Flying Poodles

Poodle Grooming

Yesterday I spent two hours with my regular poodle groomer learning how to do a basic sanitary clip (feet, face, “pooper” (her choice of description)). I took a short course about three years ago, when Elly was a puppy, but I nicked one the demo dog’s between-toe webs, and it scared me so much I never really did much after that, besides cleaning ears and keeping the toenails trimmed. Plus, it takes so much time. But, what with having two dogs, and having developed a fondness for a clean-shaven face, I thought I’d give it another try.

Once again I have developed a new appreciation for a good groomer. Katrina demonstrated the foot on Dancer’s left front paw, which took her about ten minutes. It took me twenty minutes to do half as good a job on the next foot. However, by the last foot I did (seven in total), I was getting to be… sort of okay. I’d put up photos but Katrina went around and polished things up when we were done, so all you’d see would be nice clean poodle feet.

I did do  a fabulous job of cleaning up Elly’s anal area. This is not something I ever thought I’d write about in a public forum. I also shaved the base of her tail. All by myself. I have a little Arco Moser Mini clipper, and it’s quiet and light, and for that light trimming, it worked very well. Also, after doing seven feet, I was feeling pretty confident.

The face was scary. Katrina did Elly’s face (while I was doing her feet and her tail) and I did the left side of Dancer’s face. When I was done, Dancer had eyelashes on the left side and not on the right. I think she looks cute with eyelashes, but one-sided eyelashes were not a good look. Katrina cleaned that up too.

I did not nick either dog with the clippers, but I did clip one of Elly’s toenails too short and made it bleed. Back to the Dremel, I think, for her toenails. They get really long, and she hates having her toenails clipped, probably because I’ve gotten the quick twice now. Bad dog mom.

I will get better with practice, I expect. It can’t be that hard, people do it all the time. I just want to be able to keep the feet and the face looking neat.