Dog Grooming?

brij2006 · August 2013

Since this board is more lively than others, and I know most of us are pet owners, I'm posting it here. I may get the courage to post it on the Pets board, but we'll see.

Does anyone do their pet grooming themselves? If so, what all do you do? Do you trim your dog yourself?

Our Collie, Sadie, is in need of a good grooming. Usually I take her to a groomers, but H didn't like the way they made her "look like a boy" last time with using clippers on her long full coat. So he seems to think we should just attempt grooming her ourselves. I have no clue where to even begin with this or what I need. I usually bathe her myself once every 4 months, then she gets a bath at the groomers once a year. So that part I know how to do, but that's it.

Any suggestions or recommendations on scissors to use for cutting fur?

LuckyAngel07 · August 2013

My grandparents have owned nothing but Collies, and I can't recall them ever trimming their fur. Of course, I could just be clueless about Collie grooming. Do they really need haircuts? I thought they shed like other dogs, so there's no reason for cutting their hair. Just lots and lots of brushing to keep everything from getting matted and to get out the loose hair.

Zoey is a Boxer, so the most I need to do for her is a bath every now and then and clipping her nails.

amccul20 · August 2013

so i'm not really going to be helpful. my MIL cuts the dogs nails and we bathe them. They're short haired dogs so they don't ever need to be trimmed.

sparklingdiamond · August 2013

I bathe mine and we take them to get their nails trimmed, but that's about it. I also have all short haired dogs though!

brij2006 · August 2013

She gets what they call "feathers" behind her legs and butt. Usually they are just trimmed back, but last time they took actual clippers to her entire body. I was okay with it and it made her look like a puppy again, but H said it was a "boy" haircut (whatever that's supposed to mean). So now he doesn't want to get her groomed again by someone.

I've tried Googling how to groom a Collie, but it looks like a lot of work. She definitely needs it, but she gets a bit crazy and impatient when I try to groom her. Which is why I've always just taken her somewhere.

poppies717 · August 2013

One of our dogs has the same type of feathering behind his legs. We take him to the groomers and specifically tell them that we only want the feathering trimmed. I'd try to get DH to give it another shot at the groomers. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

abt8113 · August 2013

We have short-haired dogs, so I'm no help with your problem. DH bathes our dogs, and we take them to get their nails trimmed. They are not very good at getting their nails done, so I will happily pay someone else to do it!

Sewilson33 · August 2013

I have a black lab and he gets bathed/showered, nails done and teeth cleaned at home.
I MIGHT send him to get an actual teeth cleaning done somewhere but I don't really want to. They put them under and I don't want to put him through that.

Sewilson33 · August 2013

Oh I do have a long hair cat!! I use regular hair trimming scissors on him but he HATES it. He needs to be buzzed bc he has so many matts and attacks me anytime I get close to him with a comb or scissors. But our buzzer doesn't work on his hair.

seahorse01 · August 2013

We take ours to be groomed because I tried doing it myself and it was a PIA. Never again. Nope.

Just be sure to specify that you just want the feathering done and get some recommendations from your vet on a good groomer.

We also take ours in to get their nails trimmed frequently.

brij2006 · August 2013

Sounds like the groomer is still my best option. H liked the first groomer we took her to, but they cost about $100. The one he didn't like only cost us $55. Which is why he wants to attempt it ourselves, because she could use a good grooming at least once every 6 months. I just push it to once a year.

sandollar1010 · August 2013

I will give my dogs baths, but that's it. I have two standard poodles and we just get them buzz cuts - nothing frilly. So we figured it would be easy enough to do on our own.... it was a nightmare - never again! I guess you can't use human clippers on dog fur - oops! :-/

seahorse01 · August 2013

sandollar1010 said:

I will give my dogs baths, but that's it. I have two standard poodles and we just get them buzz cuts - nothing frilly. So we figured it would be easy enough to do on our own.... it was a nightmare - never again! I guess you can't use human clippers on dog fur - oops! :-/

Standard poodles are my favorite dogs! Don't tell my little darlings that. I just love how regal the poodles look. Yep- clipping dogs yourselves is a nightmare. I will gladly pay somebody to do it for me.

DangerMuffin23 · August 2013

yeah, I bought dog clippers and I do those areas myself. I don't do the whole body bc it's too time consuming, but it's nice for touchups. Normally I wash her one day, let her air dry and brush her for a day or two THEN do the clippers on her haunches, in between her toes. DH doesn't like me taking her to the groomers either because I have them cut her whole coat down and he says she gets "embarassed" by her lack of fur. Men are ridiculous.

)

brij2006 · August 2013

@DangerMuffin23 Men are nuts. If you saw our Sadie after getting groomed, you would think she had just won a pagaent. She acts like a prissy girl afterward. Even prances when you walk with her. It's quite entertaining. So I don't think she feels "boyish" with being clipped.

sandollar1010 · August 2013

@seahorse01 - They crack me up! They prance around all fancy one minute, and roll around in a dead animal the next. I just love how smart they are... too smart sometimes

seahorse01 · August 2013

sandollar1010 said:

@seahorse01 - They crack me up! They prance around all fancy one minute, and roll around in a dead animal the next. I just love how smart they are... too smart sometimes

Please share some pictures when you have a few moments

DangerMuffin23 · August 2013

Yeah, DH was horrified!!!!!! when I had her shaved for summer when we were first living together. He actually moped around for like three days and kept apologizing to the dog for my "choice to shave her". I couldn't stop laughing at how upset he was. Soooo, I don't shave her like that anymore and now that we have a central vac that's amazing I only trim the parts I mentioned above. Everybody's happy.

carcrashheart · August 2013

my family owns a pet grooming salon and my sister is the main groomer. each breed is meant to be groomed a specific way. $100 for a medium/large dog that requires a lot of grooming does not sound unreasonable. only bathing the dog every 4 months and only grooming it twice a year does seem extremely unreasonable. i hope that you're brushing the dog out quite a lot because you're already running the risk of ending up with mats in the fur and then you're going to end up with a shaved dog when the groomers can't do anything to groom it but to shave it down.

there is a reason that groomers go through a class and certification to do what they do. it's also why there are special clippers for each kind of cut and angle, why they work with the dogs on tables and have the collars to keep the dog in place. that's not to say that there aren't some things that you can do at home, because there absolutely are. my sister was actually asked by the local community college to teach a 4 week class on at home grooming, so she does that a few times a year. when i asked her why she would do that since it seems like it would take away business, she explained that it's helpful if clients know how to do some things at home and maintain their pet so that when they need a full groom the pet doesn't have fur that is one big mass of a stuck together mess.

good luck

brij2006 · August 2013

@carcrashheart
Sadie gets brushed every day with a regular brush, and every other day with the undercoat brush. So we definitely stay on top of it. H just doesn't like me bathing her too often because of dry skin and all of that jazz (he's paranoid).

I so wish that our local community college offered a class on at home grooming. That would be amazing!

carcrashheart · August 2013

lol! oh DH. i'm sure there's something you could use that would be good with combating the dry skin. i can't help there-that's totally my sister's area. she would know for sure.

look in to it or see if you can suggest it. she has a pretty good turn out.

nfp147 · August 2013

brij2006 said:

Sounds like the groomer is still my best option. H liked the first groomer we took her to, but they cost about $100. The one he didn't like only cost us $55. Which is why he wants to attempt it ourselves, because she could use a good grooming at least once every 6 months. I just push it to once a year.

Could you go back to the cheaper one and be more specific about what you want?

Panderp · August 2013

Oh man, we used clippers with Sprout and gave her a cut. She looked insane, but not insane enough for me to spend $50 on a cut. But I became friends with some guys we see at our farmer's market every week, and they own a doggie spa and have begged me to bring her to fix it. LOL. Wheee!

Panderp · August 2013

brij2006 said:

@carcrashheart
Sadie gets brushed every day with a regular brush, and every other day with the undercoat brush. So we definitely stay on top of it. H just doesn't like me bathing her too often because of dry skin and all of that jazz (he's paranoid).
I so wish that our local community college offered a class on at home grooming. That would be amazing!

Sprout had a dry skin problem, but we started to add sardine oil to her kibble (when she's eating dry food) (small fish oil is better than larger fish oil)-- and her skin is great now!

brij2006 · August 2013

Panderp said:
Sprout had a dry skin problem, but we started to add sardine oil to her kibble (when she's eating dry food) (small fish oil is better than larger fish oil)-- and her skin is great now!

I think I'm going to start bathing her every other month instead of every 4 months. She has never had a skin problem, and H is only paranoid because his dad's dog is on a lot of meds for his dry skin from H's step-mom giving him a bath once a month.

Although the fish oil is something I may look into. We used to do an egg on the top of her food, and it made her coat very shiny. But then I read mixed reviews on doing that, so I stopped.

nfp147 said:
Could you go back to the cheaper one and be more specific about what you want?

I think I may run that by H and see what his thoughts are. They're very accomodating, and I know that it shouldn't be a problem to only have them trim her longer hairs instead of clipping all of her.

Panderp · August 2013

@brij2006 -- We got a bottle of sardine oil over the winter and it is still going (we only add about a 1/2 tsp. at each feeding). Our dog boutique mentioned that sardine oil is better because since it's a smaller fish, they contain less mercury than larger fishes. We bathe Sprout 1x/month and her coat is great (but she is also so small we can wash her in the kitchen sink and it takes 15 min from start to finish-- so much easier!)

agoodse · August 2013

Thankfully I finally found a groomer who will do Pepper (in my siggy) for just $30. We take her once every two months. She gets pretty stinky quickly. $30 gets her a bath, fur trimmed (around her legs and tail, we had her shaved once but that was a mistake for her breed and fur quality), nails clipped, teeth brushed, yadda yadda. It's so nice. They don't furminate her though, so I'd love that. I really need to buy one on Amazon though. It would certainly help our poor little roomba. If I were doing her at home, I'd get a pair of clippers, as well as dog nail trimmers. Scrub the collie down (we use Dawn; most will say don't use human shampoos, but rather oatmeal shampoos to keep the coat from going dander'y and then trim however you see fit)

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