Grooming & Trimming

With a busy weekend gone and another busy weekend coming I thought I'd better grab some time this morning to give the dogs a good groom.

I got the table in so immediately everyone made themselves scarce except Kizzy who quite likes being brushed. She lays on her back half asleep while I cut her toe nails and trim her feet. She is just so easy to maintain!

It's very hard work and rather tedious and normally I do three dogs one day and then three later in the week. However, last time I did this I forgot to do the second three and was horrified when I looked at Abbey's claws last night. They always grow fast as she's very light on her feet but they were like talons. Becky and Murphy's were very long too and that's when I remembered I'd only done the other three and that was about four or five weeks ago.

Abbey's dew claws have started to curl and grow like hooks. Recently she has twice got her dew claw caught up in her collar. Luckily we've been in the room with her to sort her out. I had decided to take her collar off whenever we leave her in future. Now I know why it was happening. She is also able to walk much easier on the hard floors. I feel very guilty that I let her claws grow too long. Bad mummy. I will never do just half the dogs at a time again.

I also trimmed all their feet. I like to keep all my dogs feet trimmed because it looks nice and come this time of year it also makes life much easier in terms of keeping their feet clean. It's so much easier to wipe trimmed paws than horrible hairy feet, quite apart from the fact that they look like cart horses.

The biggest baby of the lot is Naughty Niamh. She is pathetic and shakes so hard that the table wobbles. Abbey hates it but isn't too bad. Poppy and Murphy continually pull their feet away which makes me mad. Becky and Kizzy are little angels and just lie there enjoying the experience. Becky has the biggest coat of all our dogs and you could groom her all day and the hairs would still keep coming out. She has a huge undercoat which sheds almost all year round. Kizzy is a doddle in comparison with Becky. Her coat is similar in texture to Becky's, obviously quite a bit longer but not quite the depth of undercoat thank goodness! Niamh is almost bald and takes just a few minutes to brush, most of the time is spent standing her up because she insists on sitting down every time you try to brush her tail or trousers. It's maddening!

Anyway, we eventually got done and then we went for a run down the paddock and the trauma of the morning's wicked grooming session was all forgotten about!

Here are a couple of pictures of the two little angels. It is prior to their grooming session so please don't look too closely!

There were two in the bed and the little one said - roll over!