Our goldendoodle puppy just celebrated her first birthday. When Ruby was a puppy, she looked like an adorable stuffed animal. As she grew, her wavy hair became curlier and curlier until each strand resembled a tiny corkscrew. Even though we brushed her hair almost every night, the undercoat became a matted mess. The top layer looked nice and soft and fluffy, but a spiderweb of knots hid underneath. Her thick coat resembled the woolly sheep at the fair.
When my husband took her to her regularly scheduled grooming appointment, the groomer cavalierly stated that Ruby’s hair was tangled and would need to be sheared. He politely declined and rescued our pup from the threatened buzz cut. Since we wanted to keep her hair long, we decided to do the grooming ourselves. How hard could it be?
We purchased conditioning shampoo, detanglers, and special brushes designed for curly doodle hair. Ruby’s hair products began to exceed my own. We bought top-rated dog clippers and specialized scissors, assuming we’d quickly recoup our investment. We watched DIY videos and printed step-by-step instructions. We were ready for a doggie makeover.
The first haircut went well, primarily because it was just a touch-up and not actual shaping. The next time was a different story. We’d purchased some new thinning scissors to help break up the clumps of matted hair. I suggested that my hubby might want to practice in an unobtrusive location. “Oops, too late,” he sheepishly admitted from the other room. Ruby sported a pronounced divot on the crown of her head, looking like the hole on a putting green. In another grooming mishap, she ended up with a skunk stripe down the center of her back, like a reverse mohawk, when he’d attempted to remove some of the deeply embedded knots.
We declared defeat and scheduled an appointment with a professional groomer. As evidenced by the photos, Ruby swiftly went from fuzzy teddy bear to naked mole rat with the buzz of the clippers…and the groomer gave us a pile of hair big enough to knit a sweater.
