Cracker is now 16 months old, she was spayed at 10 months, in the last 4 months she has turned into a right hairy mary, sprouting soft tufty bits just about everywhere, the worst being her back paws, she looks like a hobbit, im very nervous of trimming her myself, any tips, heres a couple of photos,


and 1 more coz i love this piccie, she has lovely eyes

thanks in advance

She is gorgeous!

Must admit I've chickened out on the grooming front. My little cocker, Sweep, has a coat to rival sheep fleece. Not a silken stand in sight, unlike your Cracker.

Sweep has a fantastic groomer who spoils him rotten and does a fantastic job from turning him from woolly mammoth to cocker in a few hours.

Maybe I'll try the coconut shampoo as suggested on the other thread

Good luck with Cracker's coat

check out the main site for guidelines on feet - thinners to take all the fuzzy bits out between the feet, and then check out the thread recently for Jaine about grooming, coat king thingy from derby house for £10, will take all the excess out

Thanks freya, will give it a go, never had a fluffy one before

Judging by the photo I think that probably most of the fluffyness is older hair which will groom out (it usually has a blue tinge in the black dogs and is a paler brown in the liver dogs). As Freya says with a coat king it will come out and she'll look alot better.

I invested in a really good pair of single sided thinning scissors and a pair of 4" snub nosed scissors (both Witte Roseline) - they were both quite expensive but they make the job alot easier. I'd used other types of scissors before but the difference was amazing - even for this Yorkshire Skinflint. Although if you work out how much you'd spend on sending them for grooming you soon make the money up.

If you know anyone who is good at grooming dogs a demonstration is worth alot. I learned alot from Mary when we were in Anglesey the other year and I've recently done a short course at Bishop Burton called 'Groom your own dog' - so I now have a good idea what I'm doing and have certainly gained the confidence to give it a go.

You know what they say - the difference between a good haircut and a bad one is about 6 weeks -