Thursday, September 21, 2006

SIGH .... Grooming ...

DAY 1 - Clipper work

Are these the looks of a happy girl??

NOOOOOO of course not!!!


Why? Well because I would rather be playing at the park or swimming in the ocean than being GROOMED!!! However, I grow a profuse amount of coat at an alarming rate, so I need to be groomed every 6-8 weeks or I get too hot. Let me tell ya, a good diet makes your coat and nails grow super fast ..... so if you dislike grooming as much as I do, I suggest you don't eat MY DIET !!


I was specially pouty today since it had only been 5.25 weeks from the time I was last groomed. My EVIL mum, however, decided today was a good day for grooming because it wasn't raining........ hello?? shouldn't we be at the beach since it's nice out??


Mum got out her grooming tool kit that included the following:


  1. Oster Golden A5 Clipper : clipper work
  2. # 5F blade : body, shoulders, chest, top of head, thighs
  3. # 10 blade : cheek, ears (outside), under belly, inner thighs
  4. # 30 blade : pads, ears (inside)
  5. Comb
  6. Slicker brush
  7. Nail Dremel : shortening nails
  8. Straight shears
  9. Thinning shears

Because my coat wasn't very dirty today, mum decided to do most of the clipper work before bathing me. This way, she wouldn't be wasting her time washing all that hair that was coming off anyway. Keep in mind that a dirty coat can dull the blades and shears very fast, so if you are a dirty pup, it is better to let your mum bath you before doing any clipping or scissoring.


I was thoroughly brushed and combed before any clippering was done. Mum started out by using the # 5F blade from behind my ears, and worked her way down the bulk of the body, and down my back:


A # 7F or number # 10 blade can also be use for the body work depending how short you want the hair to be. The smaller the blade size get, the longer it leaves the hair. Mum likes to see a little bit of "curls" on me, so she uses a # 5F.


Then she ran the clipper off my hip, over my thigh at a 45 degree angle, and stopping half way between the hip joint and the hock. The rest of the hind leg furnishings were left to be bathed and scissored next day:


And it looked like this:


I was then clipped down my hind legs from behind with the # 5F blade, stopping just above the hock. Mum used a # 10 blade to trim around my pee pee/poo poo areas to keep the hair short for obvious reasons.


This is what my hind end looked like afterwards. Again, the rest of the furnishings will be scissored after the bath:



The # 5F blade was again used down the shoulders stopping at the elbows, underside of the neck, down the chest, stopping just above the chest bone. From the chest bone, mum made an upside down V to either side of the leg, leaving a tuft of V shaped hair in between. It looked like this:


The furnishings on my front legs will be scissored tomorrow since the shears only work on an absolute clean coat.


With the head, mum used # 5F on top of the head starting just above the eye sockets, and then #10 on the ears. Mum just prefers to have a little more hair on top of the head so she uses a # 5F, most people just use one size blade for the entire head/cheeks/ears (usually size # 10 or # 7F).


The edges of my ears are ragged right now, but will be neatly trimmed with scissors tomorrow. This is what I looked like after the hair came off my my head and my ears:



To the sides of the face, my cheeks were clipped with a # 10 blade. Mum ran a diagonal line from the corner of the eye down to the corner of the upper lip:



This is after the cheek hair was taken off:


The rest of the facial hair will be scissored and blended in after the bath.


Face from the other side:



Lastly, the hair in between my pads were clipped off with a # 30 blade, and my belly was done with a # 10 blade:



Clipped:



Then it was BEACH TIME!!!! I was such a good girl throughout all that clippering that mum decided to take me to Kits Beach for a romp:



But, I guess all good times must come to an end........................... Another happy looking face?



I will be Aire-drying tonight, until tomorrow.................. XOXO Miss Sunshade

DAY 2 - Scissor work (Friday, Sept.22.2006)

When I saw mum got out the grooming table today, I gave her the "OMG you're doing this AGAIN??" look. Much to my surprise, mum folded the table back down, and put all the grooming stuff in a bag. I was so happy because I thought my look worked and she had given up.

Well...not quite.... Mum packed everything into SunshadeMOBILE and drove to my favorite park. I guess she thought change of scenery would lighten me up, which it did....a little. We walked around the park first, then it was time to get to work.

My ears and head were worked on first. Mum scissored the ragged edges of my ears so that they were neatly outlined. She then brushed the hair around my face out to the sides, so she could see how much hair needed to come off. A terrier's face should be rectangular looking, almost like a "brick". So that was the effect mum was trying to get. When mum scissored around my eye brows, she tried to make them so that they looked wedge shaped.



This is the finished head from the front view:



Looking at the face from the side, the hair on top of the muzzle should form a continuous line with the forehead, forming a plane. Mum combed the hair on top of the muzzle "up" to see how much hair she had to take off:



One plane (excluding eye brows):



Next, mum took out the dremel and dremelled my nails. I prefer the dremel to nail clippers because it is more comfortable, and I am less likely to bleed. My nails are black, making it very difficult to see where the quicks end. So mum feels more comfortable when she uses the dremel to shorten my nails a bit at a time.

It is important to trim the nails before starting scissoring of the legs. Once the nails are shortened, mum can scissor the hair around my paw, which then sets the mark for how long you want the hair on the rest of the leg to be. Mum tries to make the legs barrel like.

Un-trimmed leg:


Trimmed feet, now mum could see how much hair needed to come off the legs:


Finished left leg, un-trimmed right leg:



Mum finished up my other leg and let me off the table for a break before starting on my hind legs. I was a bit bewildered when mum told me I could go play..............



As soon as I was off the table, I started SMILING right away!!



I met a Border Collie friend and we played for while.



After my break, mum started to work on my hind legs. The insides of the hind legs should form two straight lines when you look at them from the back:



The left leg was finished in the photo, right leg un-touched:



Mum also scissored and blended the furnishings on my outer thighs, unfortunately, she forgot to take photos of them..........


Lastly, my underline was trimmed - from the elbow up to the belly, or belly down to the elbow:



THE FINISHING PRODUCT!!


It is very rare for me to stack this well, mum was lucky to have caught the picture before I ran off after a dog.........



Before going home, mum and I went for another walk around the park. We met a little dog who I adored, but she wasn't too sure about me being so big, so mum had to leash me up......



Mum had just started grooming me herself back in June, so her techniques are far from perfect, and she still makes a lot of mistakes everytime. Please visit my previous post for more grooming information from breeders and professionals:

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow! u need 2 days for a total makeover! :-) but you definitely look neater after the hair cut. i'm telling mom about your nail dremel. coz i have black toes too (though not all of them). mom doesn't have a clipper yet but she is looking for one. maybe i'll recommend yours to her. she doesn't feel safe to send me to groomer coz the last time i was at the groomer, my belly was cut!

licky wet wet licks

boo

Maximillian the Valliant said...

Dear Miss Sunshade,

I am CONVERTED! I am totally mesmerized by your fluffiness (and some of those grooming shots left me panting). I too hate being groomed and frankly am far less cooperative.

But mostly I am in total awe of your commanding protection skills. I never thought I would see some skill in a non-sheltie, let alone a female. I'm yours!

M-the-V
ps. thank you so much for visiting me. I am charmed at meeting you!

Anonymous said...

hi sunshade! wow you look really neat after grooming :) your mom did an awesome job! no matter what you say about how many mistakes she makes, it still looks like a professional job. hee hee.. the fact that she has invested in all these grooming tools shows how committed she is! HM says it's very interesting how she grooms you in planes :) she is very lazy sometimes and doesn't bring me to the groomer very often, but under her scissors i sometimes end up with uneven hair :p

love..
chiyo

jaffeboy said...

U look all nice now with trimmed fur. My MaMa hand strip me & it is darn irritating.

Linda Fleming said...

You look gorgeous after your grooming! Your diet sounds very interesting- and you eat chicken bones? I always thought chicken bones were bad for dogs! So it's okay for dogs to eat chicken bones? Maybe my Human will start giving me some raw foods.
Big Wags,
Isabella

Bogart H. Devil said...

Gorgeous!!!!

Love,
Bogart

Unknown said...

Hi Sunshade!
You look beauuuutiful! Our Mama strips, clips & scissors us. Our hair is done just about the same style as yours. Has your Mama ever stripped you? It keeps our hair colors dark on us. We got our bath today and that means that our haircuts are coming soon! Mama also uses the dremel thingy on our toenails. We like it way better than those evil nail clippers that she used to use on us. I Butchy have all white nails, but Snickers has some that are black like yours. Mama still hasn't gotten the email from your Mama so please tell her. Happy haircut!
Luv & Wirey Hugs!
Butchy & Snickers

T-man Angel said...

Your mom is so nice to learn how to groom you herself so you wouldn't have to suffer at the groomers. There is a lot of work to grooming! My mom just drops me off at the groomers so doesn't see all that's involved.

By the way, you look fantastic!!

T-man

Sunshade said...

Hey Booboo: well if mum had bathed me before starting the clipper work, then it would have only taken one day to groom me. Oh well, I prefer to have lots of breaks anyway! The dremel is an excellent idea I think.

Hi Max the V: You are so sweet!! You like my fluffiness?? DANG! mum just cut them all off... I promise they will grow back, REALLY FAST ok??

Chiyo: Thank you for your compliment, but I'm not gonna let mum read it because I dont' really want to build up her confidence in grooming me ya know...... Even though I dont' like to be groomed, I do prefer to have mum groom me than being at the groomers. Mum finally stopped taking me to the groomers because she coudln't stand that sad look I always gave her when she dropped me off. I just don't like to be away from mum for that long you know....

Jaffe: handstripping is time consuming and tiring for your ma and her hand I'm sure, but not that hard on your part right? Unless...standing still is hard? I can't be hand stripped because I have a sheep coat, it hurts me too much.

Hey Isabella: I sure do eat chicken bones. It is true that you don't want to eat "cooked" chicken bones because cooking makes the bone brittle and can splinter and easily k*ll you... However, the same is not true for raw chicken bones. If you want, you could find a company that sells packaged grounded up meat with bones in it (like the picture in my post), or if you are very brave, try a chicken neck or section of a turkey neck. You have to make sure that your mama doens't mix the raw food with kibbles ok? Raw food digests much faster than kibbles, so you wouldn't want the kibbles to hold all that raw food in your tummy for too long. You could do raw for breakie, and then kibbles for din din, or raw one day, kibbles the next!!

Bogie: Thanks HANDSOME!!

Hey Butchy & Snickers: Sorry mum hasn't started on the re-write e-mail yet....she stepped on a rusty nail today and had to go to the hospital... Anyway, my coat can't really be stripped due to it's texture. I was born with a special kind of coat that is "all" undercoat. I have none of that wiry top coat AT ALL except in little patches. So stripping me would be very painful. See this post (mY bALd SPots......... )

Hi T-man: well I'm sure you don't mind being at the groomers so it's ok for you to go. However, I always got very sad when mum left me at the groomers that mum couldn't bare it anymore and decided to groom me herself. Thanks so much for your compliment!

MUAH!!

Love nibbles to all,
Miss Sunshade

Ang said...

i have never had a haircut. Which is good. Cause I hate any kind of personal hygiene.

Fu Fu said...

Hi Sunshade.
That's alot of work your mama is doing to groom you. I like the pics where you are smiling. ;)

~ fufu

ranger said...

miss sunshade, you are certainly high maintenance!!! but most girls are. all mom does to me is clip my nails and brush me now and then!!

i have to tell you i saw a dog like you at my class...he was very well behaved and did everything his owner told him to do. i was impressed!!! made me think of you!

-*w00f*

Jay said...

Hey Sunshade.. I think your mum is doing a great job. She looks like a professional groomer with her tools too!

Scruffy, Lacie and Stanley's Place said...

I know this post was from a while ago, but as I bought a grooming table for the three nudniks, I can't tell you how much your grooming guide has helped me see what the &%$# I am supposed to do between clippering, stripping and scissoring...thank you so much for posting all these pics...it makes a lot more sense now...do you have a post for stripping Stinky?

Oh we wish you could come and watch you do these dogs...you do a fabulous job...and BTW, what breed was the non terrier dog you turned into a square dog? I've been threatening for years to improve my son and daughter in laws cock a poo looks by making them square!!

XXOO Mumsie

Pee ess...the holy terriers are less than happy with this new grooming approach!!