I'm toying with the idea of cutting Chloe short. I DON'T want to shave her - at all. Period. - but I would like to...defluff her a bit. I love her fuzz and I think she's gorgeous as she is, but I hate coat upkeep just as much as she does. She's really not that hard to upkeep, but I'm a wash and wear kind of person when it comes to the dogs, so I only end up brushing her when she's groomed (every 4-8 weeks). I might do some light brushing every so often, but I'm lazy and don't like to.
The end result is that it takes me 15-30 minutes to get all of her undercoat out during the grooming session. She has...issues when it comes to people brushing out undercoat, so that session isn't fun for either of us. She'll tolerate a bit and I try not to push her to the point where she starts biting, but her coat has gotten a lot thicker and when I brush her I have to use the undercoat rake rather vigorously. There isn't any getting around that and she hates it. I bathed her last night and brushed her out. After about 15 minutes of brushing (and 5 minutes of her pitching a fit) I had to muzzle her in order to finish her, which wasn't an enjoyable experience for either of us. (Although once she was muzzled she just stood there and let me have at it, giving me the stink eye the entire time.)
Even when I'm just doing touch up brushing at the house is a dance of "how far can I go with treats and praise before she starts getting ticked off?". I've been working with her on it for four years now...I doubt it is going to get any better than what it is. We've improved from her trying to take my hand off just touching her with brush to warning me off when I'm pulling out undercoat, so I'm not complaining.
Anyways, is there anyway to cut her down without shaving her in order to keep coat upkeep to an absolute minimum? I was thinking taking a skip blade and giving her a "puppy cut" of sorts. My groomer normally does that to her hind end anyways, but would it look odd of she did it all over?
This is a (bad) picture of her (pre groom) - she's really thick on her hips/back end. Her back doesn't really have any undercoat at all, and her chest fuzz and lower stomach are also starting to get thick. When I brushed her out, most of the undercoat problems were on her back half.
[/IMG]
Some (also bad, horribly lit) photos I just took of her:
I wish she could once again look like she did as a pup, but I doubt that's possible since the only difference is coat thickness:
So, is it possible to defluff her without shaving her? If I could cut down her back end, cut the fringes short(er), thin out her chest, and thin down her stomach fuzz that should help...I just don't know the best way to do it without it looking stupid or ruining her coat.
Ideas?
The end result is that it takes me 15-30 minutes to get all of her undercoat out during the grooming session. She has...issues when it comes to people brushing out undercoat, so that session isn't fun for either of us. She'll tolerate a bit and I try not to push her to the point where she starts biting, but her coat has gotten a lot thicker and when I brush her I have to use the undercoat rake rather vigorously. There isn't any getting around that and she hates it. I bathed her last night and brushed her out. After about 15 minutes of brushing (and 5 minutes of her pitching a fit) I had to muzzle her in order to finish her, which wasn't an enjoyable experience for either of us. (Although once she was muzzled she just stood there and let me have at it, giving me the stink eye the entire time.)
Even when I'm just doing touch up brushing at the house is a dance of "how far can I go with treats and praise before she starts getting ticked off?". I've been working with her on it for four years now...I doubt it is going to get any better than what it is. We've improved from her trying to take my hand off just touching her with brush to warning me off when I'm pulling out undercoat, so I'm not complaining.
Anyways, is there anyway to cut her down without shaving her in order to keep coat upkeep to an absolute minimum? I was thinking taking a skip blade and giving her a "puppy cut" of sorts. My groomer normally does that to her hind end anyways, but would it look odd of she did it all over?
This is a (bad) picture of her (pre groom) - she's really thick on her hips/back end. Her back doesn't really have any undercoat at all, and her chest fuzz and lower stomach are also starting to get thick. When I brushed her out, most of the undercoat problems were on her back half.
Some (also bad, horribly lit) photos I just took of her:
I wish she could once again look like she did as a pup, but I doubt that's possible since the only difference is coat thickness:
So, is it possible to defluff her without shaving her? If I could cut down her back end, cut the fringes short(er), thin out her chest, and thin down her stomach fuzz that should help...I just don't know the best way to do it without it looking stupid or ruining her coat.
Ideas?
