Matting-wise, it was pretty bad. They sadly expected a "smoothie" clip. It looked like it would need to use a #7 blade, but I decided to try a wet clipping. I bathed the dog, loaded it with conditioner and was able to work a #4F blade through the coat. A quick drying and a little finishing and we had this:
In this instance, I chose NOT to trim the tail or ears. It is a choice of whether to go for a more natural look or more trimmed appearance. Because the people wanted "as scruffy as possible", I elected to leave the ears and tail, but shortened the face and around the eyes. They were very happy and of course promised to be back in sooner. We will see.
I was able to get a good price for this groom, I think I charged $65.00*. They were really happy to have that extra length on the body that the wet clipping allowed. My experience has been that I am more likely to have a dog like this return before it gets to be in such a mess when I work a little harder to save more coat. Yes, a #10 smoothie is perfectly justified and considerably easier, but if the owners hate the haircut, even when it IS their own fault, they just put off going to the groomer again. And again. As I said, we will see. I'll let you know when this dog returns. If possible, I'll continue a thread on shih tzu grooming.
*2005 price. 2014 price for this makeover would be $85.00
This dog was bathed with ShowSeasons "System" shampoo for bathing systems, followed by Hansen's Cherry Remo thick remoisturizer conditioner. A very thick conditioner is helpful for wet clipping to save coat length.
Clipper work was with an Andis Super 2-speed clipper and a #4F blade. Tummy with a #10 blade. Feet pads and inside corner of eyes were clipped with a small trimmer. Scissor finishing was with an 6.5" curved shear, and an 8" straight shear.
Grooming tools can be purchased from the BBird Shopping Cart.
dog looks awesome!
ReplyDeletewe just recently got a 3 year old shih tzu that has never had clippers on her.
I comb her daily, but I'd like to have her professionally groomed. Can she be scissored only?
thanks
sandy
Although a drop coat, such as the Shih Tzu, Maltese, Lhasa Apso can be scissored rather than clipped, very few groomers can do it. Such trimming requires using more hair stylist techniques, such as scissor-over-comb cutting etc.
ReplyDeleteIf you like the full length Shih Tzu style, then you need only to find someone who can scissor the feet and tidy up the face and under the tail. I call those areas "the front door and the back door."
I have never shaved a dog wet and have a few questions if you don't mind. Is it jusr how it sounds, a good bath with conditioner, towel off and shave away or is there more to it? I have also heard that shaving dogs while wet is more of a risk to cut the dog and to ruin your blades is this true?
ReplyDeleteP.S. unfortunately I work for one of the evil corporations and they don't teach us stuff like this so I am absolutely loving this blog. Thank you!!
-tara
I use lots of conditioner, straight from the bottle or jar, not diluted. I don't towel off. In fact, if the coat starts to dry, it gets more difficult to clip. I keep a spray bottle of water or conditioner on hand to re-wet the coat if necessary. I think there is actually less risk of cutting a dog while clipping the wet coat, because less force is necessary to work the blade under the fur. Another plus is that the blades do not heat up as fast on a wet coat. Wet clipping will not ruin your blades unless you neglect to clean them right after completing the groom. I brush the blade out, blow dry it with a blast of the high velocity dryer, and re-oil before starting the next dog. Thanks for asking your question, Tara, and I'm sorry for my delay in responding. Good luck with your grooming career!
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