then it works great.  What also worked to REALLY help get the clippers through the mats was forcing and clipping the wet hair at the same time.  Yes, my work space looked like a hair bomb went off in it, but for how quickly this was getting through all the mats I was willing to deal with it. 

Trouble was really matted everywhere, and especially on the back of her neck it was felted.   I thought I was going to have to shave that area with a #7f, which I was dreading because of how funny it would have looked.  I was able to wet clip it with a 4f and the finished length was a 13mm (3 3/4f)  I wet clipped the body and legs with the 13, and could have finished with a 1/2" clip-on if I wanted to, but the 13mm is a good length for her, since she does mat up easily.

What do you all think of her fuzzy teddy bear muzzle?  I think it is a great style for poodle type haired dogs that don't want to look like poodles :)

Happy Tails!

Miriam

Springer Spaniels are supposed to look very natural.  I did her body with a #4F, trimmed her pads and feet (she has a lot of black on the edge of her toes, really, they're round and not choppy, lol) then just lightly trimmed her feathers with thinning shears.  I did the top of her head with the #4F backward, and #10 on the top 1/3 of the ear leather.  This was her first grooming, she did so well! This is how I would groom a Springer regularly, but her Mom wanted her to have a 'Field Trim'

This means different things to different people.  It could be anything from all off including the ears with a #7F, to what I did on this girl.  A #4F on the body, leave the ears, and trim all feathering to approximately 1".  Here she is after I continued to trim her into her Field Clip.

Happy Tails!

Miriam

It's February and it's finally gotten cold and dry here on the 'Wet Coast'.  That tends to mean less dogs coming in for grooming, everyone wants to let their dogs grow coat for warmth.

Really if you are a dog owner reading this I encourage you to make an appointment at least for a bath and brush, because longer coat means.....mats!  I hate having to shave dogs or spend hours brushing them out come the wet spring ;P

Well, the good thing is I've had a little more time to spend on my new hobby, knitting!  I knit a sweater for my 2 year old, and am quite happy with it, just in time for the cold weather!  It was so mild here a couple weeks ago you could go outside without a jacket on.

Looking forward to this week before Valentines Day, get to give the dogs their lovely Valentine wear :)

Happy Tails!
Miriam

Hi Readers!  Sorry for the gap in posts, my computer crashed and had to go in to the fix it place for a few weeks!  Back to the grooming!~~

Phew! Worked on this boy for a long time today!  I've posted him before too, his name is Ricky.  His Mom likes him really long and fluffy, like a little lamb or teddy bear.  However, he has such a dense coat, keeping up with the mats is almost impossible.

Shaving him down because he's matted is impossible too.  It just would not be a happy situation.  So, it took me 3 hours to demat, bath, dry and brush him out this morning before I even started styling him!  He was pretty solidly matted everywhere.

I left his legs in a bell bottom style, and hopefully Mom will be able to just concentrate her brushing on the feet and working up to keep the mats at bay.  This way the chest and armpits are kept short, which is where the worst of the matting usually is.  His body is 1/2".  I shave his muzzle to the corner of the eyes and blend into the cheeks, (like a Pomeranian).  Today I also used my Fishtail Shears and worked the topknot after I shaped it to give it a shaggy look instead of a smooth styled look.

I wish I had taken a few more pictures, but alas, Mom was walking down the pathway and I only had time for this one :)

Happy Tails!
Miriam