Grooming 101 but almost show!

BarbV

BarbV

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My groomer came to me today asking me about Sheltie standards

She has been grooming a lot of Shelties lately and is seeing in all sizes, funny muzzles, ears (of course). She specifically asked whether or not it was normal for Shelties to have a bit of a dip in their spine. My Bacca has a small dip, buy Indy is strait. Is a little dip normal

She also asked about the eyes....what is standard....we've seen alot of buggy eyed Shelties in my store.

And the snout.....some look collie like, some look more like papillions

She's asking, so Im asking for her...what is normal. She often has people presenting registered dogs but she says not normal

aNd how should she be adapting her grooming to comensate for flaws

I have books but most people don't care like we do..... just goud enough

Any quick tips for dealing with general Sheltie flaws?
 
What do you mean by dip in the spine? Like being butt high or more of an arch between otherwise level point of hip and withers? The article by Linda More on judging shelties on the ASSA site (http://www.assa.org/JudgingtheShetlandSheepdog.pdf) seems to imply that being butt high may occur but is negative and the ASSA standard (http://www.assa.org/standard.html) calls for a level topline. Being butt high is a negative attirbute for athleticism (puts the weight on the forehand so harder to get power from behind) so it would make sense a herding breed should be level.

I hadn't read the article by More before but I think it's a great explanation of the breed standard. She also addresses eyes and muzzle in the article.
 
Level toplines, there shouldn't be a dip.

Eyeset in Shelties tend towards being larger and round (which is not correct). I've not seen a lot of "bug-eyed" shelties (I see more Aussies with eyes that protrude). I'm doing ears on one of my grooming clients puppies, and she said "her eyes are awful small", and I had to tell her that no, these are correct, your other dogs have larger eyes.

The head should look like one piece when viewed from the top. If you can tell where the muzzle stops and the skull begins, that is not correct. They call it a "two piece head" (usually comes with that big round eyelet). It should be one smooth line from the nose to the back of the skull.

I wouldn't worry too much about grooming around head faults. What I notice groomers tend to do is either take waaay too much hair off the ears, or leave them bushy. If a dog has pricked ears, and you take away all the hair, the ears look like satellite dishes. But if you leave all the hair around the ears, it draws attention as well. So the best thing she can do is to learn to do ears correctly.

Nothing should stand out. When I groom a dog, if a particular cluster of hair draws my attention, it gets trimmed. When you look at a well groomed Sheltie, nothing should draw attention.
 
ClantyreSheltie said:
Level toplines, there shouldn't be a dip.

Eyeset in Shelties tend towards being larger and round (which is not correct). I've not seen a lot of "bug-eyed" shelties (I see more Aussies with eyes that protrude). I'm doing ears on one of my grooming clients puppies, and she said "her eyes are awful small", and I had to tell her that no, these are correct, your other dogs have larger eyes.
Click to expand...

Hanna has small eyes compared to my previous sheltie - what do you think?

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/ebz5gursj9qq09y/g_5REUHMfY
 
I feel like all of her is small :) But I would call that a rounder eye.

So it can be hard in pictures to show eyesets and size. A lot of breeders will take pictures into the sun so the dogs squint, or do other weird things to get the look they want. It's pretty obvious, I'm not sure why they still do it, but whatever.

For example, look at these two photos:
http://clantyrephotography.smugmug.com/Animals/Clantyre-Dogs/i-hDn3nwc
http://clantyrephotography.smugmug.com/Animals/Clantyre-Dogs/i-6x7d7Dj

That is the same dog. One outdoors, in moderate sun and groomed, one indoors in a studio with serious lighting. Two TOTALLY different looks, ya? The first one is much more "correct" than the second.

You can also look at the ears and see what I mean about not taking off too much. You don't want the "shaved ear" look.
 
I agree - my groomer took too much off Hanna's ears when I had her in, but she did such a nice job with her feet and resisted the urge to mess with ruff so I'm going to keep working with her. I just hate seeing scissor marks on a dog.

Yeah she'll be 7 months on Monday and weighs in at 12.5 pounds, so that makes her pretty small. She feels quite solid to me when I pick her up so it's hard to believe that's all she weighs. There's still time for her to grow some.
 
Rachael, those are very good examples of a dog photographed outside, and groomed, and then inside and not groomed. But...to be totally fair....

PLEASE NOTE....EVERYONE LOOKING AT THESE TWO PICTURES.....

In the first picture of the dog outside, the lower area around his eyes, that on this dog is naturally tan, has been colored black. That alone will give the impression of a more correct eye. It also appears that the upper area has been slightly darkened also.:wink2:
 
missjenneygirl said:
Rachael, those are very good examples of a dog photographed outside, and groomed, and then inside and not groomed. But...to be totally fair....

PLEASE NOTE....EVERYONE LOOKING AT THESE TWO PICTURES.....

In the first picture of the dog outside, the lower area around his eyes, that on this dog is naturally tan, has been colored black. That alone will give the impression of a more correct eye. It also appears that the upper area has been slightly darkened also.:wink2:
Click to expand...

Well, yeah, I said groomed :) She's also got a muzzle full of chalk.

But I think that even if I did that in the studio picture, it wouldn't have helped much, it would still appear to be a big round eye.
 
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