By Kathy Rose
A good portion of my “Bread & Butter” clients are Poodles. With that said, they seem to have an aversion to the “Poodle trim,” AKA no shaved face, no shaved feet, and most importantly… no brushing!
We modify to accommodate the client and give them the “teddy bear” trim: short but not shaved, round furry face, and round furry feet. We refer to this as the “All Over” trim with round head and full feet. Pick a length and use the same snap-on comb all over the entire dog except the head and tail. The length will vary depending upon your client’s brushing skills. In this instance, a #0 snap-on comb over a #30 blade was used.
Although the snap-on comb is used all over, some scissoring is still required in order to add style to the trim and eliminate the stray hairs. Keep in mind that thorough preparation is still paramount.
Fig. 1: Starting about two inches behind the occipital bone, clip toward the tail, following the coat growth direction. Clip the entire body, undercarriage, flanks, rump, and hind legs.
Fig. 2: Lift the ear and clip the throat and neck, following the coat growth direction. If you encounter cowlicks, trim the opposite direction.
Fig. 3: Lifting the leg slightly, trim the front legs and feet.
Fig. 4: With super blenders or thinning shears, blend the trimmed areas and shorten the coat on the back part of the upper and lower thigh to help with the angulation.
Fig. 5: Continue with your blenders over the “spring of rib.”
Fig. 6: Use blenders to trim the stray hairs on the undercarriage, creating a natural line up to the forechest.
Fig. 7: Using curved shears, create tight, round feet.
Fig. 8: Trim the inside of the rear legs using curved shears to give the illusion of parallel lines. Then move on to the front and trim the excess hairs to create columns.
Fig. 9: With a #10 blade, lightly scoop out the eyes. Do not actually touch the skin—just skim.
Fig. 10: Use a #30 to trim the hair just under the nose.
Fig. 11: With curved shears angled outward, trim the foreface and brow from one eye corner to the other. When viewed from the side, the eyes should be visible.
Fig. 12: Still with curved shears, blend the cheek coat to the ears and topknot.
Fig. 13: With your thumb placed just under the nose in order to protect the tongue, use curved shears to round the jaw from the
nose to the cheek and ear.
Fig. 14: Flip the ear back and trim upward toward the skull.
Fig. 15: Use blenders to smooth and soften the entire face, blend the top knot to the ear, and round out the bottom of the ear. Finish up by blending the tail into a pom pom.
The longer the snap-on comb that is used, the more scissoring will be required to polish the trim. A good portion of my “Bread & Butter” clients are stocky little dogs in an “all over” trim. These are easy trims to execute in a minimum of time but still present a cute little teddy bear effect that requires minimal client maintenance.