A few grooming questions.

[Mel]

Tali has been having a comb and band through his fur for a couple of months. He has gone from being fluffy in lumps to quite sleek although still has fluff.

I used to clip Keli, especially inside the ears near the ear canal opening to allow air in the ear to circulate and to make it less likely for seeds to catch and do their worst.

As I am effectively hand stripping Tali, would it be wrong to take clippers to the inside ear flaps as I did with Keli? I don't advocate pulling hairs from the inner ear unless absolutely necessary.

How can you get the sleek head look without clippers?

Is there some explanation of how to cut the skirt and feathers in a shorter, more practical way than for show?

How do you get a dog used to claw/paw clipping when you are grooming alone?

Keli and I had stand up rows, (trust me the defiance and indignance on his face said it all), at grooming time which meant grooming wasn't as regular as it should have been. It was esecially bad over his feet. It would sometimes take several hours of persueding, arguing and him pulling his foot away, before they were done.

I've managed to trim Tali's dew claws twice but he was biting me the second time.

All help greatfully received.

[Jane S]

Afraid I don't have time to answer all your questions (this is probably why you haven't had any replies as it can take quite a while to answer multiple questions ). Anyway, yes you can clip inside the ears to help improve the flow of air and you can get a smooth head by careful use of thinning scissors if you didn't want to hand strip this area. Hand stripping just refers to the general approach to removing excess body coat - it doesn't mean everything has to be done by hand (especially as Tali is not a show dog).

Hopefully someone else will be along to answer your other questions...

[SandraD]

Good advice from Jane as always .

I found the grooming stickies really useful when I started grooming Monty.  I originally hand stripped him, using thinning scissors on his legs and straight scissors to trim up his skirt and feathers to the length I wanted - I don't show Monty, but I wanted him to keep something resembling a show coat.  Since he has been neutered I can no longer hand strip him so use thinning scissors and a tiny bit of clipping to keep him looking smart - if you look in the photo section of partis there are some recent pics of him on there.

As far as getting Tali used to you trimming his paws, rightly or wrongly, I have found that Monty will sit still on the grooming table if I have some favourite treats in my hand!   I can now trim his front paws if I keep the treats hidden in my hand and gradually release them to him as I snip away with the scissors in my other hand (hope that makes sense!) - he isn't keen on having his front feet touched despite us having done them since he was tiny, he is fine with his back feet and I find it easier to trim the underside when he is lying down.

Can't help you with the claws as it isn't something I have personally attempted.  Hope that helps a bit, but I would highly recommend that you read through the grooming stickies.

[SuperCat]

I always take Murphy to the vets or my dog trainer to have his claws clipped. He HATES it and screams his head off when it's done. But if I can sit on him while someone else does it it's fine. Plus with a vet nurse/ my dog trainer doing it there's only a small chance they'll catch the quick because they're both so experienced at doing it so if Tali isn't sure then it's less likely to hurt him. I think I'd always take a dog to the vets/ my trainer to have it's claws clipped, it's much quicker than if I do it.

[Mel]

Thank you all for your help. I did a multiple post to save posting several posts but heed Jane's advice on that.

I've always clipped my own dog's coats and claws though Keli became increasingly hostile to claws n' paws even though I never hurt him or caught the quick. I have stiptic(?) powder on hand but have never used it.

Ok thank you all, I'll go on the search for thinning scissors.