Frasier's Haircut

I have been wanting to do this myself for years!! Frasier is our Golden Doodle and his haircuts are usually upwards of $90. $80 if I am lucky, and over $120 if I wanted to send him to a fancy place.

I am always feeling like a guilty pet owner because we don't get him haircuts frequently enough. :/ But it SO expensive. Now I can do it myself :)

We have had nice weather for the last two days, so this morning I went to Pet Smart purchased the same trimmer they use on doodles. I was happy it was in stock and on sale: the Andis 2 Speed



At $150, after two haircuts it will have paid for itself. Of course I would like to get some accessories for subsequent haircuts, but for the shave down I didn't need anything extra.

Here is the before picture:
(sorry its shadowy, but I'm not a photographer... working on that for the sake of the blog though)



I love when Frasier's hair is long and shaggy... but it was getting matted and way too long to manage. The only thing I could realistically do with my lack of expertise and his crazy long coat was to shave him down.

The trimmer worked really well, I was impressed.



Here he is halfway through:



I did his back first because it is the easiest, and his face last because I was the most nervous about it.

The baby was not happy for my attention to be on the dog. I spent most of the time singing "ABCDEFG..." and "lalalal elmo's song..." to keep him at least particially entertained while I was shaving Frasier.



I had to stop before I had finished a few details because 1-it was time to start dinner, 2-the baby was running out of patience, and 3-Frasier was trying to run away (although he was very good for most of it).

Here is the (almost) final product. I need to go back over some spots, trim his paws, and touch up his face and rear.



Curled up in his warm bed:



We like to refer to him as his alter-ego "Mr. Velvet" because he is so soft after being shaved.

I will aim to trim him every 6 weeks-2 months and learn to do the "teddy bear" haircut. I think that looks the best on doodles.


Tomorrow after his cut is polished up, I will put on his winter coat and take some better pictures :-)