For awhile now David and I have contemplated grooming Ash ourselves. When we first got him David thought it was entirely unnecessary to take Ash to a professional groomer (it's just a buzz cut right?) but I pushed to at least take Ash to a professional the first few cuts to see what they did, and what haircuts we liked.
We first took him to
Bark of the Town in Andover, MA. We weren't thrilled with any of the groomers we found near our home, so I branched out and looked for one near my grandmother. Good excuse for lunch with Gram! We liked
Bark of the Town - the people were very friendly, and he always got a neat cut. Initially they didn't trim his head the way we liked, and one time I couldn't stop laughing because he looked like he had a bobble head.
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| Bobble head Ash - I had to trim his face after with scissors - after which he looked much better |
Our results for the head were much better when he visited the groomer my mom uses in VT, which he did a couple of times while he was up there visiting. The last time we took him to
Bark of the Town (about 6 weeks ago) we got the cut we were looking for, though it was a touch short. It grew out perfectly, and we thought he looked super cute. This was actually achieved by bringing in a picture of his former foster brother Fred, who's cut I particularly liked.
Now that we have the perfect cut at a groomer we like (you can see a picture of Ash's good haircut and Coal's short haircut
here), it is only sensible that we mess with the system and try to do it ourselves. Actually, we decided to try to do it ourselves because we have engagement photos this weekend (some of which he will likely be in) and we didn't want him to have TOO short a cut. At the same time, he was looking a bit shabby. I thought - maybe this is a good time for me to just give him a trim! First I trimmed his head with hair cutting scissors, and it looked pretty good. I did it outside to minimize the mess, and he sat there very quietly and patiently while I gingerly snipped away. I was happy with the result, and David thought he looked cute. However, his head then looked quite tiny because his body was so poofy in comparison. Naturally, I hopped on Amazon and purchased a highly rated buzzer to finish my grooming job.
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| Buzzer with good reviews and an affordable price |
So last night Ash got a bath (he doesn't seem to mind these now), a blow dry, and then we settled into the bathroom for a quick body buzz. Two hours later we had one closely sheared dog (shorter than I had originally envisioned), one VERY hairy Caroline, and a bathroom decorated in hair clippings.
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| One very messy bathroom and an exhausted puppy |
He was very well behaved and didn't seem to mind me buzzing and snipping his hair at all. He wasn't a huge fan of me doing his paws and legs, so I did a large part of those with scissors. They turned out a bit choppier than the rest of him, but he looks OK when it all blends in. Sadly, I did nick his skin on one of his front paws, leading to a heart breaking yelp and a little show of blood. It didn't seem too bad, but because he continued to lick it the bleeding wouldn't stop entirely. I wrapped it up after we were finished and today it looks much better.
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| Happy to finally have some peace and quiet in Christine's lap |
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| Complete view of my first grooming attempt - not too bad! |
We will probably give this another attempt once his hair grows out - it should hopefully go more smoothly, take less time, and yield better results with practice. We also will begin to cut his nails and clean his ears ourselves. Ash get's pretty nervous at the groomers, so this is actually probably a more comfortable way for him to get cleaned up. Needless to say, it also saves several hundred dollars a year. However, should we ever feel this isn't working out or not have time for a DIY haircut, we can take him back to our friends at to
Bark of the Town :)
