CUT
DOWN TRIMS
by
Sharon
McCadam
From
the first entry fee to the Championship Certificate, many of us look forward
to the day we can take our dog "out of wraps" and let that new Champion
be a DOG! Watching them run a race in the grass or the garden, chew on the puppy
toys and get to play "roughhouse" with their kennel mates certainly
tells me they like being "out of wraps" too. Their first night of
sleeping without the lumps must be heaven, some of us can relate to this if
we have slept on hair rollers overnight!
My
preference is to create a soft expression by visualizing a Westie/ Cairn Terrier
style of scissored head with the body clipped off smooth like a miniature Schnauzer
with the furnishing modified as to how much you leave on the underside of the
belly and the legs. I think this is a smart, easy-to-care-for trim and by experimenting
with different lengths of hair on head types, you will find you can still be
creative with your own preferences. I like to shorten the hair on the ears at
an angle to create the look you see when our Yorkies were 3 months old or so,
all that long hair off the ears has a tendency to pull the ears out to the side
and gets in the water, food and mouths. You may prefer to leave the topknot
in a band, and trim the length to create a "water spout" on top of
the head, however, in my opinion, the dog deserves to have a trimmed head and
to heck with any more rubber bands they usually try to rub out!
First
bathe the coat with a good cleansing shampoo and put on only a very dilute conditioner
if any. While I have the dog wrapped in a towel, I trim toenails while
they are soft to prevent shattering. Then blow the dog dry, brushing the coat
as usual and then comb through to remove any tats.
I
use an A-5 Clipper with either a #5 #7 or #10 blade, beginning at the base of
the backskull, where the blue begins, clip off the hair in the pattern suggested
by our dogs coat pattern. In other words, the blue body hair is clipped very
smooth. As you approach the elbows, bottom of the body and rear legs where the
gold color starts you will need to lift your blade slightly to taper and blend
into the gold coat. Be conservative when you first start down the sides, you
can always take off more coat. You will need to do some scissor blending, then
more clipping, tapering with the blade to create the pattern. I would recommend
you study a good Schnauzer picture or study a grooming book on pet Schnauzer
grooming. Some people prefer to leave more hair on the rear leg but I prefer
to clip them as in the Schnauzer trim, which creates the appearance of a short
body. Be careful to not clip too far down the front of the chest, stop just
above the cowlick swirls, you will blend this with the scissors.
I
clean out the pads of the feet, as we do for the ring, stand the dog and comb
all hair down and using a 8 1/2" shear, make a clean cut, from the middle
of the loin area, diagonally, to slightly below the elbow, recomb and then scissor
the front of the rear legs, following the natural bend of stifle, but shortening
so the coat is not dragging on the floor. Pick up the rear foot and looking
from the side, trim off the hair that falls below the bottom of the foot, stand
the dog and scissors off the stray hairs to neaten and round the foot. Comb
the hair on the front legs down and standing above the dog, scissor straight
down to neaten the furnishings, trim off the excess from the bottom of the foot,
and then stand the dog and neaten and round the front feet. You may wish to
shorten the whole picture here, comb the hair down, trim off the 'poky outs'
fluff out and keep a line in mind and trim off what is sticking outside of your
imaginary line.
Repeat
on the other side, trying to match the lengths, if one side is too short, remember,
there is nothing more temporary than a haircut, it will grow! Just even it to
match as best you can.
The
head is probably the hardest to master, but if you will keep in mind or even
have a picture of a Westie head you will soon learn how to work with the hair
to achieve that look. Remember BE CONSERVATIVE WHEN MAKING YOUR FIRST CUTS,
you can always take more hair off. I usually clipper just in front of the eye
corners and across the bridge of the nose at the top about 1/4", comb all
of the hair on the topknot forward, hold your scissors horizontally in front
of the dog's eyes, on the top of the muzzle, and make my first cut 3/4 of the
way down the muzzle or right at the end of the muzzle. Comb the hair up and
out, comb the beard and mustache out and down. Under the chin about 2 inches
imagine a big smile and cut this smile line in a circle up to the outside edge
of the ears on both sides. STOP. Comb the hair together from the topknot, sides
of mustache, and head up and out. If it is too long, then imagine where the
circle of the smile line is, and scissor of the hair that is sticking out beyond
this imaginary circle. USE SOME HAIRSPRAY TO HELP HOLD THE HAIR OUT TO THE SIDES,
YOU CAN ALWAYS REBATHE AFTER THE HAIRCUT, IT WILL BE SO EASY AND FAST! Now continue
to comb, scissor off the "poky outs", look at the Westie head and
try to copy and achieve the circle. I call this "putting a smile"
on the dog's head. As you reach about halfway to 3/4 of the way up the ear you
will want to complete the circle and comb the hair up on top of the head, spray,
and scissor off the hair that is outside of the circle line. The shorter you
cut the hair, the less weight it will have and the more it will lift up and
out. Make a curved line from in front of the eyes back to join and blend into
the shortened hair at the sides of the head and ears.
I
like to think of the Vidal Sassoon Haircuts, if you will comb the hair every
which way and scissor off the "poky outs" on the outside of this imaginary
circle, looking at the head from the side and top, using the back of the ear
as part of the circle and from the front, using the outside edge of the ears
as your landmark, you will achieve "the look."
I
have found this haircut grows out quite "gracefully" and my last cut
of the body coat in late fall is generally left to grow over the colder winter
months to give the dogs protection from the cold with maintenance grooming done
around the head to keep them neat and appealing. I also do not clip off the
hair on the top 1/3 to 1/2 of my dog's ears in the colder months to afford them
the protection this hair offers.
Good
luck with your cut-down trims and know there is no right or wrong way to do
them. It should be easy for you to modify the above instructions to your liking
and please remember to tell the dog with the "new do" how beautiful
they look, as they might be somewhat embarrassed in their short hair, especially
if someone in their family laughs at them!
You may find that the part down
the dog's back is visible for awhile but it will soon lay down and blend in
smoothly. I find that the topknot wants to go back instead of forward right
at first, so by blow drying and brushing the hair in the direction you want
it to go does retrain it.
This
clip is more all over short than the instructions above, but is just right
for this little swimmer!