well dang, one of my best clients learned that I cannot always work miricales. Super Groomer Failure...
I have been dematting and clipping this dog for over a year now, we grew him out super long but his coat is so soft and cotton like that his mom was having a difficult time keeping it brushed out. The result had me doing two or three hours of dematting, which I just don't do for every client. I feel like it's mean to the dog. No only was it unfair to me and the poor dog but the constant dematting was changing the haircut in spite of my efforts to save every last strand of hair. The rosetts on the hips gradually moved further and further backwards and the bracelets also got lower. The topknot, whew, that was a complete mess. We had it tied up but it was always one huge matt when he came in for grooming which caused hair loss right in the middle of his head. Nice. It made things difficult for a while when she decided a scissored topknot would be best. Because of the big hole up there it was almost impossiable for me to get that super soft hair of his to stand.
Anyway it was decided it would be best to maintain in int he neighborhood of three or four inches max to make brushing easier.
photo of that first shorter version of the clip
That did the trick for the most part and he hasn't been matted since the end of Novemeber. Not to mention looking a whole lot better. ( modifications are made to the placement of his jacket because he's a pet and his momma didn't want to deal with him pee'ing on his coat *eye roll* silly dog! so ignore that)
There was still the problem of the rosetts now being way to far back on the hips. Reluctantly she gave me permission to shave them off and start over.
this photo was taken the month after I clipped them off. Here I reset them into bigger than I needed squares so that they could grow out and be easier for me to round off.
This dog is normaly in every three weeks for grooming at my request. He's been soooo much easier to maintian now that he's shorter buuutttt things happen and even the shorter coat will matt terriably if it isn't brushed. That's exactly what happened. His momma called two weeks ago saying she was sooo sorry but she had forgotten to call and make his next appointment and now it would have to wait because she was going out of town on business for two weeks in the morning and what did I suggest she do about the matted coat until then. Her husband doesn't seem to be especialy fond of the dog and refuses to brush him at all in momma's absence.
He was in on Tuesday and by then was to far gone for me to save his coat. She gave permission to do whatever, as she always does when he's matted... I think she expected me to be able to pull off a save as I have always done in the past but not today
I almost cried but had no choice other than to shave the matted areas out and hope for the best. As it was it took almost an hour to get them off with a #4 blade since so long as it wasn't causing him pain I was determined to leave the coat as long as I could. I was able to demat the back of his neck and so leave a crest to give the illision of more neck and coat lenght, that made me happy at least.
I'm not the biggest fan of these results buuttt he won't be matted for a looonng while. I'll also loose a huge bit of my income for that period of time as well since obviously I can't charge her the normal price to maintain him...
As stupid as it looks I didn't dare touch those braceletts, she is in love with them it was going to be enough of a shock to see him so short as it was. I also didn't touch the rosettes other than to begin rounding them. Guess I was trying to soften the blow.
Stay tuned, I'll post pics as the trim grows out and gets back to looking like it's supposed to.
