Don't you love it when a client asks you to make their dog look like the photo of another dog? How often can you really make that happen?

 

In this case, the client didn't present a photo, just a request to "Make him look like a Cairn Terrier." Lisa had a picture in her head - but it didn't match what was at the end of the leash!

 

We had a major problem. Cairn Terriers are supposed to have a harsh, wiry, and scruffy coat. The dog presented to Lisa barely had any hair. The dog was super sparse. And to make matters even more challenging, the dog had a habit of rubbing its head on the sofa all the time. He had broken off all the length on what should have been a scruffy head!

 

Lisa took one look at the dog and knew what she needed to do - and clippers were not on this little guy's work order!

 

Lisa does a great job styling and shaping the coat. Her goal is to encourage the harsh texture to grow back again. She uses a variety of hand-stripping and carding techniques to regenerate the proper coat texture. As she worked on this wonderful older Cairn Terrier, we were shocked to see how much hair actually landed on the grooming room floor.

• what tools can be used to remove dead coat.
• how to shape the tail.
• how to get the velvety appearance on the ears.
• how to give the illusion of longer coat on the top of the head.
• why Lisa takes brows a little shorter than she really likes.