Cats, Cocker Spaniels, and More!

This is Sequoia.  I have posted his picture before.  I have groomed him a few times now, and this week I felt 100% confident about his groom.  It was a great feeling!  It's nice having repeat customers, because then I already know what the owner expects, and what to expect from the dog. 

This is Boss (I love that name for him).  He was shedding really bad, so his owner brought him to me to get rid of some of his extra fur.  I combed him for over an hour, and when I was done, there was a hairball in my garbage as big as Boss!  That should help cut back on the hair he leaves around the house!

BEFORE:  This is Gus the Cocker Spaniel.  I love the color on this boy!  His owner is a friend, and I asked if I could groom him so I could try out a new technique I learned for Cocker Spaniels.  She kindly agreed to bring him in for a complimentary grooming.  :)

AFTER:  Doesn't he look handsome?!  My favorite part is his ears and his eyebrows.  He was such a good boy!  And so patient for me, while I "practiced" on him!

BEFORE:  This is Buddy.

AFTER:  Look what I found under all that fluff!  Shaving Buddy didn't even phase him.  He wanted to sit for most of his grooming.  I think he thought he was having a spa day!  His long ears just looked too good on him, so I combed them out, but otherwise didn't mess with them! 

This is Buddy's "sister" Lyla.  She's a mini-aussie, and has the most beautiful colors!  I couldn't get over how pretty she was.  She deserved two bows for being such an awesome and obedient client!

Mohawk, anyone?

 I like to see before and after pictures, so I decided to try and be better about taking the "before" pictures.  Usually I'm halfway through shaving when I remember to take a picture.  But I remembered the before picture with my second dog today:

This is Jack.  His owner told me he was so shaggy she could mop the floor with him.  She wasn't kidding!

Jack's owner requested he have a mohawk.  She didn't specify that she only wanted the mohawk on his head...

So she got a pretty good laugh when she came to pick him up, and the mohawk went all the way to the tip of his tail!  I offered to shave it off, but she must have liked it because she had Jack keep it.  Not bad for my first mohawk!

This is Cookie the American Eskimo.  No fancy hairdo for this little guy!  He's still a bit wet because he prefers to air dry, and today's weather was perfect for that!

Lion Cut

So today I went to the shelter to groom a badly matted cat.  Since the shelter is an already stressful situation for some of the cats, having to shave them can sometimes stress them right over the edge.  So the Vet at the shelter kindly sedated this beautiful cat for me so we could both have an enjoyable grooming session!  So please excuse the fact that she is still asleep in these photos.  :)

 

I was able to shave her in half the time it used to take me to shave a cat when I first started grooming.  I kept as much of her "mane" as I could because she really has such beautiful colors.  I decided I wanted to add a little bit of flair to her that might get her noticed, and therefore adopted out quicker, so I gave her a pom-pom tail.  She looked ready for Spring weather by the time I was done with her!

Here is a close-up of her pretty tail.  I was so happy with how this grooming turned out!  Every time I groom I am building more confidence in my skills.  I am really loving this job!

This Week's Dogs

So it's been a good week for me with grooming, and I thought I would share some photos from some of the dogs I groomed this week.

This is Megan.  She is an Affenpinscher who came in for her first grooming with me.  She was a sweetheart, but oh boy did that black hair get EVERYWHERE! 

This guy, Red, came in with Megan.  He's also an Affenpinscher.  He was loving his groom so much, that he tried laying down on the job a few times.  :)  They both did a great job getting groomed.

This is the "before" picture of Ben.  The shelter called me to come groom him because he was so badly matted.  Once I started grooming him, I realized how bad the mats and burrs really were.  Poor guy.

Here is Ben's "after" picture.  Don't mind that groggy look he's got, he is still a bit sedated.  When I started grooming him, he did so well, but I could tell the mats were so bad that it was really hurting him.  The vet at the shelter sedated him so that I could groom him without hurting him.  I wanted to keep his handsome mustache, but the poor dog had burrs all the way up to his lips.  I decided it would hurt him less to just shave it, so this is the result!  He is a sweetheart of a dog, and I hope he finds a home soon!

This is Jack, the long-haired Jack Russell Terrior.  His coloring reminds me so much of my Yorkie!  Jack was awesome today in my shop!  We gave him a summer shave, but the owner requested that his face and tail be left long.  He looked so handsome when I was done!

While Jack was waiting for his owner to pick him up, he decided to crawl into one of my smallest crates.  He could just barely fit in it, but once he was there, he wanted to stay put!  It was too funny, so I had to snap a picture of him. 

This is Buddy the Cockapoo.  This was my second time seeing him, and he did even better than the first time!  His owner said he needed some "hair on his head for the ladies," but to shave the rest of him short.  After I was done grooming him, Buddy got to show off his new do to my dog, Daisy.  Daisy approved!