Average weekly grooming time for full coated sheepies
|
|
| It is really going to vary by age and coat though, but mostly age. The brushing demands since Chewie was about 4 have been drastically reduced. (his coat is more "mature!) And I do sports that create tangles and more grooming  , so I bet it would be less than the 2 hours I picked if we had a more sedate lifestyle.  And perhaps it would be like my human twins. When they were little, I always got comments like "OMG, double the work!", but in reality it was more like 1.5 times the work. Half the battle is getting ready for the task, getting set up, etc. Our previous OES were mostly kept short, so no real data to compare, and all 3 have been 1 at a time - of course we always had multiple dogs, just no multiple OES except for fosters. I still have nails, ears, bathing, grooming on the others, so I bet doing that for 5-6 other dogs equals another OES or 2!  |
| If you get into a routine and maintain it (this is key, you can't expect skipping a few days here and there won't make a difference) one hour or so once a week of a proper line grooming, every other week do ears and toe nails, and once a month trim feet and bum, you can have an oes maintained in show coat. A clean dog is easier to groom though. This doesn't mean you have to bath her all the time but it means if you plan to let her get down and dirty in the mud on a regular basis you'll have to take that into account. Another hour for bathing and another hour or 2 for blow drying and re grooming everytime you have to bath. And never bath before brushing if you can help it, and also never bath if you don't intend to fully blow dry that coat.... |
| it really is all about gettin prepped, pretty sure(suffers from crs) the second one only takes an extra five or ten minutes for bathing and grooming. really  just do it  |
| Definitely you have to factor age and activities into account. Up until the last few months with all the crazy playing and running etc for agility and coat changes it took me closer to 4 hours than 3 to brush Tiggy and I HAD to do it every week or it just got ugly. Tiggy has a dense soft undercoat that matts easily too. Lately even with all of the above I would say 2- 3 hours. If I'm pressed for time and rush it and take 2 one week then it will definitely take 3 or a little bit more the next week. I trim feet one week, and do ears another etc. One it spreads out the load time wise and two Tiggy isn't a fan. She'd rather stay scruffy than put up with too much fussing. |
| I spend about an hour and a half on average per sheepie--so about 3 hours total. I do have them professionally groomed every six weeks when their coat is longer and every eight weeks when they are shorter. So I do the basics in between. There are occasions that it may take a little more but I would say that about 3 for both is the average. |
wait- there's an end to the grooming?  |
Darth Snuggle wrote: wait- there's an end to the grooming? yes, it's called "shaved nekkid"......   |
| Kim and David, I’ve deliberately stayed out of this one for the last few days to give everyone else a chance to chime in and offer their comments and advise. And perhaps more importantly because I have quite a different take on this than do most people. To me it is not a question of time because quite simply you will not be able to take care of a second Bobtail and Mady to the standard you currently care for Mady and still do everything else that you do now. Something(s) will have to give. It is in fact a question of priorities and the question that each of you have to resolve is: “Is a Mady sibling of sufficient worth and benefit to our lives that I am willing to let other things that we do now drop away and will I still feel good about our lives without those things or at least with less of those things?” Over the long term (i.e. after the puppy is grown up and Mady has adjusted to having a permanent sibling) having a second Bobtail will not actually double the overall time you need to spend with your dogs. Walks will still take roughly the same amount of time as they do now assuming you can train them to walk well together – I walk all 4 of mine at once and the walking time only increases by the amount of time that it takes to clean-up the 3 extra sets of potty deposits. No biggie and of course the longer your walks the less of a percentage increase this small fixed amount of time represents (you work for Stats Can so you know how to derive these comparisons). It doesn’t really take that much more time to prepare four meals than it does one and of course they all eat in about the same amount of time once the food bowls “hit their tables”. Same goes for most of the other routine activities of dog parenthood so I would guess that having a Mady sibling would only take about an extra 10% of the time you currently spend with Mady – so for example if you spend 20 hours a week with Mady right now on routine parenthood, you might need 22 hours for two. There are two areas of parenthood that will increase markedly – the first being attention time. But since there are two of you this can be effectively nullified by each of you fussing over one of your kids at the same time. So again not a huge increase in dedicated “Bobtail-time”. The big increase in time is of course grooming and other individual health care – ears, teeth, trimming etc.. It will probably take about the same time to groom a second OES as it currently does to groom Mady. So if that is 3 hours a week you will need to let 3 hours of “other activities” drop off the other end. Michele and I made the decision that our kids were worth letting other activities “drop away” and our kids are in fact a lot of work and we are limited in regards to potential travel and visiting friends etc., on the whole we are happy with our decision. For example I was working on yet another small project that is part of finishing the basement this weekend but come Sunday afternoon I had to step back for about four hours to give Brigham Batai his long overdue bath. In some ways I would have preferred to continue with the basement work but the kids have a higher priority so that’s what I did – and by the way does he ever look great for his tub and blow dry. To me it is not an issue, it is just my way of life as it is for people who have 2 footed kids. They might want to go out for an evening but the kids care and upbringing take priority. Sure sometimes, perhaps even often, I wish I had more time to do other things but I would never voluntarily relinquish my kids or ignore their needs just to do “my fun stuff”. The “fun” would never outweigh the value of our dogs nor return a higher level of accomplishment or life satisfaction. Seriously, check out my avatar - what else in life could outweigh an honestly given hug and kiss like that one?   (I still love you Martin Zeph and we will be together again one day.  )So, is a Mady sibling worth letting go of 10-15 hours of something else per week while the puppy is growing up and 3-4 hours a week in the long term? Just my take on the situation for what it is worth and of course your mileage may vary. Thanks and Cheers Carl |
| Great food for thought Carl. My way of thinking also is...do you need to have both dogs in full coats year round? I loved Howie in his full coat, and I loved the quality peaceful time we spent together while I groomed him. Now that he has a short coat, I notice we have time for other activities together. I still spend time clipping nails,quick brush through etc. but gosh it takes such little time. I will let his coat grow back in, but Mark & I do find right now we have more outside time spend with the pup. Just a thought, peg |
| I assumed the request was for full coat, and also didn't reply in with give and take type stuff (other activities) as the request was just specifically related to grooming time. For us, all the other dog activities are just as much of a "given" as grooming. |
| I knew that I would get thoughtful responses. We have much to think about. I certainly don't take this decision lightly. I wouldn't want a second puppy to get any less of our love and attention. Carl, having Dawn over that day recently didn't help me get over my thoughts of getting a second. The girls adore each other and it was so fun to watch them rip around. In true Stats Can fashion, I should do a David and Kim time survey and see where we really are spending our time and what could potentially be cut to save us time. Maybe we could get some household projects complete first-work our way down our list of things that will take us alot of time. And we could just always have sandwiches for supper, thus saving cooking and cleaning time! I would sacrifice supper for a puppy! |
Didn't find exactly what you're looking for? Search again here:
Custom Search
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|