Grooming the schnauzer head and legs p3

[Sianny]

I think I'm going to (one day) do the foundation course of 10 weeks just to learn nails ears and anal glands and how to do them safely. Bridgend college do it. I think Jo teaches too, shame I'm now 4 hours away rather than an hour!

[Tulip]

Anal glands...I'll never forget asking my mentor "Can I please do the glands?!" when I wanted to take the plunge and learn how...

Never again.

[dannie_kl]

sian i cant imagine it will take you 10 weeks to learn nails, ears and anal glands. will you be learning anything else in the 10 weeks?

[Judi Ibbotson]

Hi
Has anyone tried using a very coarse nail file on nails, the sort that manicurists use on false nails? I find it works really well, I do Nesta's once a week and you can keep them very neat

[Snazy]

I sometimes use a dremmel on the dogs - it would take to long to do all of them weekly!

Sian - yes I use the same technique - clip out to the edges of the ear on both sides going off the ear, this way you are left with a ragged fringe of hair and you can both see and feel where the ear ends, i then use thumb and first finger to hold the edge of the ear, so the scissors can't cut the ear if the dog moves.

Beth, no need to get snippy, some things are best discussed in a new thread where others aren't going to miss the topic and it doesn't derail the current thread which is for help on specific parts of grooming the dog. Anyone who knows how to groom that part is welcome to chip in with their way of doing it - as i already said, there are often several ways of grooming the same part.

And I will add - if someone wants a specific person to answer a specific question - try sending them a PM instead of repeating it again and again in the same thread - if a person has missed it once, they may well not see the repeats either.

[Tulip]

I didn't see any part of my comment as snippy, but I'm sure we all misread things now and then, me included!

I've been criticised for asking for PM's instead of discussion in open forum, especially when the topic could be helpful for others, which is why I just asked here. You've also stated before that you sometimes mark the forums as read, so I was just bumping so that you'd see the thread re-highlighted. Didn't mean to seem pushy, so I'm really really sorry if it came off that way!

[johnstonu]

Many thanks for the advice around grooming. I am new to this forum, I have a schnauzer called Ruby who hates going to be groomed and gets very nervous so have decided to try and do it myself but I am aware that it will take me quite a while to get the hang of it. I just don't want her to look too stupid. Has anyone got any advice for how to start. Many thanks

[Snazy]

Have a look for a local exhibitor who can give you a lesson on how to groom your dog, it will get you off to a good start and give you confidence

[ziggyZIGGY1234]

The dog above has had to much taken out from the inner corner of the eye, so you can see the white stripe running into the mask (black section of beard falling from top of muzzle)

Bringing the line of the beard forward more (as in OP) will make this head more brick shaped and remove the whispy bits at the side where there isn't really a clear line between beard and cheek. I see this often on schnauzers whose owners groom their own dog between professional trims, as they aren't sure where the line is, so err on the side of caution, so slowly the beard creeps further back.




again the beardline could move further forward, at the moment when you look at this picture the first thing you see is BEARD and oh yes, there is also a dog there! Leaving the eyebrows with more length down the nose will give the head more balance.

My mini is quite curly, so his eyebrows look like they have had a perm most of the time. Do I have then joined in the middle or as seperates

[Dawnspell]

Its entirely up to you but the traditional cut has a gap in the middle

[Nika C]

Bran's undercoat is quite curly too, he has a gap between his brows but you can't tell most of the time ;)

[Maty]

I know a few dogs with a monobrow, they tend to keep the length shorter and I think it looks very cute ;)

[lj_thorne]

Barnaby has a huge gap in the middle but he still monobrows whether they are short or long!!!! I think it's just who he wants to be!!!!

[Grice]

Really interesting thread!

Can I clarify about the '8' head? Is it caused by the dog having round cheeks, or the beard being too far forward, or both? Do you have a comparison picture of how the more brick head looks from the front and a figure of 8 head please? I'd not heard of that expression before.

[Dawnspell]

Its from the beard being to far forward. A lot of groomers take the beard short from underneath the eye which is just where the cheeks start to go in so you get the indentation or figure "8" effect. If the cheeks are chubby you would just adjust how much beard to take away in order to give the brick effect.

My slightly unwilling and unbrushed model will demonstrate
From the front his head is brick / olong shape as his beard fills in the gap


If I pull in the hair underneath his eyes as though he didn't have any beard there, you can sort of see his cheeks and the figure "8"


Hope that helps even with the bad photos