Beginner grooming question with clippers.

[Nancy and Georgia Brown]

So I bought the Andis clippers. And I have the metal combs.

I did have professional groomers do it the first few times so she got used to the procedure with someone that knew what they were doing.

I've tried using the clippers on her with the combs, it just seems like the hair goes through the comb and it doesn't get cut. I've tried with the grain and against the grain. I was specifically targeting her legs for my test. I ended up using scissors because it was doing a better job.

She has a very thin sparse coat and I don't know if that makes the difference, but the groomers seemed to manage it okay.

What am I doing wrong?

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

What I do before every clipper cut is prep the coat. That includes shampooing and blow drying with a high velocity blow dryer. The trick is to brush the coat while drying to get it to stand straight out from the body. The only dogs I've given clipper cuts are my 2 and they both have curly, relatively dense coats. After drying and brushing, the clipper cuts through the coat like butter. There may be a different technique needed on a thin, sparce coat. What type of blade are you using with the combs? If the problem isnt how the coat is prepped, it may be the blade isn't compatible with the combs, but I would think it would make a racket and be apparent if that were the case. If all else fails, you could ask your professional groomer to give you some tips on what works. Mine was very helpful when I first started.

[Nancy and Georgia Brown]

thanks

I think the blow drying is what I'm not doing. And I don't have a great blow dryer.

[Leita Hagemann]

I use a #30 blade and a plastic Andis comb and have the same problem. Honestly I think its just the coat type. Denali is only 4 months old so he still has the very floppy puppy coat and I was really frustrated at first because I didnt feel like anything was coming off. I ended up just going over it a bunch of times and I think its practice for the most part. Towards the end more started to come off and maybe it was because I was pressing a little bit harder or something. I found that going against the coat gets the best results for us. I still have trouble getting the belly hair because it is just super fine. I take a 3F blade and go over his mid region and face so its all sort of short and clean. Then #10 for the sani trim 

[Teresa Joyce]

The brushing of the hair straight out is the most important thing.  It's called back brushing.  You want to either brush or comb the hair up - by example, brush the hair up the leg from the foot to the top of the leg.  Then, use your clippers from the top of the leg down with the comb attachment.  For the best result, you need to back brush and run the combs over the hair multiple times.    I allow my doodles to dry without completely straightening the coat as they have nice, loose, wavy coats and the combs still work great and they are left with a natural looking cut.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Yes, multiple passes and brushing against the natural lie of the coat between passes, gives the best results. I like passing the clipper in the direction of the natural lie of the coat.