Yorkie Grooming Clips


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!