On Christmas Eve, a new customer asked about grooming his newly acquired Standard Poodle. He wanted it styled “like a picture I saw on the Internet” and described a continental clip. I showed him photos of other poodles in that clip that I had groomed, and asked him to compare the current length of his poodle to one in a “before” picture. I booked his appointment for the day after Christmas and explained that I would need about 3 hours. He neglected (pun intended) to warn me that he had tried to groom the dog himself...so even though “Shane” had less hair than I anticipated in all the wrong places, he had solidly matted hair everywhere he still had any decent length! Naturally, “dad” had chopped the hair off his ears and the front half of his topknot with scissors, but strangely, he had left “pom poms” on Shane’s feet instead of his ankles. He also dropped the bomb that Shane was 13 years old! I set the pattern with a #15 against the grain and a #30 against on the feet. Then I broke up the jacket dreadlocks with my mat splitter. I lathered him up with White on White, using a slicker to brush it through and remove more mats. After rinsing with my bathing system, I hand dried, brushed out and scissor finished him. From “yard ape” to proper poodle – 3 hours, 15 minutes. Shane knew it too – he pranced out the door like a young puppy!

Groomer: Jen Harris
Location: Norman, OK