My poor, poor little dog and her poor, poor fur.

[mrissa]

Ever since she was a puppy, Ista has gone to see Lisa to get her haircuts. For awhile she got excited when we said the name, so we spelled out L-i-s-a. She would get nervous going in the door to the vet's but would settle right down if we would assure her, "You get to see Lisa! You're going to see Lisa!"

Lisa retired at the end of May. The vet wants to hire a new groomer to work on the premises, and I thoroughly approve of this plan, but they haven't found anyone yet. And Ista's curly, non-shedding poodle fur was getting really hard to brush out with the brambles and things she gets into. So I booked her in for an appointment at the Eagan PetSmart.

Oh lordy. Never, never again.

I have no idea whether the lighting and angle on any of the photos timprov tried to take will work out so that you can see evidence of the bad, bad haircut. Her body is fine. Legs, tail: fine. We told them "puppy cut," which is poodle owner for "do not give my dog stupid puffballs, as she is not hunting game in the underbrush." They got that part. But her poor head. It was a dome of poofy poodle fur framed with two mesh puffballs in sparkly green and pink. It was the most awful thing ever. She was like the special Muppet guest for a B52s concert. It was really, really bad. Timprov and I laughed all the way home, because we are not nice people.

Now she has a different bad haircut, the one where it looks like her incompetent owner went after her with a scissor. But I cannot wait until the vet gets a new groomer. (And she really isn't going back there--they splintered a couple of her nails, and I had to fix them pretty carefully to keep them from ripping back and hurting her.)

Comments

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

She was like the special Muppet guest for a B52s concert.

Poor doggie - but that is awfully funny!

We've had mixed results with groomers as well. On the upside, they tend to be way more competent about clipping Ab's nails, brushing out the mats, etc., than we are. On the downside, it's not cheap and if we forget to specify "no fragrance," she ends up wearing a silly bandana and smelling like one of those rearview mirror air fresheners.

[aedifica]

The things I miss by not being a dog owner. They put perfume on dogs?? (I mean, I can see a certain kind of dog-owner perfuming their dog themselves, but groomers do this regularly?)

And poor Ista. I sympathize very much, mostly about the nails but a little bit also about the fur.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if it's perfume straight or if they use really heavily perfumed shampoos. But somehow they have the impression that dog-owners would rather have dogs who smell like clean-dog-plus-perfume than just like clean-dog.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

She's probably not nearly as bothered by the silly ear-poofs as you are.

The nails, though, that's pretty darned serious. How hard is trimming poodle nails? Cats are really quite easy, except for any difficulty the individual cat chooses to present.

[pameladean]

Oh dear oh dear.

I bet she still feels fierce, though. It would take more than a couple of dopey mesh puffballs to change that.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

They rubber-banded them in, so she was pretty bothered by getting them out (and would have been no matter when they came out). Also the longer hair around her head and eyes was going to be a problem for getting stuff in it and getting the hair and possibly the stuff in her eyes; that's part of why we get her professionally groomed in the first place.

And yes, a professional groomer should be able to handle her nails, given that I have cut them twice and still managed.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

She is very fierce. But mostly relieved to be home.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

Oster makes not-expensive, very nice dog clippers, fwiw, even if it's just for touch-ups between proper cuts. My dad uses them on our standard poodles to give them real dog cuts and/or mohawks.

[aedifica]

I looked up "puppy cut" and what I found was this page, where I was charmed to read that "The name 'poodle' comes from the German 'pudeln' which roughly translates to 'splash about in the water'; the original purpose of the breed was a water retriever." (I wasn't sure about that, since it was just last week I was reading about false and folk etymologies, but the OED confirms the etymology, aside from adding an extra D for "puddeln"!)

(As a poodle owner you may already know this, but I thought it was so neat I wanted to share it with someone!)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, she is a water dog for sure. Getting to dabble her toesies in Fish Lake is one of her great joys of summer. She would do it other times, but markgritter is Very Strict.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Ista's grandmonkeys own some of those and may See What They Can Do.

[saoba.livejournal.com]

Poor pup. I would compose a Very Strong letter to the manager.

The bad hair cut is bad enough, the splintery nails is flat out groomer FAIL. I'm not a professional groomer and I can trim Molly's nails acceptably and without hurting her. Believe me, if it hurt Little Miss Diva would let me know.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

Some dog groomers do use doggy perfumes. I used to ask my groomer *not* to use it.

[redbird]

Poor Ista.

I have seen poodles looking very fine and dignified in the standard "poodle cut," I think because they know that those hairdos are traditional and cool for poodles, however silly they may look to me.

I have never seen, and do not expect to see, a dog looking fine or dignified with sparkly pink and green mesh puffballs.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

There is no real excuse for the nails. Poor puplet.

The ex's grandparents had poodles. The poor things always had puffs and poofs and bows.

One of the males always fought for his dignity. He did his best to loose the sparkly bits in the backyard as soon as possible when he got back from the groomer. There would be a lot of growling and fierce attacking of toys too.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Lisa used to put a bow on Ista's collar. This was acceptable: it was on her collar, and it was a plain bow of one color or another, and it did not hurt to get off. So she was okay with that. (We rarely left them on for more than the rest of the day. She's just not a bow kind of girldog.) I was particularly frustrated that the stupid puffballs were attached to bits of ear hair with wrapped rubber bands. Maybe that works well with great big dogs where you can wrap it around a big chunk of hair without getting the whole ear, but this was hard to get out without pulling her ears. I did manage to get enough of the hair out that I could snip the rubber bands without snapping her. But sheesh.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor pup! That is all just wrong. An offense angainst taste and dogly dignity and all sense and reason.

Also, total fail on the toenails.

[sraun]

Poor Ista!

If you need to get her cut before the vet has a new groomer, we've been very happy with The Groomsmen at 38th & Grand. I've been using him for ... ten years now? Maybe eleven. I realize it's significantly out of your way, but thought I'd pass it along just in case. Let me know if you'd like his phone number.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec. I hope we don't need it, because she won't need another trim until September, but I will keep it in mind if the vet is not successful by then.

I know Mac would never put up with pink and green mesh sparkly poofballs!

[coalboy.livejournal.com]

My standard boy loved to retrieve. Very soft mouth, could snatch a raw egg, run around with it, & not break it.