BICHON PUPPY FIRST GROOM

Here is Casper. He came to me at six months for his very first groom. One of his daddies is battling a dreadful cancer and I expected this puppy to be a mess. As I greeted and petted Casper, I was delighted to discover practically no tangles.

Note to groomers: When greeting a new customer, I usually step to their side of the counter and greet the owner and pet in my waiting area. I will even sit down in one of the two chairs and encourage the dog to come to me to be greeted. This gives me an excellent opportunity to assess the dog's temperament with the owner present. It also creates a warm and friendly impression upon the client. I plan on five minutes for this initial intake.



As I got acquainted with Casper, his owner and I discussed the grooming goals. Because there were few tangles, the owner's desire to keep a fairly full coat was entirely realistic. As the dog had scratched a "saddle" in his fur over the shoulders, I said that I would even the rest of the body out to more or less blend in with that length.


The owner warned me that Casper might be difficult and could be "stubborn." That gave me the opportunity to clarify that the quality of the finished result would depend alot on the puppy's behavior as well as the nature of the coat. In this case the coat was fairly easy to work with, the behavior was....NOT.

It started out easy enough in the tub. Casper was good for his bath, even his face being washed. I bathed him with the "Bichon Bubbles" Ivory mixture since I had spotted him scratching his shoulders. The conditioner of choice was Chris Christensen After Bath. I then let him drip dry in a kennel while I did something else. He wasn't too happy about being kenneled, but settled down in a few minutes to watch me work on another bichon.

When he was about half dry, I used the Kool Dry HV dryer to force dry nearly all the way and begin to straighten the coat. Casper is going to have a very curly coat. What I like about the Kool Dry is that it is powerful enough to do some straightening, but has a variable speed switch so you have full control of the full range of blasting, from barely little to quite a lot. This is not a dryer for a big hairie beast, but it ideal for small to medium dogs. I finished the drying under the arm dryer for a final "fluff" dry/stretching and straightening of the coat. Casper was fairly squirmy for this part.

Having a puppy stand still on the table is a rarity, and Casper was no exception. The over-the-table LIPS (Linked Interval Positioning System) certainly helped me stablize the little rascal.

I used a Laube "0" comb attachment over a #40 blade for evening the body and shaping over the hips. This was fairly easy as it does not require total standing still. I almost never try to scissor the body on a bichon puppy. Between the soft coat that does not scissor well, and the squirmy behavior, you can make a mess. Snap-on combs are a blessing.

Here is the final result. Not a perfect grooming by a long shot (especially the head), but a remarkable transformation. Casper is on the path to perfection. :-) We are a work-in-progress that is coming along.


The feet were scissored with the little Arius-Eickert 5.5" curved shears, which is also what I use for around the eyes. The legs were scissored as best I could with my new Talyn 8.5" 3-fingered titanium shears with which I have fallen in love. The head was attempted with a Talyn 7" curved shear with reversible handle. I had massive misery in grooming this puppy's face and head. He wanted no part of it.

I have experienced a lot of dominance/control "issues" with grooming many puppies for the first time, and believe me, Casper gave me everything he had. Well, maybe not everything - we didn't poop or pee. (either one of us!) The resistence was about my holding his head still. You'd think it was the worst possible thing I could do...to hold his whiskers or muzzle gently to steady his head to make it safe for the sharp pointy scissors. Among the behaviors: jerking, bobbing, standing on back legs, pawing at groomer's hands, biting, and screaming. You would have thought I was torturing this dog just trying to shape a bichon head and scissor hair from in front of his eyes.

How did I deal with this? I persisted. I would gently hold the chin whiskers or cup the muzzle in my hand. He would pull and jerk causing it to be worse than it was. As soon as he let up a little, I would relax my grip, and give him a break. I never let go when he was pulling the hardest, as that just teaches them that pulling works. A couple of times I put my other hand gently on the top of his head and pushed toward the table which stopped him from pulling and I would then let go of my grip with the other hand. Mostly I just rode it out just holding him around the face until he realized that we were going to do what had to be done. I insisted on doing good around the eyes, but compromised on the general head shape, settling for "good enough." Then I collapsed from exhaustion. I let Casper down to play with my lhasa mix while we both recovered a happy attitude.

Casper's daddy was delighted and eagerly booked for a return visit in four weeks. I will be waiting for round two. Casper and I will work it out and he will become a handsome bichon boy.

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