[m9m9m9]

I normally pay close to $100 for a groomer to come to my house to groom/clip the dog bc my dog doesn't do well at the groomer - left in a cage she woud pant so much that she was soaking wet and this was after the bath and hair cut so it kind of defeated the purpose.

I have been considering trying to do it myself and have found they they sell clippers at the store. Does anyone do it themselves? Is it difficult? How about cutting the nails? I am terrible about this and have considered buying that machine that acts as like a sander I think by Dremel.

My dog is a cocker mix and gets quite fluffy. When I got her, they had just shaved 5lbs of fur off of her poor thing. I do not do the typical cocker cut, I just have her shaved down all over including her ears so this is what I would like to do at home.

Any advice would be appreicated!

thanks!

 

[e123vg]

i shave all my dogs myself. unless i've let them go all winter, then i will send one in to get the puppy cut clip from the groomer... it only costs $30 here. but once summer hits i do it myself. i've got three to clip. the clipper does get hot, so i have to stop half way, and it clogs easy.... maybe i need a pro clipper and not a kmart one. if you just get her shaved and not a certain look you will have no problem. but maybe you should take that $100 to invest into a good clipper. good luck

 

[MamaAllNatural]

If he's already used to getting groomed he'll probably do just fine. I've always groomed my own dogs. When I was young I had a cocker that I never shaved. I just brushed him well *at least* once a day w/a good brush. *ETA: I just wanted to add that actually he did occasionally get a little matt in his fur or on an ear and instead of trying to work it out I'd just trim it off. He had so much hair that it didn't even show. Well, the fact that he was black may have helped too.

My dogs that I have now don't require any special care. I just bath them, brush them, clean their ears (with just a cotton ball soaked in witch hazel - which I'm told is fine), & trim their nails. Sometimes I brush my adult dog's teeth. They have everything you need at the petstore. I like the guillotine style nail trimmers. Get high quality ones though. It is so much easier. There are also usually instructions that come w/the nail clippers. For me I found it easiest to just find the most comfortable position for me and my dogs where I felt like I had the most control over what I was doing.

I also got an actual cleaning scrub brush that use when I'm shampooing them. It works really well and they enjoy the massage it gives them. If you don't want to bathe him in your bathtub you can get a hookup for a sink in the house to connect a hose to. This is what I do so that I can bathe them outside and they still get that nice warm water from the house. I'm a doula and it was part of my birth kit. I think you can get the parts at a waterbed store and they're pretty inexpensive. I also do a vinegar rinse on each of them at the end of their bath. It really helps to make their coats soft and shiny and I think it helps to ward of fleas as well (but that's not proven, just my thoughts!).

I do tether my dogs when I'm bathing them though. It just helps all around. They've come to enjoy being bathed and groomed. Especially when you keep telling them how "pretty" they look. My girl knows it means something *very* good!

HTH

 

[shannon0218]

If you have a cocker cross don't even waste your money on anything but a professional set of clippers, so either professional Andis or Oster A5's. Then you need to figure how many blades so it depends on what you want to do, how long you want him, etc.
$100.00 sounds ridiculous for a cocker cross to me, $50.00 is around where it should be.
If you are bad about doing nails and you know you are then you will also be bad about grinding them.
Can you find a groomer who will book you an appt first thing in the morning, groom your dog and let you take him home, I did this all the time, dog was in and out in an hour, no muss no fuss.

 

[m9m9m9]

Thanks for the replies.

I used to be very good about giving her a bath every 2 to 3 weeks. She tolerates a bath but sits there with a "woe is me" look and just is pathetic. Now, its more like once every 2 months. I am really bad about remembering to brush her. That's one reason why I keep her hair short. Its pretty hot around her so I like to make sure she is comfortable although realistically she is outside for walks only. I have a forced air dryer that I use to blow her dry and I can get her to sit for about 20 minutes while I get her almost dry so I think she would be ok with me shaving/clipping her.

I didn't realize there were different size blades. Will it say on the package which one to use? Is it possible that I could cut her? I am afraid of doing so. What do I use for between her pads? Just regular scissors. With her nails, I clip them but I do not think I do them short enough. I was thinking the nail shaver thing would be less intimidating to try.

I actaully considered taking a grooming course at a nearby school but its a long class and I couldn't take that much time from work.

I think its actually $85 for the grooming that I get for her know ~ the groomer has her own van with water and everything and then $15 for the tip so that's why it is so expensive. At the regular groomer, it was only $40 - $50. I did try getting the first appointment but it didn't help. They still said I had to plan to pick her up 6 to 8 hours later. That's when I started using the mobile groomer.

Maggie

 

[thekimballs]

If you want to do it the same way the professionals do, it'll run you about $400 for the grooming table and clippers, then any additional $$ you want to spend on a dryer. If you just want to clip her yourself, then yes I'd get the professional clippers but it's SUPER easy, and you can't hurt her. Get a long blade (call a grooming shop and ask what number blade they use on Cockers) when you order the clippers. Clip gently but firmly against the lie of the hair and keep the blade parallel to her skin.

 

[MamaAllNatural]

I'm sorry. For some reason I thought your OP said "he."

 

[shannon0218]

depending on how short you like to keep the dog will depend on what blade you use, I clip cockers with an 8.5 blade, but I wouldnt' use that on most cocker crosses. If you want the coat to be short but not bald, you probably want a good #5 blade. Don't bother with combs because they won't go through that coat unless it is in pristine condition.

 

[TanyaS]

I've done two of my dogs in the past. I've decided to invest in some quality clippers because my dog I have now (lhasa poo) has curlier hair than my schnauzer had. The only thing I can't seem to do is nails. Everyone says it's easy, but he won't let me do anything with his feet. Weird. So I go to the vet or a groomer and pay $5 to get it done. We've never had a problem bathing our dogs and often did it between groomer visits before I started doing it myself. I'm not all that great at it and every 4 months or so I'll take him to get done professionally for a fresh start. But I also don't pay anywhere near $100 for grooming.

 

[MikoMum]

We use an electric dremel tool with a round drum sanding bit (the sandpaper kind, not the metal kind) for our dog's nails and it works SO well! I've never had a bad incident with either our (deceased) Shiba or our Greyhound.

I know the women in our rescue group use the dremel too. The other nice thing is you can get all the burrs off the nail so they aren't sharp like after a regular trim. You can pick up a dremel for about $35-40 and they have so many uses! I've heard they are easy to find in pawn shops too.

 

[LaLaLuna]

What a timely post- I've just been trying to get my courage up to trim our standard poodle again. I ordered an Andis clipper off of Amazon.com. His hardest thing is that he doesn't like the clippers near his face; unfortunately at this point the poor thing can barely see he's so fuzzy.

One trick I read about for trimming nails; smear some peanut butter on the fridge at nose height and the dog gets so enthusiastic about cleaning that up for you he tolerates his nails being clipped- works pretty well for us. I play with my dog's feet all the time so he's not so bugged about getting his nails trimmed, although he would stll rather be doing just about anything else but that.