Rescue Claire's first bath and POOF!!

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Woodbender

Forums Enthusiast
Okay so this is almost comical to me but...

After about 27 years of having dogs and rescues and Shelties and all, I gave Claire her "first" bath (well, first with us anyway) and her skirts went POOF! I mean her "skirts" around her tail and haunches. Childbride combed her out when she was still damp, and when I next took her outside - whoop - there it is.

Our previous Sheltie, Chelsea really didn't have poofy "skirts" so this was a surprize to me. They're as big as baloon bloomers!

I'm not real heavy and crazy over conformance lines and all but, really, should I thin these things out periodically and with what? We've always used real small fine embroidery sissors to trim out the fur on Chelsea's paws and other lady-like areas in the past . But to thin down without messing up her other lines - I don't know how to do that. Or if it's really even needed.

[edit] I should mention that my wife has a set of ancient barber clippers (Wahl?). Her dog clipping days go back 40 years and she's been cutting my hair about 33 years. So she has the tools.
 
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I think you can get specially-made thinning shears, at least for human hair. I don't know if they'd work on a dog.
 
Oh my I have to laugh. When we first got Ally at 1.5 years of age, she had a rather short adolescent coat. Then all of a sudden, at 3 years of age, she POOFED seemingly overnight! :lol: She has big "bloomers" also, we call her "bustle butt" after the old timey dresses with bustles in the rear.

We don't thin but we do use a set of clippers to clip a poop chute under her tail for sanitary reasons. Also works well on their feet, ours get a lot of hair on the bottoms of their paws which picks up mud and thorns, stickers, etc.

I'd love to see a photo of Claire after her bath!
 
Sharon7 said:
Oh my I have to laugh. When we first got Ally at 1.5 years of age, she had a rather short adolescent coat. Then all of a sudden, at 3 years of age, she POOFED seemingly overnight! :lol: She has big "bloomers" also, we call her "bustle butt" after the old timey dresses with bustles in the rear.

We don't thin but we do use a set of clippers to clip a poop chute under her tail for sanitary reasons. Also works well on their feet, ours get a lot of hair on the bottoms of their paws which picks up mud and thorns, stickers, etc.

I'd love to see a photo of Claire after her bath!
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Well Sharon, this is a horrible pic and when she was first brushed out after her bath this "poof" was flowing almost like a horse's mane very long. Some of that mass is her beautiful long curly tail. Photo does not show any of this well at all I'm afraid.
http://s21.photobucket.com/user/Woodbender/media/Claire/IMG_20141224_203742202_zps602f4507.jpg.html
My wife used clippers on the dog she had when we were dating, but Chelsea (our previous sheltie) was scared to death of those things. Claire is so traumatised that I'm a little reluctant to even try just yet with clippers. :eek2:
 
Wonder if she's ever been clipped. Tully's pants have gone haywire since she got them clipped for her hip surgery last Feb. The right side fur was shaved and the left side clipped. The ortho vet reckons it takes a full new growth cycle for it to go back to normal - so that's once the current fur that grew out after the surgery falls out and is replaced.

Mind you it could also be because Claire's got a curl to her coat and the bath added the moisture to the coat to make it frizz up more (people with curly hair will understand that). So it might settle. Be interesting to see if that is the case.
 
Caro said:
Wonder if she's ever been clipped. Tully's pants have gone haywire since she got them clipped for her hip surgery last Feb. The right side fur was shaved and the left side clipped. The ortho vet reckons it takes a full new growth cycle for it to go back to normal - so that's once the current fur that grew out after the surgery falls out and is replaced.

Mind you it could also be because Claire's got a curl to her coat and the bath added the moisture to the coat to make it frizz up more (people with curly hair will understand that). So it might settle. Be interesting to see if that is the case.
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Given her background I very highly doubt she was ever trimmed or clipped or groomed other than a nail trim. I'm sure it was due to the bath and it is VERY damp today here with this weather system going through. Her bloomers definately got squirrely on her. :lol:
 
In all honesty if she were mine I would just leave her to have her poofy pants. I have had a couple of rescue shelties in the past with poofy pants and I always looked at it as just part of their uniqueness.

Trini
 
trini gilmore said:
In all honesty if she were mine I would just leave her to have her poofy pants. I have had a couple of rescue shelties in the past with poofy pants and I always looked at it as just part of their uniqueness.

Trini
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Yeah the more we talk about this as a couple we're thinking just to make sure the "exit" path is trimmed and just keep her brushed. Theresa likes watching her waltz across the yard. :smile2:
 
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