# Trimming his face, groomers help please!



## miller123

I need to trim Millers face and bangs so i started with the ears. They look great but ever time I get near his bangs he freaks out. I was wondering what would help this. Also, how do his ears look? Also I am just using kitchen sisscors because we are not in town. But i think it looks good!


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## HavaneseSoon

Don't mess with the ears. Let them grow. They look so cute with long ears. I use a small pair of thinners to trim the eye hair and bangs (can be bought from Sally's hair supply)


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## HavaneseSoon

How old is your pup? I usually grab the hairs under the chin to make sure my boys do not move while I am trimming.


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## miller123

He is around a year old, he will be a year on the 22nd, I tried the holding onto his chin thing, and he freaked out when i brought the sissors to his face. I think he may have had a bad experance at the groomers


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## TilliesMom

sigh... Tillie ALSO freaks out when he beard hair is held I ALSO am certain she was traumatized somehow at the groomer when she was little.  It was shortly after that when I started doing all of her grooming!
I actually use one hand to gently hold the top of her muzzle when I need to do anything around her face, she doesn't have an issue with me doing it this way. BUT if I try to hold her chin hairs, she still panics and tries SO hard to get away.


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## miller123

TilliesMom said:


> sigh... Tillie ALSO freaks out when he beard hair is held I ALSO am certain she was traumatized somehow at the groomer when she was little.  It was shortly after that when I started doing all of her grooming!
> I actually use one hand to gently hold the top of her muzzle when I need to do anything around her face, she doesn't have an issue with me doing it this way. BUT if I try to hold her chin hairs, she still panics and tries SO hard to get away.


I tried holding his muzzle that way to. I think its the scissors that freak him out. I started doing some work with the clicker and the scissors and it is going good, I used to not even be able to close them without him running away but now I can trim his ears, tail and pawpads. Mabye we just need a bit more wor with the clicker. I also read that if they are struggling to get away and you let them down, it will only teach them to struggle more. So a combo of clicker training and that seems to be coming along nicley.


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## tokipoke

How do you feel when you are using the kitchen scissors? Personally that would freak me out, and the dog will be able to sense my nervousness.

You should get some blunt tip scissors just for the peace of mind. This will give your more confidence.

Where are you grooming him? Is he elevated? It's good to have the dog elevated, but they also need to feel secure when they are on a table, a grooming arm and loop will help. Some dogs even with the proper equipment, will still freak and thrash around. You can hold him gently under the chin, when the dog jerks their head away or move their head, it's better not to yank harder to get them to stay still (this will only make them pull away more), but hold onto the hair and go with the direction of their head. When they stay still, massage under the chin where you are grabbing. When they calm down, take the scissors and do quick snip. At this point it doesn't matter if the snip of hair is large or small or if it even looks good, the point is that you snipped the hair when they were calm and stopped snipping when they are calm. It shows them that nothing bad has happened or will happen. Some dogs feel better on the table when they are laying down on their stomach with their head almost resting on the table. You can let them lay down, and gently hold the side of the face and ear area. If they squirm, calm them down by massaging and when they are calm do a quick snip. You can also try stroking the top of the nose right between the eyes. For some dogs, this almost puts them to sleep!

You can also do these steps without even snipping any hair. Just make the snipping noises close to their eyes so they get used to the sound and something in their peripheral vision.

I had a crazy malti-poo who would not let any groomer (or even her owners) trim around her eyes. With lots of desensitizing and patience, not only was I able to trim around her eyes, but I also dematted her whole face. And I'm talking about some serious mats. The owner did not want the face shaved so I took my time to brush out every mat near the dog's mouth. The first time I met her, she wouldn't let you near her face. The second time I groomed her, she fell asleep on the table while I groomed her face.

Grooming in a calm, gentle way takes a lot longer but I would rather work with the dog and spend the 2 hours (or however long it takes), then force the dog (and scare them in the process) just to make quick buck.

It sounds like you are on the right track because you are able to groom other parts of him. Louis never had his face scissored or clipped before he came to me. The first time I did it he moved his head around, but more like "What's that? what are you doing to me??" You have to give them a reason to trust you. You will be snipping his bangs in no time!


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## HavaneseSoon

Poor baby. Dexter tries to protest when I have to comb him out. I am firm and I tell him "No!" and I just keep on. If he can get his way, he will. He then settles down. Then I praise good behavior. Always lay the scissors across the face, never with points to face. I use a small thinning scissors, they are only 6 inches long.


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## miller123

tokipoke said:


> How do you feel when you are using the kitchen scissors? Personally that would freak me out, and the dog will be able to sense my nervousness.
> 
> You should get some blunt tip scissors just for the peace of mind. This will give your more confidence.
> 
> Where are you grooming him? Is he elevated? It's good to have the dog elevated, but they also need to feel secure when they are on a table, a grooming arm and loop will help. Some dogs even with the proper equipment, will still freak and thrash around. You can hold him gently under the chin, when the dog jerks their head away or move their head, it's better not to yank harder to get them to stay still (this will only make them pull away more), but hold onto the hair and go with the direction of their head. When they stay still, massage under the chin where you are grabbing. When they calm down, take the scissors and do quick snip. At this point it doesn't matter if the snip of hair is large or small or if it even looks good, the point is that you snipped the hair when they were calm and stopped snipping when they are calm. It shows them that nothing bad has happened or will happen. Some dogs feel better on the table when they are laying down on their stomach with their head almost resting on the table. You can let them lay down, and gently hold the side of the face and ear area. If they squirm, calm them down by massaging and when they are calm do a quick snip. You can also try stroking the top of the nose right between the eyes. For some dogs, this almost puts them to sleep!
> 
> You can also do these steps without even snipping any hair. Just make the snipping noises close to their eyes so they get used to the sound and something in their peripheral vision.
> 
> I had a crazy malti-poo who would not let any groomer (or even her owners) trim around her eyes. With lots of desensitizing and patience, not only was I able to trim around her eyes, but I also dematted her whole face. And I'm talking about some serious mats. The owner did not want the face shaved so I took my time to brush out every mat near the dog's mouth. The first time I met her, she wouldn't let you near her face. The second time I groomed her, she fell asleep on the table while I groomed her face.
> 
> Grooming in a calm, gentle way takes a lot longer but I would rather work with the dog and spend the 2 hours (or however long it takes), then force the dog (and scare them in the process) just to make quick buck.
> 
> It sounds like you are on the right track because you are able to groom other parts of him. Louis never had his face scissored or clipped before he came to me. The first time I did it he moved his head around, but more like "What's that? what are you doing to me??" You have to give them a reason to trust you. You will be snipping his bangs in no time!


Thank you, Its good to hear that from a groomer. Useing the kitchen scissors does inda freak me out so i am going to but some thinning scissors and blunt tip siccors. The good news is today I needed to cut the hair between his paw pads so i used a mens hair trimmer and he sat very still for the first two feet, I trimmed a bit off the underside of his tail because he gets matts there and he did great


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## CarolWCamelo

TilliesMom said:


> sigh... Tillie ALSO freaks out when he beard hair is held I ALSO am certain she was traumatized somehow at the groomer when she was little.  It was shortly after that when I started doing all of her grooming!
> I actually use one hand to gently hold the top of her muzzle when I need to do anything around her face, she doesn't have an issue with me doing it this way. BUT if I try to hold her chin hairs, she still panics and tries SO hard to get away.


Wopnderful posts in this thread! Tammy, that holding of the muzzle very gently, palm over the top, is normally quite a calming thing to do; most dogs will accept that once they're over any initial fears. It really helps with my Camellia.

You're doing a fabulous job, Tammy!

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 07:52:46 (PDT)


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## CarolWCamelo

TokiPoke, your posts are a complete treasure! That was a very fine post about how to get a dog to accept grooming. I think you're truly a master groomer, and you earned your way there! Thanks so much for that post.

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 08:09:28 (PDT)


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## atsilvers27

miller123 said:


> He is around a year old, he will be a year on the 22nd, I tried the holding onto his chin thing, and he freaked out when i brought the sissors to his face. I think he may have had a bad experance at the groomers


In my experience it's possible that he could have been traumatized at the groomer's, but as a groom myself, I highly doubt it. Under normal circumstances this has to do with you not training him properly to accept the scissors near the face. Some lucky owners have dogs that naturally do not mind grooming, but most owners (myself included) actually have to put in training, not unlike traditional sit, stay, etc for grooming. I always suggest to new puppy owners to bring their puppies in every month starting at 8-10 weeks and to do homework assignments such as using an unsharpened pencil and putting in on the corner of the puppy's eyes to train them, also training for holding of the chin hair. Also, dogs tend to behave much much better for the groomer than their owner, as they know they can get away with being bad for their doting owner. Groomers either have to do the training themselves and get through it, or the dog gets banned if it's that bad.

I'm tired of owners blaming groomers for their dog's grooming behavior! You wouldn't blame your child's teachers if your child misbehaves!


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## miller123

atsilvers27 said:


> In my experience it's possible that he could have been traumatized at the groomer's, but as a groom myself, I highly doubt it. Under normal circumstances this has to do with you not training him properly to accept the scissors near the face. Some lucky owners have dogs that naturally do not mind grooming, but most owners (myself included) actually have to put in training, not unlike traditional sit, stay, etc for grooming. I always suggest to new puppy owners to bring their puppies in every month starting at 8-10 weeks and to do homework assignments such as using an unsharpened pencil and putting in on the corner of the puppy's eyes to train them, also training for holding of the chin hair. Also, dogs tend to behave much much better for the groomer than their owner, as they know they can get away with being bad for their doting owner. Groomers either have to do the training themselves and get through it, or the dog gets banned if it's that bad.
> 
> I'm tired of owners blaming groomers for their dog's grooming behavior! You wouldn't blame your child's teachers if your child misbehaves!


Im not saying that it did happen and its all the groomers fault, its just a hunch because i can do everything else with his face, comb, clipper ect.. but even the sound of the scissors closing scares him, if i trim matts or his ears, he dosent care but as soon as i bring the scissors near his face he freaks out


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