By request from Maria, the step-by-step process of grooming one of my dogs. And I even used the more difficult and hairier one for you!
We started at 9:00 this morning with a dirty, muddy dog who’d been run in the sprinklers on the high school field before breakfast.
You can’t do a beardie and not injure yourself without lots of proper tools. Tool #1: the Booster Bath.
Add irate dirty dog.
Apply water. While it was a warm sunny day here today, I’ve been known to do this in the dead of winter as well. (They’ve got those thick undercoats for a reason!)
Continue application of water until dog resembles angry drowned rat.
Apply shampoo and allow to set.
Rinse until water runs clear with no hint of shampoo.
Duck out of the way to avoid being drenched.
Apply conditioner and leave in coat for 5 minutes.
When full stinkeye is achieved, rinse until water runs clear.
Allow other dog to gloat while watching because it’s not his turn today.
Shake water out of coat.
Then wring additional water out with a towel.
Crate dog under dryer to begin drying process.
~90 minutes later: Bring out the BIG dryer (this was a Christmas present from my husband about 5 years ago!).
Put dog on grooming table and begin to blast-dry.
When outer coat is mostly dry, dog will begin to resemble bearded collie again. Take note: dog is NOT yet dry. Time is now needed for undercoat to fully dry out.
~3 hours later: Dog is mostly dry and ready for coat to be groomed. Return to grooming table and lie dog on his side. Working through one level of coat at time, line brush and comb through the coat. Pay special attention to areas that are prone to mat: behind ears, in armpits, around groin, and between toes.
Finally. Now, at 4pm, we have a fully bathed, dried and groomed bearded collie.
Much happier now that he is off the table!
14 comments:
wow. that's a process. I no longer want a Beardie. A hose in the driveway is enough of a procedure to me. My dogs run and hide if they see the other one being bathed.
OMG, I love this!! This is quite a long process! Wow, Stanley let you do all that to him?! Nice! Belle's grooming is much easier. Bathe in a bathtub, shampoo, rinse, towel dry, shake, hang out in sun, brush and viola!! ;-)) Labs are a bit easier.
Molly...I am tired just reading this. Holey cow.
Wow!! Your dogs are super beautiful for sure, but I don't think I've ever appreciated Frankie more than I do right now! :)
Love the stink eye. That was awesome. MMM..clean beardie boy.
I kill two birds with one stone and brush the dog entirely out under a stand dryer and finish with a human dryer for the top of the hair. Takes about 1.5 hours to dry completely and when they are dry, they are done!
Ahahah, absolutely fantastic. I love the evil eyes Stanley gave you. Never would've guessed it takes so much work.
I'll definitely get a Weimaraner with really short hair and no Beardie when I get a dog.
Thank you for illuminating us.
Good lord. I knew long-haired dogs were more work, but I had no idea how much more. I probably shouldn't admit that Jig's five years old and has never had a bath, should I?
4:05 - Dog goes out and rolls in something!
That is insane! How on earth do you find enough time for all that? I hope you don't have to do it very often. I can't imagine trying to carve out a day per dog all the time. I really appreciate my medium hair, non-competitive mutts a whole lot more now.
OMG! What work. But it's worth it as they are lovely dogs!
...AND YOU HAVE A JOB?!?
Good lord, I thought it'd be a 2 or 3 hour process, not an entire day! That is just impressive.
The pictures are just hilarious!
Thank you so much for posting!
I'll be sticking with short haired dogs for the rest of my life, for sure.
wait. did I miss something? You have hairier dogs? :-)
What a crazy process!! I loved the play by play! :)
Post a Comment