Updates

Took the big boy to the World of Pets Expo, and first we did a little haircut modification.  I didn't spend a ton of time scissoring, mostly just took the big chunks off with clippers to make the cut more what I wanted.  I was pretty happy with the results.

The topline still needs some work, but the hip angles are MUCH better, and he looks nice and trim now.  Now we just have to get that neck to grow in!

Practice!

Another one of my Standards came in today quite fluffly, so I used it as a chance to try out some of the techniques I want to use for Rocky.  The pictures are a little bad, the sunlight is streaming in the windows and making a lot of glare, but here's some shots.

When she first arrived:

Very fluffy and definitely looking a little chubby (which she is anyway, but that's part of the challenge!)


After the rough in:

I used a number of blades and combs to blend this through.  The belly and groin were shaved completely with a #10.  I used a #1-#2 comb around the rest of the underline and up around the hip curve.  Other combs were used to blend the ribcage down from the widest part of the back, giving an appearance of flatter sides.  Shorter combs were used to blend around the hip curve, giving a more drastic appearance to the difference between the belly and the rear thigh.  I flattened out the area from the top point of the hip bone on the back to the tail.  Short combs were used to remove most of the hair from the back of the rear thigh from hip bone to hock bone.  The bulk of the thigh area was flattened down with medium combs.

I'll finish off with some scissor work, but already she has a much more pleasing outline than when she arrived, so I think this is the path I'm going to take with Rocky as well.

After a bath and final scissoring.  Pictures are at a terrible angle due to the sun glare.

Definitely had much better luck with the rear-end angles.  She was scrunched up funny so you can't see the topline very well.  The underline is very pleasing.  Viewed from front and back she also looked nice and lean after flattening out the hips, ribs, and shoulders.  Overall a good session.

Another Illustration

Used Paint again to cover up the areas I'd like to cut off, this gives a slightly clearer picture of where we're going next visit.

This view really shows how just a 1/2" alteration and some straighter lines, would really improve both making him look leaner, and showing off the structure of his hip areas.  The extra hair on his belly and hips really detracts from the appeal of the overall cut.  The point of the front elbow should be the lowest dip in the chest, the rest of the underline should strike up abruptly and sharply to the groin area, and hollow out between the groin and inner thighs.  The backside of the rear thigh should form a tight sweeping curve from the point of the rear hip bone to the top of the hock joint.  And there should be a straight angle from the top hip bone to the rear hip bone.  The topline should be low and straight from the point of the withers to the point of the hip with no arching or sagging.

(I moved the tail to show the correct hip shape, and also how it would look if he were stacked correctly, as his tail is supposed to be upright for that.)

Illustrated Corrections

Forgive the crappy Paint job, but here's an illustration of the corrections I'm aiming for next session.

First Show- UKC Beltsville, MD Jan 2014

Our first show did not go off as smoothly as we planned.

Though almost everyone there loved the haircut and came up to praise it, I still saw faults I would have liked to fix.

Furthermore, due to what I now believe was overstress and overstimulation from doing an 8-hour groom the day before the show, Rocky was irritable and growled at the first judge, disqualifying him from the morning show.

He did better in the afternoon, winning points for Parti-Colored class, but did not place in the group ring.  (Neither did the solid-colored Standard Poodle, so I do suspect the judge was not a Poodle fan at all.)  He also developed a limp at some point, which the second judge pointed out after the show.

But overall it was a learning experience.  Next time, we will give him several days to cool off between the groom and the show.  And he'll be kept from excessive rough excursions to prevent any muscle soreness again.  And of course, hopefully his clip will be improved to show him off better.

Pics from the show:




I've planned a short session (2 weeks after the show date) to trim back the hair where I want it to be shorter.  We'll probably give him one more groom in the middle, and then a final pre-show groom in early May, prior to our next 2 shows.  Stay tuned!

Session 3

Show time!

He returned for his final pre-show grooming.  My camera was failing when he arrived, so I grabbed a picture after his bath and fluff-out instead.

Not too far off from where we left him, just about 1/2" furrier again.

This time, with the exception of the shaved areas, I committed to doing a full scissor clip on his entire body.  The grand total grooming time was close to 6 hours, counting breaks it stretched to 8.

First, a hydro-surge whitening bath.  Then a fluff-dry.

I used a #30 on his ears, a #10 reverse with clipper-vac on his feet, and face.  I left his throat line slightly higher and blended it in, not wanting to go to the point of his breastbone as I had originally planned.

And everything else, was just scissoring and fluffing.

Finally, we got to this:

There were areas of the leg that could have been straighter, but I was exhausted and so was he, so we left it as be.  At the time I was quite pleased, looking at it now I have found a number of flaws.

You can notice first, I left his torso area far too full.  The torso should have been shorter, allowing him to look leaner.

Second, I failed to achieve the curve and angle of the rear end and hind leg.

Third, in an effort to make his body look shorter, as he's slightly long in the torso, I trimmed his chest shorter.  This compromised the breastbone curve the clip requires.  The better option would have been to work away at the rear end more.

The head and crest came out fairly well, I see nothing I would change.  I think the slimming down I did on the sides of the shoulders achieved a nice line from the front view.  

But this was what we had, so it was off to the show!

Second Session

After a month or so of growth time, Rocky returned for more pattern-setting.

Turns out he grows quite fast, so he had plenty of extra hair to work with.  Once again, I took the body down shorter to offset the legs more, touched up the face, feet and ears, and neatened up the headpiece.  I did some scissoring, but didn't spend a ton of time as we still had another month to go.

He still needed more hair around his crest and shoulders, to create that flowing slope that is desirable in the German clip.  Also, the fancier version involves a very full lower leg in the rear, so his legs needed to grow more.  Overall, he was coming along very nicely, another period of growing out would be followed by a full-scissor right before the show.

At this point, it was time to start taking his conformation into consideration a little.  His owner took this shot of him squared-off nicely in the yard.

With this shot I was able to see the incorrect angles I'd created in his rear end- the drop-off on his hip bones, and the puff-out underneath, were contrary to the correct squared-off look I was going for.

The front half was looking pretty good, but the rear end definitely needed extra work.

I also spent some time studying up on smaller details: the correct angle of the ear lines as they met the topknot, the slope of the crest, the shape of the tail (some people do a thicker tail as above in white, others shave the tail quite close), the shape of the body and legs, etc.  I was ready and waiting for the next session!

First Session

My first session with Rockstar, known as Rocky, I had not much idea what to expect other than having seen some old photos.  I knew he lived on a farm, and I knew his owner did most of his grooming herself.  Nonetheless, we had some time to work with, so I figured I'd just rough out a pattern and let him grow out as needed until the show.  My original plan was as German Clip, which looks about like this:

It's a relatively easy pattern, it can be easily modified to accentuate a dog's good features, it looks more masculine than a "traditional" Poodle show clip, and because the hair is not left incredibly long, it was an obvious choice for a rough-and-tumble farm dog.

So he arrived looking like this:

In addition to not having had his usual shave-down recently, he was apparently very fond of rolling in anything and everything he found on the farm.  There was very little evidence of any form of Poodle look.  On the other hand, in spite of his appearance he had very little matting, and underneath the dirt his coat was quite thick and very nicely textured for scissoring.  So the plan was:

-Brush, brush brush

-Ears, feet, face, and throat- #10 reverse.

-Body- Skim with a clipper comb to even out without cutting length off.

-Tail- clip down even with body, no pom

-Head- start shaping into a pom and crest.

-Pluck out ears, dremel nails

-LOTS of shampoo

The efforts of that first session:

Much shorter than the German clip is supposed to be, but I didn't have to cut off much body hair.  I did trim the center area of the torso down slightly, to allow the legs to grow fuller than the body.

The next part was just to let him grow, so we left him to himself for a few weeks.

Intro

To more thoroughly follow the journey of Rockstar, I've created his own blog to detail his grooming progress.

For newcomers, Rockstar is a 5 year old male Parti-Colored Standard Poodle belonging to a friend of mine.  I volunteered to take on the project of grooming him, both for UKC conformation shows, and to use as a potential entry in next year's Hershey Grooming Expo in PA.

Each session will get a detailed entry and personal review.  This blog is intended to be a more in-depth grooming summary and evaluation than a fun-fact picture blog.

Enjoy!