It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that before Lockdown I had literally no intention to touch my Cocker Spaniel Rosie’s beautiful coat. It also wouldn’t be a stretch to say that I was verging on terrified of the idea of letting loose with the clippers on my hound! However, a collection of events occurred to make my first attempt at dog grooming come to pass.
Firstly, we were all put in Lockdown and hey, we were all being encouraged to try a new hobby, weren’t we?! So, a visit to Amazon was required and a ‘Pet Grooming Hair Clipper Kit’ was bravely purchased! At the time of purchase, it cost us £10.20, which seemed incredible reasonable. More of that later…
Secondly, Rosie had been spayed a few months ago. She’s a Blue Roan Cocker and has always had a beautiful, silky and wavy coat. It was feathery and furry and suited Rosie perfectly. It dried quickly enough when she’d been swimming and was cool enough in the Summer for her to not overheat. All this changed after her spaying though.
Before I go on, I must say that spaying is a very important process for a female dog to go through, if they are not to intended be a mummy. Spaying has many, many health advantages; including reducing the risk of uterine infections and breast cancer. So, we were obviously happy to get Rosie spayed and it was absolutely the right thing to do.
The fact remains that there are so many beautiful dogs in animal sanctuaries across the world, just waiting and waiting for a good home, through no fault of their own. Plus, terrible puppy farmers cause unimaginable suffering to innocent dogs, breeding from their bitches until their bodies are exhausted and broken. All in all it’s clear that the world doesn’t need any extra puppies!
After Rosie’s operation, her beautiful locks stayed the same at first. But after a while she developed a little clump of fuzzy, fluffy hair on her hindquarters. Nothing else changed for ages, so we thought that this would just be Rosie’s little post-op reminder! How wrong we were! Over the course of a few months Rosie became more and more bear-like… a beautiful, cuddly and gorgeous bear… but a bear all the same!
All of this coincided with the weather heating up hugely. Long, sultry summer days meant that Rosie was getting really really warm. She was panting all the time and was not impressed with our attempts to cool her down with a dunk in the paddling pool!
Also, when we took her to her favourite stream to swim in, she was taking AGES to dry off afterwards! It was a no-win situation for our gorgeous Cocker Spaniel!
So, as I said earlier, we decided to embark on our very first grooming session! All dog groomers were closed at this point because of Covid, so as soon as the Pet Grooming Hair Clipper Kit arrived from Amazon, we got going!
The Clippers come in a cardboard box, containing the clippers themselves, along with 4 different plastic brades to alter the length of the clip. The options are 3mm, 6mm, 9mm and 12mm needless to say, we decided to try the longest setting first! The kit also contains a good quality, very sharp pair of hairdressing scissors, a comb, a small brush to clean the clipper head with, a nail file and some claw clippers.
I wish I could say I religiously researched what to do first, or which part of our dog’s coat groom first; but I’m afraid we jumped in and had a go! However, I would urge anyone reading this to look at some of the superb pages that detail how to groom your dog. Plus YouTube is full of great tutorial videos to help you along.
So, we began by using the scissors to remove Rosie’s feathers and longer, wispier bits of fur. The scissors worked so well and tidied up her legs and tummy with ease. We then embarked on the clippers, with some trepidation, if I’m honest! Rosie, on the other hand, was happy as Larry, as she was being plied with cheese throughout! The clippers are nice and quiet and don’t vibrate too much. They are ergonomically well designed and easy to hold, even when clipping awkward places!
As I said earlier, we used the 12mm brade first, but found that as Rosie has quite a long coat, this didn’t really make much difference. We progressed up to the 9mm brade and found that this worked well.
As the clippers are nice and quiet, Rosie wasn’t worried about them at all. We pushed the clippers through her coat, going with the direction of the hair. It had the effect of an even, thinning out, which was just what we wanted. I started on her back, then moved to her flanks, then her tummy. We then clipped her legs a little and was super impressed with how endlessly patient Rosie was with her well meaning owners!
Once we felt that Rosie’s coat was the right length, we finished off with the scissors, tidying up awkward areas that the clippers can’t get to. I know that Rosie may have perhaps looked more professional if she’d gone to a grooming parlour, but I think she looked really presentable after our first attempt! We all enjoyed it (including Rosie!) and I’ll definitely continue to groom her myself. So come back soon for more updates!
