Grooming Smarter

How to Spray up Yorkie heads in the grooming shop

 

 

 

  

 

 I did this video clip months ago. I was in the final editing stage when Bobo, the dog in the video, was killed during a muder/suicide. I miss Bobo, his dad and his mom immensely. I THINK I am ready to share this video clip. I was able to do the editing, so I guess that is a step in the right direction. As with most of my videos, a double click will take you to YouTube where the video clip will show in a full sized screen. Thank you to Bobo's family for allowing me to use this video despite the family's tragedy.

  

In case the above does not work,   

 

Download Spraying Up Heads in the Grooming Shop Powerpoint

Download PDF Yorkie Presentation

 

I did this presentation for Daryl Conner to show her how I do my yorkie heads. I get consistent, fast results with this techniuqe that make the clients happy and ME happy because the heads always look the same.

It is easier to do this type of head with product and yet a lot of groomers do not know how to use it correctly. This will assist you with this.

Remember as well that you can leave the heads longer than I left Kipper's or even go shorter. His daddy likes it on the short side. I began grooming Kipper about 8 years ago andhis dad actually told me that he was happy with me because Kipper always looks exactly the same.

Clients love that. Consistency is the key to happy clients.

Toto, in the above pictures is the white Maltese Yorkie mix. In the first two head shots he was being groomed by Debbie Slocum, the one in the ring of the front is Toto groomed by Cheryl Percell.

Bob, the black and tan Maltese Yorkie mix was groomed by me.

As you can see from those photos, which were all similar yet different based on the dog's conformation. This type of head can be duplicated on Yorkies, mixes thereof and Westies. I mean, come on! Toto looks more like a Westie than most Westies we see and its because of the product.

Yorkie Ears on Westie Type Heads

You asked for this information, so here it is! It took me a while to get enough photos to be able to do this well, so I apologize it took so long to get it up.

When doing Yorkie ears, it is important to understand what they SHOULD appear like. From the Yorkshire Terrier Standard: Ears are small, V-shaped, carried erect and set not too far apart. This tends to lend them to being done like a West Highland White Terrier (Westie) really easily. As a result, many of our pet Yorkies get rounded heads similar to Westie heads.

Putting the ears into the headpiece can be tricky, so here are my tips on how I do it. Toto, the maltese/yorkie mix that I use to show this head all the time, is shown below. Try to picture this guy in yorkie color and you will be all set. I think that his ear tips are taken down a bit too much, but overall the photo shows this style head clearly. The tips below will hopefully make this head easy to acheive.

First off, bathe, dry and prep the dog as you usually would. I like to use Mousse and Spray in my heads to assist in keeping the shape and make it easier to scissor them round. You can see my post here on this blog on how I do that.

I begin with putting the ear between my thumb and forefinger. This allows me to see how much hair is there, what the ear shape is and decide what blade I want to use on the outside of the ear.

I use a 40 blade, either a regular 40 blade or a Speed Feed set on the 40 setting to do this part of the ear.

You clipper, on average, the top of the ear, or basically the width of one figertip. Of course, this will change slightly depending on how large the yorkie being groomed is, but basically, one quarter of the ear suits all dogs.

After edging the inside with a clipper, I scissor the edges nice and tight, making sharp little points at the tip of the ear.

This picture shows the finished ear from the inside. Yorkie ears tend to have very little hair on the inside of the ear so I try to leave a tuft of hair near the base of the ear, but I DO NOT fold the ear like a scottie as that will take off too much hair. I simply pretend the ear and head are two seperate parts of the dog.

 The most important part of this type of groom is to remember that the head is a circle, with sharp triangular ears set on top of it.

You can see the ear comes to a sharp, crisp point, and that is critical to getting the head to look correct on the finished dog.

The same technique applies to yorkies with full coats. The same measurements and the same techniques will result in perfect yorkie ears regardless of the type of hairstyle you are giving the dog.

On the back of the ears, I do not use a 40, I tend to use a ten (or equivalent setting on a trimmer) or even in some cases, simply comb the ear hair on the back of the ear to the side and trim the edges.

In this shot you can see that I used a blade to take the hair off the tip (again, one quarter of the ear) and then scissored tight to neaten.

With a full coated dog I would not scissor down into the hair like I did on this dog, I would leave it alone, but on round heads, I DO trim the head hair into the ear, making it round in appearance. You can see that there is actually a clear round look to the way the hair flows around from the neck to the ear tip. One smooth line is what you want.

You can see from the front, that the ear and head hair are all blended into each other.

Hopefully this will help you learn how to do this head style fast and easily!