# Mop head



## EllenO (Sep 28, 2021)

Hi all! So Pepper is now 4 month old and has a cute mop head. The earliest groomers will take him is in 2 weeks (2 days post rabies shot). In the meantime, I’d like to help get the hair out of his face. I’m worried about putting anything in it, fearing he’ll eat it…. he’s teething, I think. I also suspect it’s in that in-between phase… too long to see and too short to tie. Is there anything else I can do to tame it? I comb it back but it just fluffs up and droops over his eyes again. Lol. Pics below for reference.

TIA!
EllenO


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

He's adorable! ...And this is just a phase you need to live through if you want to be able to tie his hair up. If you intend to keep him in a short cut, you can always shorten his bangs with scissors. Just be careful if you don't know how to do this, because you don't want to take chances with pointy things around his eyes! It won't hurt him to wait two weeks for his grooming appointment!


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## Heather's (Jun 18, 2012)

What a fluffy little cutie! 💓


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## EllenO (Sep 28, 2021)

krandall said:


> He's adorable! ...And this is just a phase you need to live through if you want to be able to tie his hair up. If you intend to keep him in a short cut, you can always shorten his bangs with scissors. Just be careful if you don't know how to do this, because you don't want to take chances with pointy things around his eyes! It won't hurt him to wait two weeks for his grooming appointment!


Thank you! We're so in love with him! 
Yes, I think waiting might be the best option here. He's a wiggly little guy and it's taken me weeks just to be able to comb him... with lots of bribery. lol. I don't have the confidence to trim it myself, just yet. 
I hope he has a pleasant 1st time grooming experience. Makes me nervous to drop him off at a new place for a couple hours. We've been working hard the last few weeks to get him used to new surroundings, people and dogs. But it's been a slow process for him. Fingers crossed!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

EllenO said:


> Thank you! We're so in love with him!
> Yes, I think waiting might be the best option here. He's a wiggly little guy and it's taken me weeks just to be able to comb him... with lots of bribery. lol. I don't have the confidence to trim it myself, just yet.
> I hope he has a pleasant 1st time grooming experience. Makes me nervous to drop him off at a new place for a couple hours. We've been working hard the last few weeks to get him used to new surroundings, people and dogs. But it's been a slow process for him. Fingers crossed!


I never left my dogs with a groomer until my current groomer, who I know very well, and even with her, I stayed with them for the first couple of years to make sure they were comfortable before leaving them there once Covid started. This was prartially to make sure they were trimmed the way I wanted them, and partially because I’ve just heard too many stories about rough treatment. I know that there are many places that won’t allow this, but search around, and you can find them if it is important to you. It was to me!


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## EllenO (Sep 28, 2021)

krandall said:


> I never left my dogs with a groomer until my current groomer, who I know very well, and even with her, I stayed with them for the first couple of years to make sure they were comfortable before leaving them there once Covid started. This was prartially to make sure they were trimmed the way I wanted them, and partially because I’ve just heard too many stories about rough treatment. I know that there are many places that won’t allow this, but search around, and you can find them if it is important to you. It was to me!


I find it a bit unsettling too. I’ll have to seek one out… many didn’t allow it bc they said I’d be a distraction making it potentially dangerous…. which, for Pepper, I think would be true. It’s a hard call. In an ideal world, a one way mirror? In the meantime, my search is on!


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

Even though it seems super short right now, I’ve been able to get it up by doing a tiny elastic right above the eyes, almost between them, and one more above it. No-damage clear elastics are great for this stage because they help them get used to the feeling of a topknot and they can’t be pulled out easily during play, but they have to be changed every day to avoid breakage. At that stage I started doing them often enough that he was getting used to it, but not always every day. By the time it was long enough for a different kind of hair band or clip he was used to A top knot. I started brushing Sundance early with a wooden pin brush and noticed that he loved to have the very top of his head brushed, so I think that might have made him a little easier  We’ve grown out that part a few times now, thanks to accidentally having it cut too short between his eyes, and it’s so slow! The clear elastics will hold pretty short hair that won’t work with anything else. Now I prefer the soft nylon bands.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

EllenO said:


> I find it a bit unsettling too. I’ll have to seek one out… many didn’t allow it bc they said I’d be a distraction making it potentially dangerous…. which, for Pepper, I think would be true. It’s a hard call. In an ideal world, a one way mirror? In the meantime, my search is on!


You have complete control over this. When I first started taking them, I stayed COMPLETELY away from the table. I talked to the groomer, but not my dob, unless she asked me to. (Which was rare) if they started to act up at all, I didn’t even look at them, I quietly turned and walked out of the room. I stood out of sight until the groomer told me they were behaving again. It didn’t take more than a couple of times for them to learn that a ting up got them NO WHERE!  Dogs misbehave if they think their owner will step in and “save” them.


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## Heather's (Jun 18, 2012)

EllenO said:


> I find it a bit unsettling too. I’ll have to seek one out… many didn’t allow it bc they said I’d be a distraction making it potentially dangerous…. which, for Pepper, I think would be true. It’s a hard call. In an ideal world, a one way mirror? In the meantime, my search is on!


It is extremely difficult to find a groomer at this time in our area. We lost our home groomer after nine years. I searched the NDGAA website for groomers. Everyone I called is not taking new clients at this time. Just like the pet hospitals! I finally found a really nice groomer about 15 miles away that we have been going to the last three months. She doesn't do scissor cuts, but does a very nice job. Most important is she is kind and gentle with Scout and Truffles. It's quite a change for them because it's in a shop. I would never ever leave my dog where I could not see the grooming area. I think it is important to do a meet and greet before ever making an appointment. It's helpful to show the groomer a picture of the haircut you are hoping for. Always try to do your best to comb out any mats so there are no surprises when picking up your puppy! Unfortunately I learned that one several times with our first Havanese. 😮


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Heather's said:


> Always try to do your best to comb out any mats so there are no surprises when picking up your puppy! Unfortunately I learned that one several times with our first Havanese. 😮


Yes!!! No groomer wants to hurt a dog by combing out lots mats. If you have one or two SMALL mats and warn the groomer ahead of time, sometimes they will agree to comb those out for you. But if there is any general matting they are GOING TO SHAVE the dog to the skin, and it is the right thing to do. It might be a shock, but hair grows. It gives you a chance to start fresh and learn to groom your dog properly and prevent mats the next time around! If you need help learning, that is the time to ask the groomer to teach you. Any good groomer will be HAPPY to teach you at-home maintenance for in between grooming appointments!


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## Heather's (Jun 18, 2012)

krandall said:


> You have complete control over this. When I first started taking them, I stayed COMPLETELY away from the table. I talked to the groomer, but not my dob, unless she asked me to. (Which was rare) if they started to act up at all, I didn’t even look at them, I quietly turned and walked out of the room. I stood out of sight until the groomer told me they were behaving again. It didn’t take more than a couple of times for them to learn that a ting up got them NO WHERE!  Dogs misbehave if they think their owner will step in and “save” them.


Our home groomer did not want me close to the grooming table. I would talk to the groomer, but not to Scout or Truffles. She wanted them to learn good table manners because she was using sharp instruments. Now they have perfect table manners. 😄


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Heather's said:


> Our home groomer did not want me close to the grooming table. I would talk to the groomer, but not to Scout or Truffles. She wanted them to learn good table manners because she was using sharp instruments. Now they have perfect table manners. 😄


Yes! They should not be paying attention to you when they are on the table. They need to be paying attention to the groomer!


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## moonchild (12 mo ago)

He's so cuuuutee!!! I don't have any advice, but I just wanted to say you have an adorable puppy. We are pretty new here. Einstein is 17 weeks and gets his first grooming appointment next week. I'm nervous about leaving him there as well since he has separation anxiety. We haven't had any issues with brushing him on our own. I've found that if he concentrates on his nyla bone, he's totally chill. Now if I could only get him to chill out for removing his eye gunk.


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## 31818 (Oct 29, 2014)

moonchild said:


> He's so cuuuutee!!!


I don't know what they put in the water last year, but every one of the puppies born in 2021 is beyond cute. Yours and everyone else's Havapup is super cuuuuuutee.


> I've found that if he concentrates on his nyla bone, he's totally chill.


I have found that if I am chill, my Ricky is chill. If my Ricky senses that I am stressed, he becomes stressed. My advice is that if you are confident with his new experience, he will be fine. Realize that a good groomer is VERY experienced with these kind of situations.



> Now if I could only get him to chill out for removing his eye gunk.


Try giving him a couple of small, healthy treats when cleaning eye genurples. Before you know it, he will be begging you to clean his eyes. Use a damp, warm washcloth to do the dirty work. If the gunk has hardened, just gently leave on the gunk for a few seconds to soften it up. It is recommended you do this daily. This is also the best way to prevent eye stains.

If we want to talk about eye gunk further (this is good topic), let's start a new thread in GROOMING forum. There are a lot of VERY experienced Havaowners that know a lot about this subject.


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## Skywlkr7 (Apr 25, 2021)

I like to use the flobee on my dog. No worry about sharp edges close to the eyes. Also makes the process much faster which is useful.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Skywlkr7 said:


> I like to use the flobee on my dog. No worry about sharp edges close to the eyes. Also makes the process much faster which is useful.


I think that using a flowbee on a puppy's head would be very scary. I'd be VERY careful with that!!!


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## 31818 (Oct 29, 2014)

Skywlkr7 said:


> I like to use the flobee on my dog. No worry about sharp edges close to the eyes. Also makes the process much faster which is useful.


The Flowbee appears to be designed, marketed, and promoted for human hair which has different characteristics than a double-coated canine fur like a Havanese has. It appears to be a suction vacuum with internal cutting blades in the wand. Have you used it to cut the hair on your Simone? Could you post a couple of photos of what the results are?

My Ricky doesn't mind the noise of a vacuum, but I know he would not want anything to do with that wand doing the recommended bounce anywhere on his body. And it doesn't appear to have an adapter for his several inches long natural coat. But all dogs are different, YMMV.


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## GoWithTheFlo (Oct 11, 2018)

Just had to come and post to say now *that is the cutest looking mop I have ever seen💖🥰😍❤🧡💚💙🖤🤍❣🤎💓💕💖💞*


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## charla (Oct 22, 2021)

My Boo is also a mop head! Can’t decide what to do. I’ll try a band as suggested. One hack I’ve learned that works for mats is corn starch. Rub dry corn starch into the mat (hair must be dry) and work the mat out. The corn starch coats the matted hair and loosens the mat. It works!


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## Skywlkr7 (Apr 25, 2021)

DogFather said:


> The Flowbee appears to be designed, marketed, and promoted for human hair which has different characteristics than a double-coated canine fur like a Havanese has. It appears to be a suction vacuum with internal cutting blades in the wand. Have you used it to cut the hair on your Simone? Could you post a couple of photos of what the results are?
> 
> My Ricky doesn't mind the noise of a vacuum, but I know he would not want anything to do with that wand doing the recommended bounce anywhere on his body. And it doesn't appear to have an adapter for his several inches long natural coat. But all dogs are different, YMMV.





krandall said:


> I think that using a flowbee on a puppy's head would be very scary. I'd be VERY careful with that!!!


The scary part for the dog is the noise, but given they are so squirmy and impatient, it is important to be able to finish quickly and remove risk of sharp edges near the face. The device has long and short shields. I like that the cut is perfectly even and that I can have a cut semi-long. The professional groomers would only cut with clippers which is too short for my taste.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Skywlkr7 said:


> The scary part for the dog is the noise, but given they are so squirmy and impatient, it is important to be able to finish quickly and remove risk of sharp edges near the face. The device has long and short shields. I like that the cut is perfectly even and that I can have a cut semi-long. The professional groomers would only cut with clippers which is too short for my taste.


I don't know ANY groomer that cuts the face with clippers! And squirminess is a matter of training...


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## 31818 (Oct 29, 2014)

krandall said:


> I don't know ANY groomer that cuts the face with clippers!


I know my groomer, Violet, doesn't. She scissor cuts his face area when needed and she can taper those areas with a scissor to achieve just the look I am after.


> And squirminess is a matter of training...


I agree. Ricky is a master at standing/sitting still as a result of his training as a puppy in conformation trials where total strangers would hands on examine his anatomy and he had to remain stationary, (before his conformation career was "snipped" short) and then continued in obedience competition, where he had to stand still while strange judges would feel all over his body. If you watch some of Karen's and Ducky's work in conformation shows, you can see how "un-squirmy" Ducky is even at 6 months, all accomplished with lots of training.

Training is fun work if you do it frequently and just for short periods of time initially. Dogs love training work and working in unison with their master. It provides mental exercise for them and discipline in their lives. Sometimes Ricky will come to me and beg to do some training work with him. It is a fun game for him and he loves to perform.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Ducky gets "table work" every night along with his dinner. For him, it is for the conformation ring, but you could just as easily do it for grooming. We put his dinner up on the grooming table, and ask him, "Do you want to get on the table?" Of COURSE he does!!! Then the whole time he is eating, either Dave or I goes over his entire body, touching every inch of him, (yes, even the family jewels!) moving his feet into various positions, etc. If he were a puppy who tended to drop his tail (he's not) we would remind him to keep it up. We ARE working on trying to get his tail to stay on the "show" side of his body... Not sure how well this will work, but we are trying. I'm also not sure it makes a huge difference in his case, since it is white on white. If he had a white tail coming down across a black flank, it would make more of a "statement". If we happen to have someone over, (not frequently, I HATE you Covid!!!) we instruct them in EXACTLY what we want them to do, and have them do the same thing. We also practice "showing the bite", but of course I do NOT pull him away from his dinner for that! And, if it's someone I trust to know how to do it CORRECTLY, I do have other people do that every now and then. While judges are not SUPPOSED to do this anymore, some still do, and I want him to accept another person doing it without fear.

If this were for grooming rather than conformation work, I would do it using a comb rather than just my hands. If my dog were going to be clipped, I would eventually move on to running clippers near him, then running the clippers and touching the vibrating body of the clipper to him while he was eating. (not really clipping, just letting him hear the noise and feel the vibration)


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

Skywlkr7 said:


> The scary part for the dog is the noise, but given they are so squirmy and impatient, it is important to be able to finish quickly and remove risk of sharp edges near the face. The device has long and short shields. I like that the cut is perfectly even and that I can have a cut semi-long. The professional groomers would only cut with clippers which is too short for my taste.


I haven’t tried them, but I think it’s great your puppy is comfortable and they work for you! It seems like a good case for socializing puppies to lots of different kinds of noises and tools, and experiences. I wonder if would work with a quiet hand type vacuum, like a little usb vac.

Sundance mostly overcame his fear of the vacuum but I’m not sure I’d want to risk it. It’s nice to know about different options, though.


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## Skywlkr7 (Apr 25, 2021)

Skywlkr7 said:


> The scary part for the dog is the noise, but given they are so squirmy and impatient, it is important to be able to finish quickly and remove risk of sharp edges near the face. The device has long and short shields. I like that the cut is perfectly even and that I can have a cut semi-long. The professional groomers would only cut with clippers which is too short for my taste.


 This is as long as the fur gets (photo on the table) and as short (photo on the rug). I don’t like the cut short but this length is managable for matts since she hates being brushed. I leave the face long. 
i only researched the flobee after the groomer for $80+ said they could not use scirrors and would only use a short clipper. I was not going to shave my silk haired dog, so I ended up with just a ridiculously expensive shampoo.


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

She is beautiful!


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