Grooming My Miniature Schnauzer's Coat For The First Time!

I took my time reading about it first, as I'm known to go a little overboard when I get a pair of scissors in my hand. Time and time again I've found myself in the bathroom, intending only to take a few centimeters of my fringe, ending up with a very short haircut. Not to mention this little ficus I once killed by going overboard with my trimming. I didn't want my baby to end up with no hair...so I took my time. :)

I found some great movies on YouTube. dogdayz was the one I got the most out of. Some sites that helped me a lot was Grooming The Schnauzer by Karen J. Brittans and grooming tips from Ykelenstams Miniature Schnauzers and Standard Schnauzer Club of America.

The miniature schnauzers have to be stripped if you are planning to show it. By stripping the coat the soft woolen undercoat is removed leaving only the wiry hairs. As I love my dog’s soft coat, and I won't be showing her, I decided to clip. She has been clipped before, and I don't even know if it is possible to strip a coat that has been clipped several times before.

I clipped my dog using an Oster clipper, size 10 and size 15 blades and a pair of scissors. The whole ordeal took a couple of hours and
I can see now that I have not clipped the head pattern strictly by the book, but I am still pretty satisfied with the result. I'm wondering if I should have made the arch of the "skirt" along the line of the nipples instead of her body though. This would have given her a very square look, as some of the nipples are sagging quite a bit, but then it would not be possible to see the nipples underneath the fringes.

I forgot to take a before photo, but I've provided a photo that gives an idea of how long her coat was before I started the grooming.

Sponsored link: Grooming Your Dog at Home Guide

National Geographic Assignment

I love National Geographic’s new Assignment site. It is so clean looking and it’s packed with fantastic animal photos.

Assignment is filled with photos taken by some of National Geographic’s talented photographers and it is a joy browsing through the photos, as they can be viewed both by photographer and by style.

My favorite photographer, David Liittschwager, is one of the photographers featured at the Assignement site, and some of his fantastic underwater, macro and animal photos can be seen there.

pet-interiors - Fashionable Designer Beds for Cats and Dogs

pet-interiors has a great selection of very decorative beds for cats and dogs.
They follow the same design tendencies that goes around in the world of human furniture and that makes their pet furniture very suitable to the modern home.

I love the idea of pet furniture being a natural part of the home and think the ideal thing would be to create a home where the pet’s furniture fit seamlessly in amongst the human furniture. All to often we have to hurry and hide the pet’s blankets and beds away before company arrives!

Pet-interiors have some great cat “caves” called RONDO that can be mounted on the wall or on a simple, yet decorative, metal base. As most cats love to cuddle up inside a little cave I’d think RONDO is just as pleasant for the cat as it is decorative.
RONDO comes in many different materials and colors, and decorative patterns or scratch surface is available as covers sold separately.

The RONDOs on sale at the moment! The wall mounted ones costs between 89 EUR and 519 EUR and the ones mounted on a metal base costs between 579 EUR and 699 EUR. Stop by pet-interiors.de if you’d like to know more or buy one.

Via moderncat