She is one of those Chihuahua's who's growl is bigger than her bite. Great Post..very informative! I have found that if I lift the head up and back to far, when she puts her head down the neck can look a little choppy. Then I have to spend more time repairing what the comb did. Hi Nanda,I am glad that I could help. Petsmart jus rushes them through "grooming school" way too quick! It will grow back in time. Theme images by. I have found that when you use a guard comb on these types of coats, the comb tends to dip into the plushy part of the coat and take it shorter then I wanted it. We just rescued a 3-pound dog, supposedly 1/2 chihuahua and 1/2 poodle, who the vet says is about 4-months (the rescue place told us she was a year). Sadly, when 'grooming schools' like the one that Petsmart offers trains their groomers irresponsibly and only with dollar signs in their eyes, it really hurts our profession.Stick to your guns. A former people hair stylist, I have been trimming her pants when needed by myself and so far so good. I saw your blog and decided to try this on my long haired chi. Her face is short-haired chihuahua, though a tuft seems to be growing on her nose. She is still very young. It did take practice though, and I can say that I left a hole or two that needed to be blended :) but now I find this much easier. To me, this means cutting into her coat more. I wanted so bad to go in and show her what a difference it would make to fluff the dog and use a comb to completely remove all of the little knots. It's amazing to find willing help from you on the internet. :-/. She still had four baby teeth and showed signs of nursing (plump boobys). And its more so they don't know that a dog needs to be completely dried and combed out! He has about an inch of fur from his shoulders down to his butt. I really enjoy reading your blog, it has sooo many helpful tips! Most days are fun, some can be sad, some can be just down right crazy. Thanks. There is always something to learn, no matter how long you have been grooming. This little girl is so petite and seems to be getting hair more poodly than chihuahua-like. She is definatly a very young momma dog and insists on licking everyone. Meaning, take a little off at a time, slowly working your way tighter into the coat. Even when you comb it up, against the grain. Of course a good dog helps too. -Sara, Hi Sara,So for the late reply.I was on Vacation.The chest is a very hard area to get a smooth cut on. I just want her fur shorter but she doesnt have thick plushy fur so I was afraid that it would look funny or start to get un-even. With time you will be able to eyeball exactly how much you want to take off. If you are a Pet Groomer, I hope you can relate to some of the stories. If you shave him, it will take a long time to grow back. Here is a link to the website that I buy mine from.http://californiapetpharmacy.com/comfortis-for-dogs.html I like them because you can buy it one pill at a time or by the pack. Nothing on her bellyyet. You could try again to even out the uneven areas by combing up the hair and just cutting the long areas and try to match everything up. She's a year old, hasn't had a "good hair" day in six months and I'm preparing to try to groom her (bath and clip/trip/whatever). Thank you! There are long clip combs, but it really depends on the type of coat as to how long they would leave the hair. That is the way this little girl looked almost every time I took her picture. This blog is written for groomers by an everyday Professional Pet Groomer. So I lift the head to blend the head to the chest, and then let the head drop a little to finish shaping the chest. I love the hair around her beautiful little face. Customers DO notice a good groom when they see one.We never learn everything. Google the name of the clipper and you will find different suppliers that carries them. She just turned a year old. Any 7 1/2" or 8 1/2" straight shear would work for you.Congratulations on your new fur baby!Lisa,MFF. Everything at petsmart is $$ they don't care unless they're making money. This Blog is a kind of diary of my work. Not horrible-but not super either. :)Lisa, MFF. Sounds like you are on your way to becoming a great groomer, because you care about the work you put out. Hi,I am sorry it did not turn out the way you thought that it would. My question after seeing her actual parents is the ears, her mom is a slick but long coated beautiful black but her ears are stringy and, in my opinion, really take away from her beautiful look. After she is bathed and blow dried, I start by combing all of her hair up, against the grain. He was about twice as fuffy as this girl and it looked easy enough so I thought I'd give it a try. I wanted to shave her but the groomers here said it wasnt a good idea plus it would cost around $50. I like to use my comb to hold this hair up and scissor it. :)Lisa, MFF. I have another sweet alpha girl and elderly gentleman, both smooth coat. Thanks again for this blog! I currently give my Lulu Belle a bath and trim her nails and feet (with grooming shears) and was hoping you could give me some tips for her ears if that ends up being the only thing I need to trim. You have to look out for you. We met at the pound a little over a year ago. Her coat may grow very long like a Poodle, or it may eventually stop growing to the length of a long haired Chihuahua.If she were mine, I would wait a little longer to see what her coat does, and see if I like the length that it grows to. If it keep getting longer than you want it to be, and you want to clip her yourself, a Andis UltraEdge is the clipper that I use. I'm not concerned with her look.she doesn't care, so I don't carebut want to keep her hair short to make it easy to keep her clean, feeling good and flea-free. She has a nice plush coat under all of the fly away feathering. I love learning new things in grooming, even after all of these years. I think I would have a hard time scissoring evenly! She was constantly stopping because the blade was getting jammed in small knots. I recently became the proud mama of a long-haired chi who is still much too young to cut but I am doing the research now to learn as much as I can before she gets there! I hope this helps a little. I always tell any groomer that I have taught, to take the hair off in layers. It really did help. Because the hair on the back of dogs with this type of coat usually lays very flat, I do not cut into the top part of the coat very much. She was "supposedly" poodle, Maltese and chihuahua. I have learned that no matter how nice you try to be, if someone doesn't want the advice, My daughter dragged me out, and told me to stop talking about it. This hair usually is not plushy underneath, and lays flat to the body. My Lu is only almost 5 months now and weighs 2.9llbs and I take her everywhere and just ADORE her!!! If the owner had wanted the ears left long, I would have collected the hair I wanted to save, hold it up, over the head and continue scissoring the neck. It also helps that I love scissoring. You do need a subscription from your Vet.I am glad that I could be of help. The longer top coat would come in a silver color. I am almost never happy with the scissor work on the chest. It didn't turn out too great. Like a lot of dogs with this type of coat, she has that strip of hair down her spine that is straighter and courser then the rest of her hair. It's definately a change and not too bad as I said, but do you reccomend that I try to cut the uneven hair or shave him or should I just leave it? I wish I had started years ago, writing some of the experiences I have had while grooming. From what I can see, I think that there is definitely a lot of Terrier there. I had a small mix for almost 20 years, she was my heart dog. I am a professional Pet Groomer. Also, scissor or clip comb only clean, mat free hair. I decided to look up how to do it myself and through all the re-search I finally came across your blog. So happy I came upon this blog. :( I cut it too short in one place and in order to even it out I had to cut him pretty short. As I get to the neck and ears, I pick up the ear and comb all of the hair out, to the side. I care more about how my dog looks than how much I make. I'm definitely going to suggest doing what you did. This little girl usually gets all of her feathering shortened. Thanks for reading my blog.Lisa, MFF, Thanks for great tips. !Jae, awesome job, I have a boy that looks just like she does, do you want to groom my dog, Hi Lisa, I have a longed hair chihuahua & was researching how to request her hair be cut. If it is a thin, silky type coat the clip combs will leave a longer cut, but if the hair is very thick and plush, the clip comb would most likely take the hair shorter. This is just my personal opinion, but I would not shave him. While my daughter was making some new dog tags for her dogs, I was watching the grooming. Hi Lisa,So happy to have found your site. Groom the way that is comfortable for you. All pictures and content of the blog are property of My Furry Friends. Lol. Hi Cindy,This is a hard one. We can see the chihuahua (long haired0 and maybe a touch of Maltese in features, but she also appears to have Yorkie somewhere in her genes. I have a 5 year short hair chi and in November adopted a long hair. He is very shaggy with 5-6 inch hair. Today her Mom came in and asked for her to be cut short. I lightly scissor the top of the coat and blend into the sides. But, I also work at a petsmart. I want to trim him to approx 3 inches so I assume using scissors is my only option?thanks, Hi, If I were grooming him, and you asked me to leave 3 inches, yes, scissors would be my first choice. Doesn't the dog need those little whiskers to determine depth and sensory? AND you really may not like the look when he is shaved. And honestly, that's how most of the people groom here. I tried your techniques but not being a professional, I screwed up. But her ears have gotten straggly/stringy. That way you can price shop.If you find that her hair doesn't grow that long and you would just like to scissor up her rear and feathering, those same suppliers will have a number of scissors to pick from. Have you tried free-handing with a 10 blade? I was told that she was a Poodle mix, but I don't think that there was an once of Poodle in her.I tried looking at the picture of your dog in your profile. There is definitely some white soft undercoat on her hips under a courser poodle-like cover. I was very nervous as she is sable and her ears are just so prettybrown with black tips. I've only been grooming about 2 yrs, but I see all the newbies and my manager and I are the only ones who take time to dry our dogs. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with us!! I won't let anyone but my vet do offending things to her. Thanks!! Which means, that after you brush him/her, he/she looks good for about 5 minutes, then shakes and looks a mess again. I follow the curve of the ear and neck and scissor tight. The fleas are really bad herelots of dog owners and all the lawns have them on our block, so I'm tempted already to scissor off all I can off the topthink I'll start with the shears you mentioned, and as much as the poodly part is growing each day, my guess is I'm going to need the clipper too in the near future, but will wait is out a bit, as you suggested.Thanks again and best to you and your pups! I would have loved to have had the doggie DNA test around back then. Hi Tong,I think that you are talking about what I call 'skimming' and yes I do it all of the time. I can't tell for sure, but it looks like your dog has a plushy short/medium coat with a longer, stringy coat on top. I will try this for her summer trim. Continue scissoring the side working your way to the front.