What a disaster!!

[Helen]

awww it will grow back    and I guess with the forthcoming heatwave she may be pleased of a little less fur (nevertheless I completely understand how you are feeling  )

If she has a clipper rash sudocrem will soothe that.

Sounds like a groomer to well avoid 

[lynnruby]

Thanks Sarah and Helen    When we first went to this groomer, we were quite pleased with the results, but the last few times she has become more and more "slapdash" 

Ruby always seemed happy to go and would wag her tail and smother the groomer in kisses    and she seemed very happy and comfortable when we collected her............until yesterday!

The groomer had commented in the past that Ruby was really well behaved during grooming  which I was pleased about, especially as she is so wriggly and uncooperative with me.

She shouldn't need doing again for a while now, so that gives us a bit of time to check out some other groomers or take the plunge and buy the equipment.

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Thanks Emma, she has a very dense, wooly coat and the only way we can manage this is to have her clipped (torso) so I asked the groomer to clip the torso (longest blade) trim her legs, leaving back feathers and trim her feet (but not make her look like a poodle as she did the last time!)

Last time, her ears were cut really short    so I asked her to leave them this time.............but she has cut her ears!!


I am so slow at typing  .........thanks Melissa, Lee & Pat for your replies    I do have a coat king Pat, which is useful...... but not enough for the "Wooly Mammoth of Cumbria" 

I think, she should be reasonable enough to do yourself. The first few times you do it, it'll look "ok" until you get the hang of it and then you'll be so pleased with yourself. My main issue when I was learning to do Charlie was his feet, but now we've managed that, its easy - I never thought Charlie would behave like he does on the grooming table, but LOTS of patience and practice has helped. Lots of treats helped too. If he let me trim one paw, treat, underneath that paw, treat...etc...now, he has to wait until the end for a treat.  But we also use the time for smootching.

How about looking at grooming courses in your area, they are expensive, but if you say you want to learn how to cut your dog, and your dog only, it should only be a day course. Some of my first grooming errors were terrible, but it's all practice

[MIN]

We have yet to pay a visit to the groomers, but have used one lady before with our border terrier.

The very first time we needed one we picked a well know grooming parlour and left mindy . When we picked her up they told us that mindy was in season ?.  Odd we thought, she was only a pup. on inspection when we got home, they had cut her "frillies". Never went back there.

[BobnDot]

I really think you'd be best to look again at doing it yourself. I started grooming Milly at home after becoming ever so slightly unsatisfied ( ) with our local "groomer" .
I looked at the advice given on here, downloaded grooming videos from YouTube and bought a DVD on cocker grooming. We already had the correct brushes, combs and trimming scissors so I bought an Andis 2 speed clipper, an additional 7FC blade and a small grooming table. Just under £200 for the lot.
My first full groom of poor Milly took up a whole evening with lots of comfort breaks for us both and most of a tube of cheese spread during the course of the proceedings as a reward for her.
My first attempt wasn't good but it wasn't too bad either, she still looked reasonably cocker spaniel shaped and I hadn't managed to create any completely bald bits  . There were some areas that needed tidying up but those were done during the following couple of days.
Over the following months both Milly and I gained confidence in each other with the result that she's now quite happy for me to clip her, do the whole "foot" trim and even clip her claws.
I have nowhere near the skills and competence of some professional groomers but I can now do a reasonable job of it, whenever it's needed and without frightening Milly. In fact she seems to look forward to being groomed now and I really enjoy doing it for her.

Bob.

[lynnruby]

Thanks Bob 

Sounds like your first attempt at grooming Milly went quite well. At least she still looked "reasonably cocker spaniel shaped and had no completely bald bits"      Ruby doesn't look remotely cocker spaniel shaped at the moment and she has an almost bald area on the top inside of her back leg 

It's a shame you live so far away.........I'm sure you'd make a much better job than this particular "skilled, professional" dog groomer    Maybe next time she needs doing, I'll stick a stamp on her head and send her to you 

[ollie nathan's mum]

I hope your feeling better Lynn. I would be very unhappy if we had been through yours and Ruby experience  . Thinking of you both. 

[lynnruby]

Thanks Barbara    To be honest, I'm still feeling a bit angry    Ruby seems fine, the cut on her leg is healing and of course, she doesn't know or care what she looks like. 

When my OH saw her, he went mad    and said I should take her back and insist that the groomer did the job properly........... but no way ,was I taking her back there 

[helenb14]

Rubes  I hopes you is nt imbarr assed abowt goin owt. My mum me has ad the snip snips to me it isnt two bad lots of sad eyes means bis kits and chees ee spred. Tell your mum mee to do it next time as it is wurth the cudd elles and that groo Ming lad ee seems very bad at the snips snips. Even I as got used to mum me and she is not as useless as she woz. I luks ok now
Kisses Seve 

[lynnruby]

tis owkay for yoo Seve, yoo stil luks lyk a spangel  I luks lyk a gowt wiv skinnee leggs    Mummi sez wot nex tyme she iz sendin mee to Milly an Chaz's owse in Scotiland coz theyr Daddi wud be nyce an do a gud job 

Luv Rubes x 

[Patp]

Hi Lynn

Have you thought of writing to the parlour?  Not so much for her to go back for a hair cut, but to make them aware of your dissatisfaction in the service and quality of the groom?

Somebody obviously needs some more training and it would be a shame not to bring it to their attention.

Hugs to you both. xx

[lynnruby]

Good idea Pat    I did think about phoning, but thought better of it, as I would probably give her a gob full  Maybe a letter would be a better idea 

You wouldn't recognise her Pat, she looks terrible    As you know, she has a completely different coat to Jinley, so just need to find a groomer that understands "wooly cockers"  ...... or send her to BobnDot    ...... or do it myself!

[Patp]

Perhaps find some before and after photos of cockers with a coat like Rubes to take with you or to use if you have a go yourself??  Alternatively could you find another breed with a similar coat for some pictures?

I dont know about clippers but can you get one that cuts the hair long - if you know what I mean??  It would be a good start until you were more confident and it would save this happening again to poor Rubes .  TBH, they are the sort that I could do with using on Jinleys legs.  I have been using thinning scissors this past week and done a little every day (more so my OH doesnt  my efforts )  but do think that clippers would be much easier, but want the hair on her legs thinner rather than off!!

Pat x

[BobnDot]

Thanks Bob 

Sounds like your first attempt at grooming Milly went quite well. At least she still looked "reasonably cocker spaniel shaped and had no completely bald bits"      Ruby doesn't look remotely cocker spaniel shaped at the moment and she has an almost bald area on the top inside of her back leg 

It's a shame you live so far away.........I'm sure you'd make a much better job than this particular "skilled, professional" dog groomer    Maybe next time she needs doing, I'll stick a stamp on her head and send her to you 

Well, by "cocker shaped" I mean she ended up looking like a black tube with four legs, one at each corner, a tail at the rear end and a head at the front. Both ears were where they used to be and the only fairly thin bit of her coat was a 3 inch wide cooling strip from her lower chest down to her um, "Thingy" . I keep her oxters well clipped as this is where her fur sometimes starts to mat and the area directly underneath her tail is taken a little shorter as well.
When clipping off her thick winter coat I start with a No. 5 skip tooth blade as it's more like sheep shearing than clipping, then a No. 7 FC for a smoother final cut. I use a No. 10 for her face, jowls, top of her ears and her cooling strip.
During the cold months I substitute a 5 FC blade for the 7 FC as it leaves a slightly thicker coat.
I trim her paws with a scissors then use the 7 FC blade on the front and sides of her legs, trimming and tidying up her feathering with a scissors.

If you do decide to have a go yourself I've a spare set of Andis clipper blade combs you're welcome to and a spare 7 FC blade as well just to get you started  . Use the combs with the standard No. 10 blade that comes with an Andis clipper and it allows you to vary the depth of cut.

Alternatively, I can shift the volvo out of the drive and that leaves a 25 ft x 9 ft area for parking up a caravan  .......Much better than trying to squeeze a cocker into a post box. The stamp would probably fall off anyway and I'd be stuck for the excess postage  .

Bob.

[lynnruby]

What a kind offer Bob, thank you    I'll let you know if I decide to have a go myself, if that's OK?

If you do happen to arrive home one day and find a large white box on wheels on your drive.......you'll know we've arrived