Today I am going to touch on a light-hearted subject, dog grooming. I know many of you will wonder how I can consider dog grooming light, but just hang on, I will clarify..
We have two small dogs (one is around 6 pounds, the other is around 12) that have hair and not fur. Dogs that have hair do not shed like "regular" dogs. Their hair grows just like ours does. The only way to keep them neat is to have them groomed regularly, just like people. Well, in my infinite wisdom, I decided I didn't want to pay the relatively high prices for grooming so got all the grooming supplies to be my own groomer.
I even had a good friend (a REALLY good friend) show me the proper way of grooming our dogs. She is a professional groomer and spent a few hours working with me and we groomed one of the dogs together. Well, that went well, and I was able to successfully groom the other one fairly easily the next day at home.
As we have been traveling, I groomed the dogs every month or so in order that they didn't get all matted up. Now, for some reason, I am having one heck of a time grooming the little guy. I don't think I hurt him at any point, but he is almost unmanageable when I try to groom him. He loves to lean on me when I am trying to clip him, he won't let me get NEAR his nether-regions (I will not cut anything off...promise...) and don't even THINK about clipping the hair on his feet and legs. I would like to think he is terribly ticklish. On a normal day, you really can't touch his feet without him yanking them away. I still haven't figured out how to trim his nails...that will be another blog...
Anyway, now that you know the little guy is a major fidget when it comes to grooming, three guesses how funny he looks after I attempt to trim up his face and ears. I would like to say asymmetrical is a good look and a look for today...but really, when you look at him, he is lopsided...you have to giggle. I do usually get him straightened out, it just takes me time. Since he was always fidgety, and I usually groomed them in the morning, I thought to groom them at night...HA, big mistake. Now I know why groomers don't work in the evening. Boy, he was fidget times 100.
I was able to trim his belly, somewhat, but there are splotches of hair, and worse, spots of NO hair...oops...don't wiggle... Trying to trim around that little stump of a tail has always been a challenge, the tail turns into a clam shell (even the vet laughs, she has trouble getting a thermometer where it belongs), so I can only clip the top of the tail and around... looks really funny when his tail is back up in the air, all that hair on the underside... Last night, just forget about clipping his feet. Two of us could not hold him still enough to get the clippers closer than a few yards of his feet. I had to hold him by the scruff of his neck to try to trim his belly, but that didn't work, he still wiggles...
The upshot is that today, the little guy has big fluffy feet, not groomed, a somewhat even face, a big fluffy butt (I hear a jingle in there...), still very hairy nether regions and bare spots on his belly. I am not really looking forward to phase 2 of his grooming. Perhaps sedation...for me... As an FYI, the other dog looks great, she is not fond of the grooming, but puts up with it, so I really know it is not my TOTAL incompetence, the little guy just got a wild hair...now I know why sometimes when I used to bring them into the groomer, she would sigh when she saw him...
Tomorrow I will update you on my latest weight loss progress.
Until tomorrow.
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