Beginning Groomer Questions

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

Hi everyone.  I'm so glad to have discovered this site.  Thank you to those of you who have already "friended" me.

@Barb - if you are reading this, I thought I would mention that my doodle's mother is one of yours, Gemstones Tawny.  Small world.  Thank you for starting this group.

In any case, I started reading the posts last night because like many of you I've been frustrated with the professional grooming scene.  I live in one of the biggest cities in America and can barely find anyone who knows what an Australian Labradoodle is, let alone how to groom one.  After reading the posts on here I figured everyone has to start somewhere, so why not give it a try myself.  In general I am a DIY kind of person and I have a pretty good sense of what looks good.  And at least I know that no one else will care more about the outcome and pay as much attention to every detail.

I spent several hours last night reading everything I could find on the Internet.  Then I watched every Youtube video I could find that looked like it could be helpful.  Finally I spent several hours at Petsmart this morning watching them groom different dogs through the glass.  At that point I had some ideas as to how I thought I would go about it so I decided to jump in.

Basically I went for a 1 inch puppy cut all the way around.  The dog is about 5 1/2 months old, and I wanted to get rid of all the whispy, frizzy puppy ends.  Plus the previous groomer had cut the top of her head pretty short, so her head looked too small for her body like in Beetlejuice.  I thought if I would get everything to even ground that would be a good place to start fresh.

It took us several sessions over the course of the day, because I didn't want to stress the dog too much. I now have a not-so-terrible 3/4 inch puppy cut on most of the body (I wound up going a little shorter than I first wanted to fix some mistakes along the way).  In any case, there are a few spots left that I'm not sure what to do with.  I thought I would ask if anyone has thoughts or suggestions on these (or anything else I have done):

1.  Between the ribcage and where the back leg meets the body.  At first I thought I would leave this long, so that she had a square line all the way across underneath.  I think this might look good at a longer length, but at this length it kind of looks silly, like she has a dust ruffle underneath. I think I'm just going to cut that part down to 3/4 inch as well.

2.  The spaniel-ly hair that extends past the leather of the ears.  For lack of a better word I call this the sideburns.  It seems to me that this serves no purpose, it just gets in her water and gets matted.  So I tried to trim it down to even with the actual ear.  The problem however is getting a proper cut.  No matter how I do it the cut looks very blocky and fake.  I guess I kind of what it to naturally taper to an end.  Also I'm wondering if this would be a good place to use the curved scissors to follow the curve of the ear.

3.  The long hair on top of the muzzle.  I have no clue what to do with this. Right now it's pretty long and it kind of sticks up in front of her eyes and then curves down like a handlebar mustache.  Obviously this is not the look I want for my little girl.  I'm hesitant to take it down to 3/4 inch, however - because I don't know if it will stick straight up into her field of vision.

4.  Finally, it's apparent to me that I will need to get some decent shears.  I have a good clipper but the shears I was using were not so good and are pretty much ready for the garbage.  I do have a decent pair of human hair shears so I switched to those to finish the job.  I think that to start I will need a straight pair, a pair of thinning shears and possible a curved pair.  I don't think I need the really expensive professional ones because I'm only using them on one dog - but still they have to work.  If anyone has suggestions on brands and models I would love to hear.

Thanks so much and looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Cheers,

Jay

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

yes, that is what I meant.  You are right that the "tip" is the right word for it.  I called it sideburns because I couldn't think of the right word for it, and as a guy when you get a haircut the last thing is always the issue of whether you what them to take down the sideburns - for some reason it kind of reminded me of that.

I think you are right that using clippers will give a better, more textured look.  I think maybe next time I will do the outside flap with the clipper with a comb, then take off the comb and use my fingers as a guide to do the tip and kind of feather it as I go - if that makes any sense.

Is that what you do for the outside of the flap?  May I ask what blade and comb you use?

[Adina P]

I use a #10 blade and the combs vary on how short I feel like going. I don't think I have anything larger than 1" but perhaps 1 1/4 (I'd have to check). I'm no expert on proper blades and combs. I just assumed if you're gonna use combs might as well use the shortest blade.

[BG and Gavin]

Hi Jay - this is a helpful how-to document re: grooming that was posted in this group a few years back.

http://www.asdcompanionlabradoodles.com/Groomer%20Inst.pdf

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

I did see that one.  Thanks Bruce.