[Dieselsmama]

Today was a very long and hairy day for me. I started @ 8 am with a springer, poorly bred guy, but sweet all the same. He was just a bath, trim feet, thin up feathering, nails and ears. 2nd up was a standard poodle, typical cf/cft, 5 body, scissor head, legs and tail. 3rd was a great pyrennese/siberian mix with the size and length of coat of a pyr but coat density of a sibe!! Took me 4 hrs. to get a comb through him head to tail!!! The amount of hair flying around my grooming room while drying him was insane. Last up, a very sweet OLD sheltie who's dad always comes in and helps hold the poor old guy up. He can't stand for very long without tiring and he is usually pretty full of yucky undercoat and dirty pants, even though I trim him out behind to help keep him cleaner. I'm still unthreading pyr. hair from my eyelashes and blowing it out of my nose
Tomorrow promises to be more of the same, 1 golden puppy, 2 standard poodles(full groom), 2 bearded collies for nail dremmeling and feet trim up only and a shih-tzu I've never done before.

[Durbkat]

Wow, sounds like lots of hair. Wanna grow Snoopy? I promise he won't be to hard, you just got to give him a bath, and glide the clippers over the top of his hair to give him a trim and trim his nails.

[digits mama]

I know this is probably easy for me to say..But...That sounds like FUN How fun to see cool breeds all the time.

[Dieselsmama]

Originally Posted by digits mama

I know this is probably easy for me to say..But...That sounds like FUN How fun to see cool breeds all the time.

It is fun, I really do love grooming and getting to play with lots of different dogs. I only groom 2 days/wk. though so it remains fun for me. I used to groom full time, 6dys/wk, 10-12hr. days and totally burned out.
Today I also did ( in addition to the previous list) a 3 yr. old maltese mix, very sweet little girl had the build and face of a maltese and coloring of a shih-tzu. She was a little scared and horribly matted. The woman who brought her in had just adopted her from the humane society three weeks ago, the woman's cancer has since gone into remission so the dog's name is angel. She had taken Angel to the local petco to be groomed and the groomer told her the dog needed to be sedated and groomed at the vets b'cause she was so stressed she thought she'd hurt herself flipping all over the table. I have NO idea what that groomer was talking about, she was a doll, a little scared but not bad, and she was totally fine and giving kisses by the time we were done.

Originally Posted by Durbkat

Wow, sounds like lots of hair. Wanna grow Snoopy? I promise he won't be to hard, you just got to give him a bath, and glide the clippers over the top of his hair to give him a trim and trim his nails.

I think you guys live a bit far away to make the trip, but if you're up to driving to Vt., I'll be here . FYI, you can't just "glide" clippers over the top of his coat, just doesn't work that way. From what I've read in your descriptions of what you want it's really a full head to tail scissor cut. He really did look cute when you had him done last time.

[Durbkat]

Why can't you? What would happen? But don't they make blades cut less than 2 inches off? Because the groomer said her smallest blade doesn't cut nothing less than 2 inches.

[Dieselsmama]

Originally Posted by Durbkat

Why can't you? What would happen? But don't they make blades cut less than 2 inches off? Because the groomer said her smallest blade doesn't cut nothing less than 2 inches.

As far as blades go, the smallest # = longer cut. A # 4 is the smallest # I'll use and I use it carefully. You're much more likely to catch loose skin with something like this and it alone leaves maybe 1/2" of coat depending on texture, density etc.. What I believe your last groomer used was a snap on comb over a surgical (#30 or40) blade and then go over with scissors to even everything out. Judging from what I saw in his post grooming pics. that's about as long as you can leave his coat if you use a pair of clippers. Clippers don't simply glide over the top of the dog, they are held in the groomers hand and the back of the blade rests against the dogs skin as it clips along your dogs body following it's contours. If you tried to just hold it exactly 2" from his skin all over his body it would be choppy and uneven everywhere b'cause this is virtually impossible to do since all his hair doesn't stand evenly on end and no one has that kind of steady hand LOL.

[Durbkat]

Thanks for the info. I guess I will have to deal with his hair being super short, but it did grow back super quick. I'm going to wait till it warms up to get his hair cut because he shivers now with long hair and a coat on. She said to get what I wanted she'd have to do it by hand with scissors and she'd charge $100. Is that a common price for cutting a dog's hair by hand?

[Dieselsmama]

That depends on what grooming prices average in your area. Honestly that's just about right up here, IF he's combed out head to toe. If he came in matted I just wouldn't do it.