By Amanda Aaron
Brittany Spaniels are a breed that can cause confusion among pet groomers as far as how they should be trimmed. This tutorial will demonstrate a nice modified breed trim for the Brittany. My goal is to show an easy way to remove the undercoat and extra hair for ease of maintenance for the client as well as maintaining the breed profile.
Fig 1) Start by removing undercoat with an undercoat rake. When done properly, you can remove the bulk of the undercoat without risk of damaging the guard hair.
Fig 2) Carefully, use a carding knife by laying it flat on the body and begin in one area and card long strokes of coat until you have no resistance. Don’t go over the same area a lot or it could cause skin irritation. You can remove the softer undercoat hair with this method. If you are not experienced in carding, please consult your mentor for more in–depth instruction.
Fig 3) Once the desired amount of undercoat is removed, I will clip the back coat with a guard comb. I’m using an orange guard comb to remove just enough to make the hair seemingly flat.
Fig 4) Remove fuzz on the ears with a clipper comb or blade—I used a peach snap–on comb for this.
Fig 5) Using a dark purple guard comb, remove all of the soft hair from the front of the leg to the top of the foot.
Fig 6) Continue to use the dark purple guard comb to remove all of the hair on the front and sides of the neck down to the breast bone.
Fig 7) Clean up the hair on the rear legs.
Fig 8) Clean out all of the paw pads—I prefer a 40 blade for this.
Fig 9) This breed should have a tight cat–like foot so use a slicker brush and brush up the hair on the foot before trimming it in a rounded fashion.
Fig 10) Using your slicker again, go back over the foot once more and finish with a thinning shear to create a natural look.
Fig 11) Discuss with the client to determine how much hair they would like to have left to maintain. Brush back the leg furnishings and remove the excess hair. You can use a straight shear on a pet, but if you would like this to look natural, a thinner or a chunker is recommended.
Fig 12) By using a blender or thinning shear, shape the underline by cleaning up the ends.
Fig 13) Go back over any of the clipped areas with a thinner or a carding knife to remove any untidy hairs and to make your clipper work look as natural as possible.
Fig 14) Using thinning shears, remove the excess hair from the underside of the tail.
Fig 15) Using blenders, lightly trim the outside and inside of the pants to remove any hair that doesn’t match up with the dog’s maintenance schedule.
Fig 16) Clean up the chest area and use a thinning shear to tidy and blend.
Fig 17) Protecting the edge of the ear leather with your fingers, use a thinner to tidy the edges.
Fig 18) Pull the ear forward and, very carefully using thinning shears, remove the bulk of the hair that sits behind the ear.
Pet Brittanys can still enjoy the beauty of a breed profile while being neat, tidy and easy to maintain. Next time you’re tempted to just trim the feet on this easy spaniel, wow them with this look instead! ✂️