When I got back to Da nang I was very pleased with the fact that my dog was alive and in good health. I didn't expect the person watching her (who did so for free) to maintain her coat or bathe her or anything like that. But when I saw Nadi she looked like a homeless puppy and while I took it easy on her old self for a day, I knew that I was going to have to cut her hair the following day or so. I borrowed the clippers from my local friend who has some and then went through the arduous process of cutting my dog's hair.
I have no idea what I am doing and let me tell you, cutting your own dog's hair will give you a real appreciation for how difficult this profession must be.
That's the after shot. It took me over an hour to do this and I am sure that when some of my friends see her they will be critical of how things aren't 100% symmetrical on her but seriously, my back hurt and Nadi was really sick of the clippers and scissors by the time we just called it quits, gave a hi-5 and then tucked into the boiled chicken treats that are the only kind of treat that she is allowed to have anymore.
The process goes like this: I sit Nadi down in front of me on the floor on a Yoga mat and I shave a part of her until there is so much hair accumulated that I can no longer see if I am cutting hair anymore of if I am just pushing already cut hair around.
Then we get up, she gets a small treat and I sweep the hair over to the corner. Then I stretch out my back and we repeat the process as many times as it takes to be finished. This time it took 6 times and I could have done more, but we quit. It's enough man, and the hair is going to grow out a bit in a few days anyway.
The face and ears are the most difficult and getting between the pads on her feet and her toes is no picnic either. But we got both done and now my dog looks a bit less homeless than she did before we started.
Just for reference, here is what she looked like before we started:
That's like a 1980's glam rock style of hairdo and one that was always getting in her eyes so that had to go for sure.
Just so you know I can actually afford to go to the professionals and have them do this and trust me when I say that I do not look forward to doing this myself and I do not enjoy it at all. But since Nadi will soon be 13 years old she gets royal treatment from moi and I know that she is really afraid of the groomers and shakes like crazy when I would take her there. So we are not going to go there anymore even though she definitely would look better if we did.
I'm kind of beyond the point of really caring what other people think of her haircut. If they want to get super judgemental I will allow them to sit in on the process the next time and then they will understand the suffering, that much I can guarantee. cutting a dog's hair is a LOT more difficult than I think most people believe and I at least I only have to do it once every month or so.
