Breed Trim: Australian Shepherd teddy bear trim

Pepper before

I have several clients that prefer to have there dog’s hair trimmed quite short for the summer.  This particular Australian Shepherd, Pepper, lives by the lake and forest so a shorter coat works better for the summer months.  I used a #3 3/4 blade to accomplish this delightful teddy bear look.  I then scissor the fringes on the front leg in a just sligthly longer length at the client’s request.  It would look just fine with the blade length going down the fronts as well.

Pepper groom complete

Breed Trim: Schnoodle

 

Cody before groom

Cody groom complete

Cody is a Schnauzer/Poodle cross.  As with all cross-bred dogs it is a total toss-up as to what genetics are displayed in the look and temperament.  Cody is a sensible and loving little fellow, delightfully quiet about the yard; he has a shrill bark when he does so.   He came to board with us for a weekend and finished off his stay with a full groom.  His coat is coarse and densely curly in keeping with his Poodle side.  He has a compact muscular body more towards the Schnauzer side.  Based on the longer flap of hair hanging over his eyes I had to assume that his owner preferred to bring out his Schnauzerness.  The rest of his body appeared to be pretty much the same length all over.  I had not gotten any information on length or styling from the people who dropped him off for the owner so I had to make a guess at how to proceed.  Though I ended up changing my mind, I started out with the basic Schnauzer type trim for his body but to be honest his hair was far to curly to look good done as a Schnauzer.  What I settled for was a #4 on the body, legs, ears and top of the head; a style that always looks good on curly coated dogs.  Then I shaped his face along the Schnauzer lines, brick shaped muzzle, tight down the sides of the face with a brow ridge over the eyes that did not look like the big floppy eye lashes look that he came to me with.   It is an easy care, long-lasting style that still embraces the spunkiness of his Schnauzer heritage.

Breed Trim: Airedale

Duke before

Duke is an eight month old Airedale Terrier.  As shown in the before photo his coat was quite fully grown in from the last Breed Trim that he had.  This is just his second full groom; he was tense at the start but settled down very well.  An Airedale breed trim is very sleek to show off their well muscled body.  For a “pet” groom the length can vary from a #10 to a #5 but a #10 looks beautiful; leg hair length is personal choice also.

Duke groomed Breed Trim

• On Duke I used a #10 blade on the body.
• The legs are left with some fullness with the feet shaped nice and tidy.  I set the length for the legs starting just at the front “elbow” using a 1/2 inch comb attachment with no back-brushing; I then scizzored the legs to get the even tubular look.  I set the length and scizzored the same way for the back legs down from about 4 fingers above the hock and from the tuck up on down.
• There is a light fringe left on the underside in keeping with the length chosen for the legs.  The chest is shaved with a #10 blade tapering off just before the spot where the hair changes to several growth directions.
• All of the transition areas (from#10 blade to 1/2 inch comb) are tapered and then blended away to smoothness with blending shears.
• The muzzle of an Airedale is usually left natural with just a bit of tidying to give it a brick shape.
• I used a #10 blade to shave the top of the head and jaw as well as the shave the tail.
• For shaping the eyebrows I combed the hair straight forward and used scizzors pointed forward toward Duke’s nose.  I then used to blending shears to carefully fine tune between the brows.
• The ears are shaved with a #10 blade also and ever so carefully closely trimmed around the edges with scizzoring always keeping my fingers between the ear leather and my shears.  If anybody is going to get cut it will just be me…not the dog.