Gave our Dog a Haircut

Our dog after WE cut her hair

Our dog after the professional groomers cut her hair.

A difficult but enlightening first :) LOL - enjoy the photos.

New thing today, we gave our dog a haircut. Yup. So we adopted a stray, this shitzu looking dog who has fantastically hypoallergenic hair, but her hair also grows a ton. We take her to the groomer every few months to get a haircut, which can cost $50-70 depending on additional services included with her breed - long hair and mats. So we decided to get a $25 dog haircut clipper and try it out ourselves one day.

Mistake #1 - trying to cut her hair after a long day. We got home late and we thought, hey we should just try to cut her hair now. When we give her a bath it doesn't take long, so the haircut shouldn't take long either. WRONG. 3 hours later and covered in random hair and dog mats, we suddenly think it might be worth it spending that much for dog grooming.

Mistake #2 - no bath before haircut. This is something "they" recommend, but we didn't do it, so I don't know if it would have made a difference, but we will try it next time.

Mistake #3 - not dressing for the work. We just cut her hair in our regular "what we went out in today" clothes. We should have dressed for the occasion. There was hair everywhere, and even after we washed our clothes, there was still hair on everything so we still needed a lint roller/tape to get it all off.

Overall though, it was a mess, a long tiresome mess. Our dog would get very nervous with the clippers in certain parts of her body, but if we took a brush or comb to her, along with scissors, she was alright. You had to deal with a lot of squirming at times so it takes a lot of patience. She had a ton of mats as well so that tok so much time getting out of her fur - both cutting and brushing it out. I think our bathroom trashcan was filled with her fur when we were done, and our clothes were a mess as well.

BUT - overall, she looked ok. Funny thing is, she looked a choppy hair mess. We went into the bathroom with a shitzu, and we came out with a scruffy looking mini terrier. We always liked the look of a terrier, so it works. Anyway we spent 3 hours on her, plus perhaps more time now throughout the week grooming her, because we now realize how much upkeep she is, but we also saved a bunch of hard cash. I admit I like being able to drop her off at the groomer for a few hours and have her coming back looking fabulous, with me doing whatever I want until we pick her up, but this actually saved us money and if we do it regularly, and hopefully get better at it, it will be better.

This is one of those firsts where I think the first must be the worst. I think it has to get better from here, and we will slowly learn how to do this better. I think we'll better appreciate where our money is going when we take her to the groomer, and we definitely know now how to better "maintain" her fur from the ordeal of getting her cleaned up. I wholly appreciate the groomer's job 200% better now that we've tried to cut our dog's hair. That doesn't even include clipping nails.

Cost. $25 for clippers and a ton of time, energy and frustration cutting the dog's hair ourselves. Also developing the skill of learning to cut a dog's hair and groom her. Groomer = $50-70 every few months, no hassle, time, energy, time or frustration getting our dog to smell and look good. Comparatively we spend so much more on gas, bills, food or other things in our life, so it's not really a comparatively huge expense overall. I think it's mainly the time and energy. I don't mind and I like learning how to do this, because I think it makes me better appreciate the money I do spend when I go to a groomer, but also, helps me be a better dog parent because I learn how to keep our dog's hair in good order.

So verdict - we will probably continue to try to cut our own dog's hair a few times a year, just to save some extra money. BUT we will still take her to the groomer's every so often as well, just to have a "pro" come in and clean her up, but also to take care of the tough stuff (between the paws fur, in the ear fur, nail clipping etc) that we haven't/can't get to. She is a shitzu so it's just a ton more hair than either of us are used to. I think it also depends on "when" she needs a haircut. It was getting very warm and we wanted to get her hair very short for the upcoming spring heat, compared to the winter cool. We might decide whether to groom her ourselves or take her to a pro depending on our own schedules and when she needs the haircut.

I just think it's funny that when the groomer sees her, she'll probably shake her head and you can totally tell an amateur cut the dog's hair. Or who knows, maybe we'll eventually get the hang of it. We'll never get her as fabulous as the groomers are able to get her to take care of her, but I think we can do alright. Feeling optimistic.