I’ve been asked this so many times and I have avoided doing a blog post on the subject, because I am not a professional groomer. I’m a simple pet owner who decided to groom her own dogs to help save some money. When you start out, you probably will not do a very good job. That is ok. The great thing about Poodle hair is it will grow back and you can try again. It is pouring buckets of rain, so I am not going to groom River today and show how to scissor the head and tail. I am going to post what I have done and either edit this post or put a third grooming blog on that subject alone. The two hardest aspects of grooming are the head and tail. Everything else can be shaved down with a clipper, and during the summer my guys are often shaved all over with a clipper, so that is an option as well.
This group of videos will focus on a few key points. I’m going to ask you to watch all of them. I go over trimming the face, feet, and the butt area twice. Once on the puppy, and once with Jazz. You need to watch both. I describe what to do better with Jubilee, but you can see what I am doing better with Jazz. I was set to far back with Jubilee and she is a black dog, which makes it even worse. The Jazz videos also cover brushing out, blow drying the dog, how to blow dry short coat vs long coat with the forced air drier. I also go over how to shave the body and make it even and smooth for a clean look. Lastly, I briefly cover scissoring the legs and trimming up her head so she can see. I am not going to embed the videos into this blog. Instead I am going to provide a link to the YouTube channel. I have uploaded very large files so that you can watch the video full screen.
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Jubilee puppy groom. Face, Feet, Rear I was a bit far back on this and it is hard to see at times. Watch in large screen if you can.
Jazz pre-bath. Brushing out, when to use clippers before you bathe.
I talk about this in the video, but I have a ‘dirty coat’ blade and a ‘clean coat’ blade. Most of the time I do not shave my dogs down before I groom them, because dirt dulls clipper blades. There are occasions when I do shave before I bathe. If the dog has 4 inches of hair and I plan to shave it off, I do not want to brush out, bathe, then have to blow dry all that coat. If you do not blow dry, then you can bathe, let the dog dry overnight, then shave the coat the next day short. If it is a long coat and you bathe without brushing you are going to need to shave it short, because you are going to felt the coat (start the cording process) with a bathe with no brush out or blow dry. Just decide if you want to use the clipper on dirty coat or not, how short you are going to shave the coat, etc. You can get under most black or white dogs with a 5 blade if they are starting to felt. A 7 blade is easier as it cuts shorter and works better for light blues, some browns, and silver dogs who have the cotton textured undercoat. It is very difficult to shave with a 3 3/4 or 4 blade on a coat that is felting at the skin. Puppy coat doesn’t mat. You are safe until about 1.5-2 years of age.
Jazz blow dry. How to use the forced air drier (no heat! Just fast blowing air) to dry your dog. Why would you want to blow dry? Well, it gives a very nice look. It also allows you to trim the hair even. It is so hard to give them a nice round head and tail if you do not blow dry the hair. Many people just let their dogs dry over night and then the next day do all the grooming. Again, that is perfectly fine. Just be aware that once the dog steps foot outside to go potty, they now have dirt on the paws. This means your blades are going to dull much quicker shaving dirty paws. You have to weigh the cost of blade replacement or sharpening over drying the feet and shaving them. You could wait for the face and rear, but think hard about at least drying the feet then getting those shaved down.
Jazz being trimmed. Face, feet, tail, and body shaving. Quick scissor of legs and around eyes.
Closer shots of what I am doing and a bit more detail on how to hold the clippers and what direction to go in. It shows you have to brush and shave the body after your shave down. Jazz was shaved down with a 5 blade a month ago on her body. Today I just shaved her body down with the 3 3/4 blade, which took just a touch off her. I left her legs, as I am going to grow those out over the next few months. I will not shave her legs, but I will maintain her body short with this technique, then just scissor in the legs up to the shaved area.
I found a really good website on how to Dremel Dog Nails. I am not going to re-invent the wheel on this. Go to the site and read it over. It is very in-depth and covers every aspect of the process.
Also, I’ve said this before but it bares repeating. Go to YouTube and watch grooming videos. You will pick up tips and tricks from just about every one you watch. There is no way to cover every aspect without forgetting something, and again I am not a professional. Teaching obedience is something I know how to do. Teaching grooming is something I have done a handful of times in 15 years. Each of those times it was the person watching me or me helping them with their own dogs and we were not doing detail work. Just body cut downs.
I hope you found this somewhat helpful. I’ll be putting up a video of River’s head and tail trim once the weather breaks.
Useful links on this subject: BLOG POST ON THE TOOLS I USE.
~Becky