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Posted by Karen on May 16, 2008, 5:16 am
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It has been a BAD week all over and this is probably par for the course.
Sarah has her first UKC show this weekend handling D'Argo in sub-junior. D'Argo was a mess, heavy shedding, in need of trimming and it has been so brutally wet here that the dogs are caked in mud. So we decided to go to a self-serve dog grooming place today with D'Argo. It costs very little and they have everything you need and no clean up after!
One of these days I have to bring my camera with me - these were off the cell phone.
First, what the hell ever posessed me to tell Sarah she could groom. She actually is pretty good with the bath and towelling off. One of the workers gave me a dual power, four speed, mega dryer. Oh wow. Better than the orange Metro Force we were starting with. After getting my glasses back on my face, picking up everything blown off the shelf next to us and thanking goodness that the grooming table was up against a wall, Sarah got the hang of the dryer. By the time she was done, D'Argo looked like he shoved his nose in a light socket.
The staff gave us a pair of good grooming scissors. But they were the long blade and I hate using them. So I used the to clean out the long hair between the hind legs and the base of the tail. D'Argo had managed to steal a package of sweet Italian sausage I was defrosting for dinner Tuesday evening. D'Argo has been on a strict diet for several weeks and has been a pain in the butt. So I decided since he is still having issues and he has so much hair, taking a bit out in strategic areas would not be bad.
I then went to start hocks. Sarah got to groom a bit while I ran to the van to get my thinners and short shears. I hate the long scissors for this and they had no thinners. Just outside the door I dashed and the staff at the grooming salon knows Sarah fairly well. Well, I did hocks and feet. We laid D'Argo out to do a bit of weeding between his hind legs where he tends to matt badly. I gave Sarah the thinners and showed her what to do. I got nail clippers and started on toesies. I looked up and Sarah had moved from the hind legs to the tail... And changed scissors. She wanted to do all the grooming herself so she could tell the judge she got her dog all ready all by herself. D'Argo did have a white tip on his tail...
I then returned to more blowing and brushing. Sarah decided to thin D'Argo's head, front legs, and ruff. That was stopped fast... I handed Sarah the blower again, she could do less damage with it overall. I mean there was only a toy poodle at the grooming station behind us right?
I found more long hair and showed Sarah what she could trim again... Her hands wandered.
Well, we finished and I looked at the floor, the grooming stations behind us, the bathing area... I walked to the owner and asked if she had a broom.
"Oh no, don't worry, we will sweep up."
"Let me rephrase this. I gave a four year old scissors. Do you have a broom."
The owner stood up, looked over the divider and said "We have a shop vac."
Well Sarah will proudly tell the sub-junior judge and I am sure anyone else who is there that she groomed her own dog for the show.
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