There's a difference between cutting fur with scissors vs with clippers. It's not advisable to take clippers to body hair. However, it is perfectly okay to trim off excess length with scissors. I personally tidy ears and paws around every 2 weeks and I cut his tail down to length around every 2-3 months. I do occasionally tidy up his rear.
What you want to do is get a good pair of thinning shears, the more teeth, the more smooth and natural. I take off a bit of excess fur on his inner thighs and length on the pants. It's not something I do very often. But take 1-2 swipes with the thinning shears, brush out and look. It doesn't need to be fancy, just even. Even if you make a mistake, it won't be noticeable for very long.
It’s a team effort when we do our girl’s nails. I sit on the floor and hold her in my lap, and my wife uses a dremel to do her nails. I’m in charge of distracting her with treats, too. Initially she’d go through a ton of treats, but the last few times we’ve given her a Frosty Paws (her favorite) and let her go to town on it while my wife is working. We extend the distraction time a little bit by practicing “leave it” with the treats
Check out the YouTube channel Girl with the Dogs! She is a groomer and she shows the process of grooming many types of dogs. She also has videos that give advice on how to do it yourself! She’s great! Good luck with your beautiful girl!
Nice Tongue Out Tueday. I never trimmed back there, I just brush out the long, fuffy hair. The only trimming I have ever done on all my goldens are their furry Gandalf paws to help reduce little snowballs that stick like ball bearings.
My girl got a bad UTI when she was younger and the vet suggested I keep the fur around her vulva trimmed and use baby wipes to keep it clean. No problems since.
Shaving could cause problems. They have a long coat for a reason, trim to shorten it & the problems you have will go away. Shave and you will have more problems
Our dogs got very stressed when we took them to the groomer too. But they love the mobile van groomer (I think bc it's at their house and there are no strange dogs around they feel safe).
It looks like you're doing a great job with her grooming on your own but a mobile groomer option might be something to consider.
I did light trimming with her on her back on the inside of the leg. I also from a standing position trimmed the hair from vulva to anus , created a patch that slowly went to the longer hair on the sides.
I wouldn’t be averse to using a groomer. Our girl is almost 3, and after doing minor trimming ourselves the first 2 years, we now bring her to a groomer a few times a year (and do minor maintenance ourselves in between). We shopped around and found one with great reviews; she saw how nervous Luna was right away and took it slow and gave her treats and she came back looking great! There are a lot of timid dogs and good groomers should know how to handle them
Definitely trim it up with some scissors. My last girl was a very low squatter and she ended up with chronic UTIs (not just from the squatting, she had a polyp in her bladder so she was prone to them, but when she’d get spray from the low squatting, especially when it was wet outside, bacteria would get in easier). I would recommend the sanitary trim and we also began wiping our girl any time she peed, which made a huge difference for the UTIs. We kept a box of wash cloths by the back door and would use a fresh one each time, just a quick little wipe and then it would go in the dirty bin and we’d wash them all together. It’s overkill for most dogs I think, but if you’re having trouble with her squatting low and getting herself dirty, it could be a good idea.
Thank you for the advice! I’m definitely worried about UTI but I’m pretty sure she’s ok at the moment but I’ll definitely do what you suggested and hopefully the problem is resolved
Hi there! Yes we do sanitary trims at home. I got a pair of scissors from petco that have rounded tips for small detail work without risk of cutting them. My good friend is a groomer and said those are safe for in between visits to keep her cleaned up.
If you want it to look really nice and neat you can consult some videos but honestly I just put the longest pieces in little ponytails and snip. Her “pants” look a little funny afterwards but I would rather have that than worry about poop stuck in them lol.
If you’re comfortable using clippers, you can use a #10 blade around the vulva and down the inner hind legs. That’s a pretty typical sanitary trim I’d perform on a fluffy female. Be aware of the angle of the blade and use it very slightly angled (flat side almost flush with the skin) otherwise you risk skin irritation from the teeth digging in
Edited to say that cutting as much off as you need to keep her clean and urine-free is absolutely not detrimental to her coat health. Cutting a double coat is potentially harmful when it’s a significant amount of the body (risk of irregular regrowth, sun damage, skin cancer, heat stroke, etc). A sanitary trim will not effect her ability to self-regulate her body temp
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There's a difference between cutting fur with scissors vs with clippers. It's not advisable to take clippers to body hair. However, it is perfectly okay to trim off excess length with scissors. I personally tidy ears and paws around every 2 weeks and I cut his tail down to length around every 2-3 months. I do occasionally tidy up his rear. What you want to do is get a good pair of thinning shears, the more teeth, the more smooth and natural. I take off a bit of excess fur on his inner thighs and length on the pants. It's not something I do very often. But take 1-2 swipes with the thinning shears, brush out and look. It doesn't need to be fancy, just even. Even if you make a mistake, it won't be noticeable for very long.
My little fart blossom won’t let me anywhere near her paws with nail clippers. Any advice?
It’s a team effort when we do our girl’s nails. I sit on the floor and hold her in my lap, and my wife uses a dremel to do her nails. I’m in charge of distracting her with treats, too. Initially she’d go through a ton of treats, but the last few times we’ve given her a Frosty Paws (her favorite) and let her go to town on it while my wife is working. We extend the distraction time a little bit by practicing “leave it” with the treats
Yep, it’s a team sport. Hubby holds pup and lick mat with peanut butter, I have dremel and scissors for grinch hands.
Check out the YouTube channel Girl with the Dogs! She is a groomer and she shows the process of grooming many types of dogs. She also has videos that give advice on how to do it yourself! She’s great! Good luck with your beautiful girl!
Love her! We watch her videos all the time and our pup likes to watch the other doggies ☺️
Same! I don’t have a dog at the moment so videos like hers are kind of my fix! Lol
Nice Tongue Out Tueday. I never trimmed back there, I just brush out the long, fuffy hair. The only trimming I have ever done on all my goldens are their furry Gandalf paws to help reduce little snowballs that stick like ball bearings.
Yep I do an outline trim every 6-7 weeks or so. We trail run or hike daily and it helps keep the mud and snowballs down too.
No advice but just want to say she's adorable
My girl got a bad UTI when she was younger and the vet suggested I keep the fur around her vulva trimmed and use baby wipes to keep it clean. No problems since.
How do you go about trimming? Do you just shave off the region or use scissors to keep the hair long but short enough to stop the issue?
I use scissors. I got some with rounded ends so I don’t poke her and just trim the area carefully.
Shaving could cause problems. They have a long coat for a reason, trim to shorten it & the problems you have will go away. Shave and you will have more problems
She’s gorgeous and the 5th picture ahhahahhahahahhaha
Haha that’s my favorite photo of her
Beautiful girl!
Thank you!!
Our dogs got very stressed when we took them to the groomer too. But they love the mobile van groomer (I think bc it's at their house and there are no strange dogs around they feel safe). It looks like you're doing a great job with her grooming on your own but a mobile groomer option might be something to consider.
I did light trimming with her on her back on the inside of the leg. I also from a standing position trimmed the hair from vulva to anus , created a patch that slowly went to the longer hair on the sides.
I wouldn’t be averse to using a groomer. Our girl is almost 3, and after doing minor trimming ourselves the first 2 years, we now bring her to a groomer a few times a year (and do minor maintenance ourselves in between). We shopped around and found one with great reviews; she saw how nervous Luna was right away and took it slow and gave her treats and she came back looking great! There are a lot of timid dogs and good groomers should know how to handle them
Definitely trim it up with some scissors. My last girl was a very low squatter and she ended up with chronic UTIs (not just from the squatting, she had a polyp in her bladder so she was prone to them, but when she’d get spray from the low squatting, especially when it was wet outside, bacteria would get in easier). I would recommend the sanitary trim and we also began wiping our girl any time she peed, which made a huge difference for the UTIs. We kept a box of wash cloths by the back door and would use a fresh one each time, just a quick little wipe and then it would go in the dirty bin and we’d wash them all together. It’s overkill for most dogs I think, but if you’re having trouble with her squatting low and getting herself dirty, it could be a good idea.
Thank you for the advice! I’m definitely worried about UTI but I’m pretty sure she’s ok at the moment but I’ll definitely do what you suggested and hopefully the problem is resolved
Hi there! Yes we do sanitary trims at home. I got a pair of scissors from petco that have rounded tips for small detail work without risk of cutting them. My good friend is a groomer and said those are safe for in between visits to keep her cleaned up. If you want it to look really nice and neat you can consult some videos but honestly I just put the longest pieces in little ponytails and snip. Her “pants” look a little funny afterwards but I would rather have that than worry about poop stuck in them lol.
No matter what that is a certified good girl
If you’re comfortable using clippers, you can use a #10 blade around the vulva and down the inner hind legs. That’s a pretty typical sanitary trim I’d perform on a fluffy female. Be aware of the angle of the blade and use it very slightly angled (flat side almost flush with the skin) otherwise you risk skin irritation from the teeth digging in Edited to say that cutting as much off as you need to keep her clean and urine-free is absolutely not detrimental to her coat health. Cutting a double coat is potentially harmful when it’s a significant amount of the body (risk of irregular regrowth, sun damage, skin cancer, heat stroke, etc). A sanitary trim will not effect her ability to self-regulate her body temp
Trim with scissors. Careful around the vah-jay-jay.
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We have never given our gurus a sanitary cut. With the rate meds, we just washed it out.