Yes we felt the same - we have always been explicit that NO CLIPPERS should be used, but agreed to thinning scissors on the chest area and ears. For personal preference, I asked for his paws to be trimmed and rounded so that his claws were not visable, asked that hair was trimmed so as not to show his anus, asked for a smooth head finish and for a small area immediately in front of his willy to be shaved (we were finding that as he still squats down to wee (as opposed to cocking his leg) that he was shooting his wee forward and this was going all over the surrounding fur and making him rather smelly. I think they refer to this as a "false skirt"? (not sure). We'd been advised to pick him up immediately after he's wee'd to check how far up was wet, then remove the hair to that point. The groomer seemed to understand this completely and it does seem to have helped. She did say groomers have to be careful not to take too much hair away as otherwise it can make the appearance of the skirt appear thin. Next time she wants to try and get a bit more definition around the muscles of the back legs and I think I'll ask her to leave the length of the skirt to grow so that his willy isn't quite as visable. (I sound really fussy don't I? Am I every groomers nightmare???)
We're lucky enough to have a breeder who is very skilled in hand stripping to prepare cockers for the show ring and has beautiful photos of Ollie's mother and father. So we took these with us to the groomers as a guide of what we are hoping for once he has a full coat (not that we're intending to show him, just would love to get the best out his looks). So I'm sure that helped a lot.
Hope you find someone you can be happy with too.
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Thank you this was helpful
