No photos today of my little doggie visitors. The owner were both in a rush and came for pick up almost exactly as the grooming sessions were complete.

The first was Tinkerbell...a golden ShihTsu Pomeranian cross about 6 years old. This was her first on my grooming table. She was very nervous at the start but came around very nicely. The dryer made her anxious...pooping anxious...so I cut that somewhat short and let the fan blow her face dry instead while I worked on her body and legs. She had a lot of large mats on her lower legs and feet. The ones on her body were easy to comb out. Anyway I took her lower legs down with a #5, skimmed her body with a 1inch comb and blended her upper legs down to the #5 length. She ended up with a Pom looking body but her face and ears are all ShihTsu in look so I just tidied them to blend down to the comb length. Once her legs grow back she'll look fuller coated all the way down to her feet but for now that's all I could do to deal with the heavy matting. Her folks were happy with the look.

The next dog was Diesel the ShihTsu. This was his second visit to my grooming table so I knew what to expect. After his first visit I made a note on his file that he bites for the ear plucking, has front leg issues and does not tolerate the clipper on his face. He was true to form today. He's a very steady fellow otherwise but kind of heavy and close to the ground. All in all his grooming went without any problems. With him I have basically one shot at his face before he gets snappy. I used blending shears on the top of his nose and under the eyes as well as to shorten his short round face look. He is too quick to lunge and snap to safely use anything other than that blunt type of shears near his face. And, there is no going back to redo something that looks missed I with him...gotta do in right the first time. I manage the ear plucking by using 3 loops...one up from the neck as usual, one up from the rear (no sit type) and one straight forward from the neck. This way I can limit the bite zone and can approach his ears from above. He's not he kind of guy that settles if held by the chin hairs. The groom was relaxed and pleasant inspite of his snappish ways.

My only disappointment was...no photos.