Scissor cutting the OES, can I do it alone?
 He hasnt been to a groomer since I've gotten him in June of 08. I take him to the dog wash, bathe him myself, and I've just been trimming up the areas in need (butt, paws, ears, etc). I trust myself to do that because the sharp scissors are very forgiving  However, I'm not sure I can do a full body scissor cut and get him about an inch and a half all over. I spoke with a groomer who says she can try to do it... TRY... She's planning on charging me $140, and from what it sounded like she doesn't know what in the heck she's doing!! There are NO OES groomers in Portland that I have found. I refuse to take him to Petsmart because I saw a poodle leaving there that they DESTROYED! My whole thing is.. if I can't trust the person who is going to groom him, maybe I should just pay the $18 at the dog wash and attempt it myself. Is this a crazy idea? I'm VERY scared that I am going to ruin his beautiful coat that I've worked so hard on the past year.. but then again, I dont want to pay someone $140 to do the same thing! Please help! Any advice is greatly appreciated!!  |
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Well, Ive done it...and really, it isnt that difficult...however...it was super time consuming (2 dogs took me about 3 days  ) and the fear of accidentally cutting them with the scissors (Ive done that too   ) would be the main reason Ill hesitate to try this again
I guess the cooperativeness of your dog would be a factor to think about as well. Mine are pretty calm about grooming, although my boy is a bit touchy about his feet and ears. Knowing when to call it "done" was also tough...I chased those poor sheepies around with the scissors for weeks constantly spotting some little "tuft" that I had missed!!!
Good luck!  |
| You can just shave with a 3 3/4 blade and that leaves you with almost an inch of hair all around and is much easier to do than scissor cut and definitely easier to get even. In a month, you'll easily have an inch and a half of hair. Plus, for $140, you can buy a good set of clippers and blade and have it for a long time! |
ButtersStotch wrote: You can just shave with a 3 3/4 blade and that leaves you with almost an inch of hair all around and is much easier to do than scissor cut and definitely easier to get even. In a month, you'll easily have an inch and a half of hair. Plus, for $140, you can buy a good set of clippers and blade and have it for a long time!
Does anyone know where the best place to order one of these (the 3 3/4 blade) would be? This is definitely what I want to do next spring, and I cant find them anywhere locally! We have an Oster A5 clipper, and the only blades we can find here are the basic "shave em' naked" size! Fine for summer, but our springtime is a wee tad bit chilly for that |
| I hand scissor Walter because he has been kicked out of every groomer in a 5 mile radius... He doesn't like clippers and sits well for the scissors so I can live with the fact that he looks like a dork. But yes it takes FOREVER... 3 days for my big boy and then you see stray hairs daily!
This is what he looked like after the first time, still cracks me up  I've gotten much better though.
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| I so know that look. You do get better at it! $140 seems about right with prices here when you want a hand scissor only grooming session.
With that said, it really isnt' hard. I always do it w/one of mine, and I just do it in layers like they would at a beauty salon. I have a marker like.... whatever is ABOVE my fingers when put against their skin or something like that ...and then evenly cut at that SET length. It may not look the best, but I think they look good enough
I would much rather use clippers esp. with a long guard, but that's where I feel clueless. I wish I had the skill others do! I use them on my cats, but I'm cutting them a lot closer to the skin than I do my dog. |
ravenmoonart wrote: ButtersStotch wrote: You can just shave with a 3 3/4 blade and that leaves you with almost an inch of hair all around and is much easier to do than scissor cut and definitely easier to get even. In a month, you'll easily have an inch and a half of hair. Plus, for $140, you can buy a good set of clippers and blade and have it for a long time! Does anyone know where the best place to order one of these (the 3 3/4 blade) would be? This is definitely what I want to do next spring, and I cant find them anywhere locally! We have an Oster A5 clipper, and the only blades we can find here are the basic "shave em' naked" size! Fine for summer, but our springtime is a wee tad bit chilly for that I always order my blades- you can even get them on Amazon. |
| This year has been horrible for fleas - the first time I haven't been able to get them under control with the first treatment. Using a flea comb on the girls was hard with their long coat, so I cut them down last week. And I hate cutting off their long coat.
I confess, I am OCD. I used a pair of bandage scissors (safety point on the end, get them at a nurse's uniform shop), a comb and a sewing guage (for hems). Seriously. A bit time consuming, but not hard. I don't comb them out beforehand as I cut by tendriles, then comb the tendrile out. The advantage of using the sewing guage is that it has a movable marker - set the length you want and you can hold the scissors right next to the marker for consistant length. I started at the back feet and worked my way up and forward. Just grab a tendrile, place the ruler, cut and comb out what you cut. I found very few wayward wisps to trim later. Bailey is at 5 inches now and Riley at 3 inches, much easier for using the flea comb. I don't think I spent over 4 hours per dog - we sit in front of the TV with movies on and they take a nap. I'm sure someone has a better way to do it, but this way is very easy on all of us. |
ravenmoonart wrote: ButtersStotch wrote: You can just shave with a 3 3/4 blade and that leaves you with almost an inch of hair all around and is much easier to do than scissor cut and definitely easier to get even. In a month, you'll easily have an inch and a half of hair. Plus, for $140, you can buy a good set of clippers and blade and have it for a long time! Does anyone know where the best place to order one of these (the 3 3/4 blade) would be? This is definitely what I want to do next spring, and I cant find them anywhere locally! We have an Oster A5 clipper, and the only blades we can find here are the basic "shave em' naked" size! Fine for summer, but our springtime is a wee tad bit chilly for that I just bought mine from Petedge. Maybe it was $15 or $20? I can't remember. I ordered a bunch of different blades all at once but if I were to do it again, I'd buy two of the 3 3/4 at the same time so I could switch them while I was shaving. |
| Oh my gosh! Look at Walter! lol
See... thats what I am capable of! I think I'm going to try it though. I love the idea of sitting in front of the TV and doing it that way while the pup naps... very appealing to me! Thx for all of your responses. I think I am going to head over to Sally Beauty Supply and buy a pair of scissors. You think those would work ok?? I'll be sure to post before and after pics.. wish me luck!  |
| The biggest difference between stylist shears and grooming shears are the blade length. Stylist shears are somewhere between 4" - 6", which is pretty short for trimming an OES. My favorites are 8-1/2" - 10" straights and curved. You can compare stylist shears vs. grooming shears on the Geib site http://www.buttercutshears.com/ I love my Geibs and one of the best thing about them is that you can get them in every price range. If a stylist shears from Sally is all you can find locally they will work okay. I used to use a Fiskars sewing shears before I became a shears collector.
A dog show is a great place to "try before you buy" shears. Portland has a large OES Club and hosts OES Specialties so I'm sure there will be shows nearby or people willing to help with grooming. http://www.gpoesc.com/ |
That's a picture of charlie when I cut her with the scissors as she was so matted when we got her: it tooked me ALL day!!!
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| JUst after Christmas of '08 I decided, though the encouragement of Kim/Old English. to scissor cut Violet. She had been eating into her coat an making a mess. I did scissor cut her myself, but not all in one day. I worked on her for as long as she could tolerate it and then worked on her the next day. She really didn't turn out to bad. I did, however, shaved her underside with the help of my hubby holding her in place...but that was down the road a bit.
Her coat is growing out really nice now and I took her to her old groomers yesterday to have her groomed for Cozett's Birthday Party today. I don't have any pics of either as of yet. I encourage you to try, after all it is only hair and will grow back. |
| i get my blades on ebay |
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