This is not a difficult groom to get right. It is a basic terrier trim on a big body. The biggest mistake that is made by some pet groomers is to follow the color pattern with the clippers. I sometimes see that on the hips, especially. It makes for puffy poodley rear legs. The rear should be very tight, in a pattern similar to any of the long legged terriers. Since I don't have another picture, let's look at a larger one:
You might notice that for a clippered coat, this color is not bad. Clipping can often lead to fading of color of an Airedale, making the black jacket almost blue, but I have minimized this loss by carding out dead coat before clipping. "Carding" is a grooming technique of removing dead undergrowth. Some terrier groomers call this "mucking out" the coat. Here is what I removed before bathing:
The Furminator tool (see yellow head/black handle) is an excellent choice for mucking out terrier coats. A thicker coat, or full leg furnishings can be carded with a Mat Breaker tool. Neither of these tools were designed for terrier grooming, but they sure work well! I am not a big fan of using a Coat King for carding, because it cuts rather than pulls out hair. By removing this coat instead of just clipping or cutting it short, you are stimulating new growth of dark, thick, coarse hairs. Although this does not represent a full hand stripping, the carding out processs can help prevent color and texture loss. For the 10 extra minutes spent doing this, you can easily charge an additional $10.
This dog was clipped with a #5F blade on the body and the legs were skimmed with the blade and lightly scissored. Jacques does not have a lot of leg furnishings, in fact the back legs barely grow enough. It makes for a very quick groom. I didn't spend more than 20 minutes on this groom. On an Airedale with more furnishings, I would use a snap-on comb to take them down to about this much.
This head was done with a #10 blade on the ears and the rest with a #7. From the bump on the back of the head (the occiput), I sweep the clippers against the grain right over the eyebrows, making the top of my brick shape. I clip from the corner of the eye, to the ear and down the throat with the grain, and then I go against the grain from the throat point up under the chin forward, leaving just a modest beard. The underline, from the chest up under the chin, is an important detail on your terriers. You can see it somewhat in this picture. In the full body picture, the dog is straining against the collar and it ruins the line. What I aim for is a line from front up the throat and under the chin that resembles a shepard's staff.
I see a little bit of hair behind the corner of the mouth which should not be there. You can see it more in this next picture. Do as I say, not as I do.
On this head, I also used the clippers to whack off anything on the side of the whiskers that was sticking out beyond the brick shape I was going for. Then I tightened up the eyebrows and blended everything with blending shears. "Whack off".... that's term and technique that newbie groomers should probably avoid. My motion with the clippers was to go down towards the table, with the grain of hair. Airedale hair is well-suited to trimming by skimming with the clippers.
I've learned to do my Airedale heads quickly and with broad strokes because many of this breed are impatient about head work. They are too strong to fight with over detailing their faces. So I got FAST! I'll try to share more about this in a future article. Stay tuned.
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