Home doggy haircut: The second trial

3 months ago or so I decided that I am no longer going to take my rather old dog to the doggy hair salon because it just stresses her out too much and she shakes out of fear when we are just in the lobby. The look of betrayal on her face when I hand her over to the technicians that are going to bathe her, cut her nails, and cut her hair is just too much for me to bear.

It's just a couple of hours but I don't want to put her through that. So I got some clippers and I do it myself now. I don't do as good of a job as they do at the salon, but I do well enough especially when you consider that Nadi's fashion runway days are long behind her.

She is so calm about it with me probably because I have been the only stable thing in her life for the past 12 years. She knows I am not going to hurt her. When the salon people do it, she doesn't feel that way and it really wouldn't surprise me if they did give her a smack every now and then. I suppose I don't really even fault them for that. They have a job to do after all and if the dog isn't cooperating there's only a couple of ways to make that happen.

here's a picture of her beforehand, just for reference. I didn't feel like her hair was really all that long, but I thought I was going to be going on a month-long trip over the Pacific ocean and wanted to have her in best form for her babysitter while I am gone.

It isn't a terribly complicated process. The guard is on the clippers and I just run it all over her body. She stays still if told to do so, but she is one wrong sound on my part away from jumping up and shaking hair all over the apartment.

It takes a while because I have to roll her over in various ways. This would probably go a lot faster if I put her on a table instead and maybe I will do that next time. At this angle, it can actually be kind of bad on my back as I hold that position for probably near an hour.

The amount of hair at the end is nearly the size of some of the smaller dogs that we see around here. There was a lot more extra hair that I had thought there would be.

part of the reason why she is so well-behaved during this is the same reason why she is so well-behaved when I am giving her a bath. She knows that treats are incoming and I give them liberally during these times.

When I am finished or I should say, when I have done enough that it doesn't look stupid, she kind of looks up at me as if I am going to pick up the shears again and have another go.

I think I did a pretty decent job this time although doing the face area is the hardest part. I don't really attempt to do that so closely and maybe will talk to the salon about how I want to go and have them do ONLY her face and I want to be present when it is going on. If they say no then I just wont do it and will find another groomer that says yes.

There is also the option in the future of paying extra for the groomers to come to me and do it in my own house. I haven't investigated how much that would be but I am sure it isn't cheap since they have to bring all their equipment including a doggy haircut table that folds up on a motorbike. That can't be easy to transport and I do accept that it would cost a bit more.

For now, since Nadi isn't winning any fashion awards any time soon, this is good enough. The main thing is to get some of the hair off of her so she doesn't get so hot in the Vietnam summer.

Of course, she being the little princess that she is, she does spend a great deal of her day in fluffy beds that are near an air con unit so it's not really that much of a factor. Walkies are still one of her favorite things to do though, and I want to make it as comfortable as possible.