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4 Reasons to Groom Your Dog (And 5 Reasons to Hire a Groomer!)

Tales from a newbie Fur-Mama

By Sarah HatfieldPublished 3 years ago 6 min read
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Time for the Fluff ball to get a haircut?

It’s spring! And the pooches, have their fluffy masses of their winter fur coat that may or may not need, well I’ll just say it, a little attention. Maybe that ‘daily’ brushing of their luxurious locks didn’t exactly happen every day, or maybe there are just so rambunctious that their fur looks the same color as the ruts they have dug up in your backyard. (Parents of short-haired fur babies, you may not understand this my story).

Scrolling through Facebook, a friend (professional groomer in another state) posted that she had just given her pup a haircut and she took a picture. I thought, “That is a handsome looking haircut! I think my little doodles would look cute.”

The next thing that a mostly newbie Fur-Baby Mama (who also happens to be a self-define DIYer – much to the chagrin of almost everyone in my household) might remember is the last time the pooches went to the hairdresser, it cost 200 bucks!

Reasoning on the fiscally conservative side, I thought, “Hey, maybe I can put off that bill if I just try to do it myself!”

I had heard stories of this going badly for others. During the beginning of the pandemic, a dear friend had told me that, since she couldn’t take their little puppy to the groomers, her husband had done the job. My friend had been so embarrassed for the poor thing after it was done, and she couldn’t even look at the little pathetic pup – the hair cut was that bad!

A year ago, it made sense because everyone had hunkered in, but now? Really Sarah, you want to give both your extremely matted fluffy crazy Sheepadoodles a haircut?

Sure! Worst case scenario, I have to take them to the groomers, how bad of a job could I do?

A person should do a thorough cost-benefit analysis when they make such big life decisions with their pooch’s style. So, after I did NOT do that and just went for it, I came up with the considerations after. Here they are!

Pupper needs hair cut!

4 Reasons you should give your dog a haircut

Save Moola

As mentioned before, I am a bit of a DIYer. We are always out to save a few bucks doing something that we think we could do sufficiently. If a person has that mind-set, you learn a lot of things! Also, you sometimes save money – although in my experience its not as much as you would think – but you usually spend a lot more of your time doing the thing that you are trying to save money on. That being said, if I look at just the cost of it, I ended up destroying 2 electric razors – and therefore replacing said razors for $50. $50 vs $200 is a pretty good cost savings!

Bonding with your doggie

These were some fun times! Sure, after about an hour of hearing the snipping of scissors and their trying to eat their own hair (and having to hack it up because eating hair just is not that tasty or easy to do) they would get very irritated and lose patience with me. They want to play, not sit here. So, the process takes longer. Also, once you spend so much time on one, you have to do the other.

It got to the point where I was trying to sneak little snips, but every time I got the scissors out, the pup would literally pretend not to see me and go run and hide in her crate.

Pick the hair cut you want

The last time I had the puppies go to the groomer, they asked me what type of hair cut I wanted. At that point, being a new fur-baby mama, I really had no idea. I said, just give them the simplest haircut possible and make them match.

They came back looking like completely different dogs.

All the fluff was gone! :(

They were unrecognizable in fact. All the fluff was gone and we were just left with wiry crazy fox looking animals.

It took a while for that to grow back, and when it did, I thought, ok, this makes sense. We shave them once in April, Once is September to keep them cool and not overheated in the summer months, and then let them get shaggy for the winter to keep them warm and cozy.

What I discovered though is that you might not need to shave them down to the skin on every inch of their bodies. You may be able to leave some of the fluff. At least, depending on how matted that winter coat got.

This was my working hypothesis, leave as much fur as possible.

Looking better...

I tried to leave all four legs as furry as possible. But then realized that she needed more of a cut down on the back legs.

Happy!

Was really going for mythical beast! I think I succeeded!

Learn a new skill

There is always some gratification in learning something new, struggling, and then looking at your handiwork to see that you created something (hopefully) beautiful or functional.

Got the clippers off of amazon! Cheap, but they worked!

5 Reasons you should really leave it to the professional

No Risk of Embarrassment

You won’t have to worry about walking your doggie in the neighborhood. My daughter was walking the dog, and the neighbor straight-up asked, “What happened?” My daughter just shook her head and said, “My mom gave them a haircut.”

Used Scissors since her fur broke my husband's electric razor

She still has an appetite!

He just whistled. She kept walking. And then came into the house mortified, telling me the story.

It was a process ok! 😊 The two pictures above were from just scissors. I actually had to get the clippers (see my other point on tools).

Support your local favorite groomer

Yes, it’s expensive, but you are paying for their expertise, their time, and the headache that they might feel having to cut out months-worth of burrs, mattes, and dirt from all the camping trips that you took in quarantine!

No mess!

5 lbs + of hair was thrown away, over multiple days, several cleanings out of the vacuum filters, air filters. My husband came home and immediately started sneezing and coughing and just said, “Sarah, Why????” The mess is real, and you may be finding doggie hair (more than usual) on everything for a while until you are finally able to vacuum/sweep it all up.

The problem is, for me anyway, this was a multi-day process (probably over a week) and so the mess was never really ever gone. It just got smaller each time I make smaller tweaks to the cut.

I did not get pictures of the Fur, but believe me, it was a mess. I am still finding hair!

No buying of grooming equipment

Depending on how shaggy your doggie is, a typical electric shaver is not going to cut it. Now, you could go cheap and by something on Amazon for 25 bucks (what I did) BUT you kind of get what you pay for. If you want something that is going to last for years to come, the tooling up in order to continue to groom your pooch is expensive! Therefore, I put this as a Pro for going to the groomers! They have all the equipment to make the pup look spanking new and fancy. It’ll cost to get that equipment.

Doggie gets a day out and about without you – and you get a break too!

Whatever path you choose, your dog’s hair will grow back! Either way, have fun, take it easy, and just know that your puppy loves you to pieces. Also, hair DOES grow back!

Playful Pups Regrow Fur!

dog
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