Little Surprises

Sometimes when you clip a dog's coat off, you get a surprise.  Much of the time,  it's disappointing to the owner, like when a Shih Tzu puppy has lovely dark tips all over it's coat, and once you clip the hair, you are left with a light cream dog.  There's no help for it. Even if you left the dog in full coat, eventually the dog would change to the much more average color eventually.  I try to make sure and warn the owners if I think they have no idea that they will be getting a completely different colored dog back at the end of the day.

This guy was a surprise to us all, the first time we groomed him as a puppy. 

I give you the "before" of this seemingly average Scottish Terrier.



I believe we've established the fact that my phone takes really crappy photos.



 However, once we took off the coat on his back, we got a really fun surprise.



He's Brindle!  It's a very light brindle coloring, too, almost zebra-like!







Here is a rotten photo.. but it shows you what is under there. 

It's amazing, he looks completely black, when his hair is long.  I love grooming him, it's such a transformation.

For those of you who aren't aware, most Scotties strike fear in a groomers heart.  We dread seeing them on our appointment schedule.  There is a good reason for this.  Most Scotties are really not nice for grooming.  At the very least,they hate to have their feet touched. Most of the ones I groom have to be muzzled from start to finish.  I even have one that I haven't EVER gotten the face brushed out on.  The owner doesn't want it sedated, and I don't want to get bit, so I do what I can.  I encourage her to brush her own dog's face at home, but so far it hasn't really happened. 

When I was in grooming school, they warned us about Scotties. I didn't have a chance to groom one before I left school, but the ones I met afterwards, certainly lived up to the reputation.  Little known fact:  Scottish Terriers have teeth that are extremely large for their small size.  Check it out.. if you can ever look in the mouth of a Scottie, you will find teeth the size of a Labrador! I'm serious! Freaky.   

The model in today's blog entry is a very, very good dog. (ok, I still muzzle him for his nails, but for a Scottie, he is pretty much perfect) He either has very good breeding, or excellent owners.  Either way, I love to see him on the books!