By Dawn Omboy
Some days you just feel like playing because as groomers, you all know we get to play with dogs all day. Did you ever just want to take your trimmer and outline the natural markings on a dog just to see what silly design you could make of it? For instance, I have a Parti Poodle named Petie that I groom every two weeks. I just love Petie and all his little Parti Poodle quirks. Petie has a natural fish on his body right over his back and the fish tail is Petie’s own tail. Oh how I would just love to take my Wahl Bravura and just outline that fish then glue an eye on it, add some glitter to the tail and watch that fish appear to shimmer and swim as the tail wags. Ah but I best not as I don’t think Petie’s Mom would appreciate it. However, Marzipan the Beagle who belongs to 16 year old Wesley Frank is quite another story. Marzipan was staying with us for a few days while Wes was on spring break and since his mom is my sister Monique, I knew I could get away with anything when it comes to something fun and creative on Marzi. So here she sits on my table after her bath and I am removing the dead undercoat she is blowing. (Fig.1 & 2) When I started looking at her natural markings and thinking hmmmmm, the last I had Marzi on my table I used pink PetPaint to color in her thong. This time I used my Bravura, the blade is adjustable. I had it set to the closest cutting setting and with the edge of the blade I carefully cut in the bottom of the white marking from the outside working in towards the top of her tail (Fig.3). Next, I repeated this on the opposite side and all of the sudden I could see eyebrows and a big nose (Fig.4) the nose of course being her tail that was half brown. That lead me to cutting in eye sockets with patches of hair left in the center for the eyeballs (Fig.5) in the really tight areas I used the little tattoo trimmer from Wahl. Now for the nose I simply outlined where the dark hair met the light (Fig.6) by touching the blade straight down into the coat. Cutting into a flat coat can be a little tricky since there is no fluff to forgive your mistakes so be careful to keep your lines straight and precise. With that done I touched the blade straight into the coat further down to create the illusion of a mouth. This beagle butt was hilarious! To make it really pop, I used some Bling it On glue to secure gold tone stones to the center of the eyeball tufts of hair and then using black India ink I airbrushed all the cut in areas and a bit around stones too for better visual effect. (Fig.7) By the time I finished, this dog had us laughing so hard she was smiling at us coming and going and it was really fun to watch her hiney change expression when she sat down! (Fig.9 & 10) I got to tell you this is the best job in the world, never a dull moment in the wonderful world of grooming. I can’t wait to see Wesley’s reaction to the Beagle butt looking like a real wise… owl.
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