A few of my furry friends who have visited recently <3

Happy Tails!

Miriam

Brother to the female Lhasa I posted before, Mao has been on the blog once before.  This time his legs are a little fuller so he has more of the Asian flare.  You would never guess that he has clean shaved feet under there!

These two Lhasa's are kept with long topknots, which is great.  It can sometimes get to be a bit much I think to keep them tied up though, which is why I think mom or dad ends up cutting the bangs.  Usually with a tied up topknot all the hair from the eyes back is tied up, but I think both of them ended up looking rather cute with super short teddy bear eyebrows :D

Happy Tails!

Miriam

I think this guy could easily be a Norfolk terrier mix.  What do you think?  Well, it's really hard to say with mixed breeds.  What I do know is that he is a super sweet puppy and has an awesome personality.

His coat is quite wiry so in order to keep it's texture we are hand stripping him. 

 With anything other than a show or competition dog, it is not necessary to strip the entire dog.  I use a combination of undercoat rake, carding, plucking the longest hair, and thinning shears to 'cheat' and get a nice looking terrier style with the coarse coat intact and the dog not having to suffer plucking in sensitive areas.

Happy Tails!

Miriam

Meet Tashi.  She was a little in need of grooming ;) Her feet were kinda just balls of mats, and the inside of her legs had balled mats too.  Well, this style is perfect for keeping matting down!

With Asian style grooming you can do clean feet on any breed, and you can show the feet or you can cover them up leaving the leg hair in a bell bottom bevelled over the foot all the way to the floor.  Best of both worlds!

The armpits and the insides of the legs can be shaved, it helps create the signature bell bottom or flared leg, and that's great because those are areas that are almost always matted!

Also signature of the Asian style is short muzzles, which is great for keeping food and yucky stuff off the face :)




Happy Tails!

Miriam

This guy is about 10 years old and came to me for a consult and then groom to know what to do with his coat.  His dad had been shaving him in the summers to try and help him stay cool, and someone had said that brushing him out would be too stressful for him because of his age.

The truth is shaving a double coated breed (Husky's, Pomeranian's, Samoyed's, etc) does not actually help them stay cooler in the heat. 

Here is a quick explanation as to why.  A double coat means there are two layers of hair serving two different purposes.  The outer layer is a coarse hair called the 'guard coat' because it protects the dog against the elements, snow, rain, sun, bugs trying to bite.  The second layer is the soft crimpy undercoat that insulates the dog when the weather is cool.  Removing the undercoat by brushing helps air to flow through the coat under the guard hair.  This is the best way to keep your dog cool. Remember, dogs do not sweat through their skin like humans do, their cooling system is different.  Their skin also has a lot less layers (thinner skin) than us and the sun can burn them more easily.  So shaving the guard hair will leave the dog exposed and take away it's natural protection from overheating.

What I like to do for some dogs is to just shave a 'tunnel' down their belly, so that when they lie down on a cold surface they can keep their organs cool.  It is not exposed to the sun so the skin is not at risk of sunburn. 

From the side you can't even see that there is a shaved area underneath.

Above: Before brushing the coat, after tunnelling the belly

Below: After brushing the coat :)

And here he is, all done!  I gave him a medium length tidy, not too short, but enough off to help keep him mat free.

Aussie's can end up with really long pants, but this guy gets out in the forest and swims a lot, so I tidied him up quite a bit.  Gotta love an Aussie bum :D

That feels better!  All done, no stress, no pain, cooler without the packed undercoat and ready to play!

As for grooming older dogs, I think it is always best to keep your elderly dog groomed.  Even if it means they don't look as pretty or perfect as they did when they were younger, if they are too old to stand or get cranky and stressed in their old age.  They will always feel better after being bathed and brushed and pampered.

Happy Tails!

Miriam

From matted overgrown mess to cute and sweet short style.  She could be a different dog!

This is the second time this adorable pup has come to me and his first full groom by me.  His mom likes to do his grooming at home, but his coat was in need of some evening out, so this time I got the privilege.  It was mom's birthday too, so he was very handsome for her special day!

Happy Tails!

Miriam

I'm a little behind with my posts, but here is a cutie who came to me last month who I just adore.  What's that you say? I'm biased? Well yes, yes I am.  I love my Aussie :) And I love this guy too.

Happy Tails!

Miriam

As a pet groomer, and a small relatively new and unknown business, I don't get a lot of breed trims.  So when someone comes to me wanting their purebred to look like a purebred, it's very exciting, :D :D! 

I love all aspects of grooming.  Making purebred pets or mixed breeds cute and functional for every day life with my creativity and professional experience is great fun.  Making a purebred look like it was bred to look is very satisfying as well.  Many years of thought and mastery goes into these dogs breeding, so making them live up to those standards is a goal that is also an honour to partake in.

This little guy was groomed by someone else before, this was his first visit to me.  He was not groomed correctly last time, which just means it was all the more fun for me to make him look better this time :)

He needed a lot of blending on his pattern lines, and his head needed a lot of shaping up.  His front end needed to be taken in and squared up, the front of the shoulder being exposed now to show his powerful terrier muscles.

Does anybody have a curl just on one side of their head?  Well, this guy can relate.  His whole left side of his body is curly, where his right side is nice and straight.  Westie's  aren't supposed to have a curly coat, so I did my best when drying him to straighten it out, but... it's still curlier on the left than the right ;P

His tuck up is really high and too far back, but, there wasn't much I could do about that.  Have to wait for it to grow out :)

Happy tails!

Miriam

Coco gets her first semi-short hair cut.  This little girl is such a cutie, I just love her.  She may not feel the same about me though, because she doesn't seem to like being groomed very much.  Really what it seems like, is that she is.... ticklish.

I've been grooming her since she was 4 weeks old, and even at that age she didn't like the scissors touching her hair.  I only did her feet and face then, but it was a challenge because she would yelp and move every time I tried to make a snip.  I think there a lot of Shih Tzu puppies that don't like their faces being done, and it just takes a little time to get them used to it.

Now that I give her a full groom though, she seems to be ticklish EVERYWHERE!  Oh dear baby, sweet Coco, one must not kick when scissors are trying to trim your cute little fluffy body!  Well, we worked together and got it done, and I love her so, it just takes a little more time and patience.

Happy Tails my big girl Coco, can't wait to see you next time!

Miriam