By Brittney Valle
A staple in every shop is the cute little mixed breed that doesn’t really resemble either of the breeds they are derived from—a perfect mixture of the two (or three or four….) breeds they represent.
Then there is no breed standard to follow (or you don’t know which one!), it is nice to be able to give the dog a cute personality trim to fit their attitude.
Meet Kodi, the Shih Tzu/Poodle mix! With this trim, we gave him his own style that is easy maintenance for his family and keeps up his “tough guy” appearance.
Fig 1) For this trim, I used a 0 snap on comb (yellow or 5/8”). Beginning at the withers, clip toward the tail.
Fig 2) Continue down the sides of the neck, making sure to skim off at the elbow. This will help achieve a more balanced, fuller leg.
Fig 3) In the rear, skim off just above the hock.
Fig 4 & 5) Whichever length you used on the body, reverse it on the belly and all the way up the chest and chin. This helps create a more stylized look, as well as accentuates your dog’s chest and neck.
Fig 6) With the foot on the ground, scissor around the front paws. By keeping the paw on the table, you can easily set the length and shape of your foot.
Fig 7) Scissor the chest and blend into your column leg by wrapping your shear around the dog’s shoulder.
Fig 8) Scissor the front of the dog’s leg, connecting the shoulder to the toes.
Fig 9) While lifting the front leg straight out from the shoulder, comb all of the hair to the inside of the leg and scissor a straight line from the toes to the armpit. Repeat for the outside of the leg. I used a blending shear for this as this dog’s leg coat was pretty thin and I wanted it to have a thicker appearance.
Fig 10) Still holding the dog’s leg, scissor the back of the leg up into the armpit, blending the column into the body of the dog.
Fig 11) Scissor around the rear feet as you did the front feet.
Fig 12) Clean up the shaggy hairs on the back legs from the stifle toward the tuck–up.
Fig 13) Scissor the back of the rear legs tight toward the hock.
Fig 14) Shape the underline by scissoring off all of the scraggly hairs left on the belly.
Fig 15) Smooth out the tuck–up area using your blenders.
Fig 16) Holding onto the ear leather, scissor along the natural edge of the ear, working from the tip to the base and around the back of the head.
Fig 17) Clean up the hair in front of the eyes. I prefer to use a thinning shear.
Fig 18) Scissor in a visor, aiming from the ear toward the center of the face.
Fig 19) Round out the bottom of the chin.
Fig 20) Trim up the sides of the cheeks, pointing the tip of your shears up and toward the center of the head as you round it in.
Fig 21) For a pipe cleaner style tail, I skimmed a C snap on comb (green, 3/4”) over this dog’s tail, and then scissored the shaggy pieces up.
I hope you all have little Kodis running around your shop that are just as happy go lucky as this one! 