# Hair Cut



## Mike_L289 (Dec 18, 2015)

My Golden is a 7 year old therapy dog. I comb her daily, trim the feet as needed, nails at the vet about every 4 weeks or as needed (I am afraid to trim the nails myself even though I have good clippers, a grinder, and septic cream - afraid of hurting her. I normally get her trimmed once or twice a year. 

It is getting time for a trim. She normally blows her coat in late FEB - early March. Should I get the haircut now or wait until after she blows her coat. I normally tell the groomer to make her look like a show dog. My concern is how long the trim lasts.


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## Prism Goldens (May 27, 2011)

Aw, Mike, you can learn to do this!!
But if you don't want to give it a try, then I would go on and do it now. If she blows coat in Feb/Mar, you have the benefit of the holidays and her looking gorgeous in all her photo ops with the elders or whoever you take her to do therapy work with.
But on the nails- I am going to give you unasked for advice...

I touch up my dogs every week or so. I think you could probably take a tiny bit off her
nails every week with your excellent clippers, and then hit the tips with the grinder, and before you know it, the quick will have receded and there'll be little danger of
needing any clotting powder because you won't bleed her- as at that point, you will just be taking off the tiniest amount every week. 

The nature of the quick is that any stimulation causes it to recede. Stimulation
happens for it when the nail is cut, not to the quick, but just before it... and then the dog's natural life will stimulate it as it is nearer to the ground now and wants to protect itself from accidental bleeds.. so it recedes. If you keep that distance very close, your girl's walking on concrete or pavement will keep the stimulation up and the vessel will go further back (and this all depends on you keeping up the weekly trimming- not cutting but trimming) which if you go to the groomer now, to get her show coat trim, will start you off with a close nail trim. Don't look at her nails the week after her groom and think 'they look pretty good- I'll wait and do them next week.' This is the very best time to start a nail program. Once you have those newly trimmed nails, just make a point to take a bit off every week, and hit it with the dremel. At some point a few months from now, you will realize her nails are much shorter than they ever would have been if you have them done only monthly, and her feet will be tighter as a result. And the feet are the foundation of the body, so you are really putting in very little effort to long range actually protect her hips and elbows and overall general health. I tell puppy people that doing nails often is the best preventative thing you can do yourself other than tooth brushing. It may not be totally true, there are lots of things that are wonderful self-serve things you can do, but nails are so long-range in their effect on everything else that it is something I really emphasize. No room to be scared to hurt her- you won't unless you take off too much. But you won't do that if you start with the fresh groomed feet and just take off a little - the tip- and hit it with a dremel. You can actually see the quick if her nails are white/clear and not black. Just don't cut into it and you have it made. You'll save yourself a bundle too by doing them yourself, and save her the trauma of a monthly bleed at the vet's.


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## Mike_L289 (Dec 18, 2015)

Thanks so much. We do the tooth brushing thing - she enjoys is. I think you are correct about the monthly bleed vets. She really does not want to leave me when I take her in for the finger nails. I think I will try your suggestion. While it is a little late this month for the trim, I think I will do it right after the new year. Her feathers are long front and back and I think it really looks good - especially when she runs, however, I know the show dogs have shorter feathers. I hold my breath when I take her in for a hair cut. I am having a breeder who shows her dogs do the clip this time so I think it will be okay. She is a therapy dog and other than length of hair she is very well groomed - if I do say so myself. Thank you very much for your advice. It really is appreciated


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