becks

Roseline scissors for me for everything from foot scissors to the 8" long and curved scissors. Never found a pair of thinners to beat my 20 year old pair and they have stopped making those!

If the groomer is good at what they do then they don't need the 'back-up/support' of a franchise, word of mouth is the best type of advertising there is

It's been a long time since I had one with kennel cough, didn't last very long but it was only a mild case. Have you tried giving him some cough medicine? Benylin (if you have it over there) is effective and safe to give them.

I would suggest you invest in a lead with suction cup at one end which you can attach to the wall behind the bath anduse this to keep her in the bath. The more people involved in the process the more scary everything is going to look for her. Make sure the bottom of the bath has a rubber anti-slip mat. Put her in the empty bath, let her see the shower head, once she shows less intersest in it turn the shower on but let her see the water without it touching her. Move the water slowly in circles until it is touching her fron feet and slowly work up the front feet and then underneath her, soak the rear then work forwards along the back. I have a few dogs who came to me originally with a fear of the bath and this process has helped. All the time I have kept quiet, no talking to the dogs as this, even if it's a 'good dog' can cause them to thrash about thinking they are done. This process needs to be the same each time so the dog learns the routine. This has worked for me, hope it helps

As has been said, it could be a food allergy - does she have other skin problems? The other thing is that the previous ear infection may have got deep into the ear and while the outer part looked clear it was still festering deep down and has flared up again. Could she have got ear mites? Yeast/fungus infection? Bacterial infection? Sometimes bad ears have more then one cause.

The other thing I forgot to mention was about sliding the blades out - only slip them half way as removing the top blade from the bottom blade can alter the tension set between the 2 blades - if this is the case then send them off to be sharpened and they should come back working fine!

Sounds to me like you have just simply got to much oil on the blades, if oil gets onto the teeth of the blade then the hair will just get stuck and the clippers won't go through the coat. How much oil do you use? I put on 2 drops maximum and this is only done a few times a year - I use my blades 5 days a week and they haven't needed to be sharpened for nearly 2 years now! Try just wiping the blades with an absorbent cloth and put them back together if they work a little better then just soak them over night in some blade wash and do not oil them before you next use them (store covered in an oily rag if they are in a damp atmosphere to avoid rust forming).

Just to add, the titre test I had done on one of my dogs who had not been vaccinated for 2.5 years came back as having enough immunity for at least another 3 or 4 years!!

One thing I was advised to do was to still have my dogs Leptospirosis done every year (caught from drinking water rats have peed in). However, there was an article in the dog press awhile back from a vet saying that most dogs will have minor Lepto infections throughout their life and this could be related to kidney and liver failure in older dogs.

It may change a little as her adult teeth come in, the permanent canines (fangs) may sit better in the jaw and not dig into the gum. If the gum is causing her pain it maybe worth thinking about having the deciduous canines removed, that said, I had this problem with my wisdom teeth when the lower set came in before the top set and it looked a lot worse then it felt.

I've had it done (and was only the 3rd person to ever ask my vet!!) Cost was close to that of the booster.

You can actually buy an attachment for the vacuum to assist in grooming/vacuuming the dog, they are available in the bigger pet stores.

With her age I would get the area she doesn't like groomed cut right back. Why have her get stressed over it being brushed? Speaking as a groomer I wouldn't want a dog to leave my salon with a matted rear end, so a dog nips! There are different ways to work around that. Maybe this is one area your groomer is not so confident in?

Interesting read, nice to hear the argument from the other side for a change.

With mini schnauzers though the legs are trimmed as the hair isn't the right texture to strip. However with giants some do have the correct texture and I strip the legs on mine and it is a different look to the scissored legs. I strip my pet schnauzers, take out the body coat a couple of times a year but keep the clipped areas and legs trimmed more often. I find it makes them easier to maintain on a weekly basis. Clipping a pet mini will usually leave you with just the undercoat after a few grooms, so p/s clolour will turn a uniform grey. Some minis that have very little undercoat naturally will keep some texture and the colour will stay.

My dogs love it and look great on it. Puppy packs contain, pedigree certificate (to be filled in yourself), info on the food, free sample bag - 2 kg I think and money off coupon for new owners. All (except food!) in a white folder which has room for you to add your personal touches to the pack. If you are in the breeder scheme you get the food cheaper and with each pup you sell you get money off your next purchase. Over here they also do free delivery to your home.

I would be inclined to just feed the pups on one food, their time with you should be spent on growing and getting used to house hold sights and sounds. My pups go off with a 2 kg bag of the food they've been weaned on (I use Royal Canin so this is free from the manufacterers) after that it is up to the new owners to switch the puppy onto whatever they like providing they follow the instructions of doing it over several days. I think younger tums are more prone to getting upset so leave the experimenting with different foods until they are older.

But dogs are not wolves. Wild dogs do not form big packs and go off hunting large animals. They live on their own or in small groups and feed off our waste. They do not have the motor skills to capture enough prey to survive on. Why do people always start off raw food comments with 'well the wolf...' ? We don't base our diets on what apes eat.

There are many different types, different numbers of teeth and closeness of teeth so you need to know what you want to use it for. Some have wooden handles but the cheaper ones now have plastic handles. Personally I wouldn't use them on showdogs as they cut the coat which can alter the texture of the coat.

So you're saying that carnivores don't eat the stomach and contents of their vegetarian prey thereby eating vegies that have been pulverised and partly digested?

Would suggest you read the 2 groomers threads that have been on last week, they discuss more of the downside. I have a slipped disc and sciatica from grooming, constant painkillers keep me working. Also be prepared to find hair splinters in every part of your body. You will also need to be able to deal with dogs covered in poo, infestations including maggots from open wounds underneath huge mats and dogs in other neglected states and still be able to talk to the owners in a reasonable way so that the dog will still get taken to a groomer in the future. Then you have to deal when an owner calls in to tell you her dog has died and it was one of your favorites to groom. You see a lot of the bad side to dog ownership, if you want to groom because you like dogs another outlet maybe better.

With back probs you wouldn't be so happy to groom a big dog, especially when they come in matted and filthy and won't stand still! Another thing I hate - TICKS, vile creatures.

Good point Ellz I like to get my puppies into the bath a few times while they are still small enough to not put up a fight! It is one of the things I do as part of the puppy socialisation along with getting them used to clippers etc.

If you have a stand dryer I have found it easier to deal with this sort of thing after a bath. Wash the tail like a wool jumper, sqeezing in the diluted shampoo and then rinse well. I then use a spray-leave in conditioner which I find has a better effect under the warmth of the dryer. The direction of airflow also helps to separate out the section of hair you are working on and to remove the dead undercoat. Thicker mats can be split by resting one blade of the scissors on the dogs skin and slidding into the knot ( I find mat breakers a bit rough on the dog with big mats but they are good for lots of little mats) We all find our own best way of dealing with mats so just see what works best for you with the products you have available.

Being wire coated breeds, mine don't get bathed very often as it softens up the coat. During the busy show season they may get bathed every 3 -4 weeks but when I can get away with it, it will just be legs and ends. We've had a break from the shows at the moment and as they go onto the beach every day there is little point in washing them regularly. Greentea - if your dog is getting a poo clogged bum just trim away the hairs surrounding the anus so it doesn't get clogged but if he is doing firm poos it shouldn't be a problem anyway.