WORKING ON THE BICHON OUTLINE

One of my passionate goals in my work is to master the bichonfrise breed trim. I am not willing to settle for "good enough for pet grooming," although I KNOW my grooming is good enough, and better than most. My goal is to know that I can consistently put out bichons that represent how the breed looks in the show ring. I want to nail it!

Let me share some of my ups and downs in chasing this elusive goal. First let me say that when I first started grooming, I groomed from the parts to the whole. That is, I visualized each section and gradually built the whole picture. Rear legs, front legs, undercarriage, head, backside, front, etc. Nowadays, 33 years later, I visualize the outline first and then finesse the parts. Today we are looking at the bichon outline.

The finessed bichon groom is highly sculpted, hand scissored, to a shape that reveals a certain profile that reflects not just fluffiness, but a look that is compact, stylish, and "put together". There is a tendency of groomers, professional and owner/groomers to do what I call the marshmallow trim. This is kind of just long and fluffy all over...same length all over. Although this is acceptable, especially if trimmed with a snap on comb and not just hugely long, it does not reflect the true bichon style.

Here are two bichon grooms that I did last week, on 12/8/04 and 12/11/04. I was quite proud of the 12/8 groom on "Bailey" and the owners are totally happy, but when I got home and looked at my picture, I realized this was not exactly "it".

My critique of this is: overall too much length, not enough rear angulation, too poofy in the front.

Three days later, I kept this in mind when I groomed Pierre. Now this is more like it:


Pierre is standing a little better than Bailey, but I think you can see the difference. By taking more off the topline (top of back), I have better revealed the curve of the neck piece. Much better is the rear angulation. To MAKE MYSELF get that, I used a snap-on comb (size 0)to scoop out that curve. I also did a better job on the front, making it a little straighter (today's trend). Overall, I think I benefitted from Bailey's picture and was able to make some effective corrections. Hope these help you! Here is a second picture of Pierre, showing his happy face:

Now to do something about that wall! It's been too long between paint jobs!