Friday, May 8, 2009

Advantages and disadvantages of grooming a sheep dog from a groomers point of view?


Answers:
clearing up the fur
"ADVANTAGES"??

LMFAO!!

Are you KIDDING?
Other than you make more money than on a beagle? %26 earn every PENNY of it?

OES ake ALL DAMN DAY,HUGE amount of work,BIG cage,more SOAP.oh,yeah."advantages...
Old English sheep dogs in full show coat have been known to drop from heat exhaustion in the summer at outdoor shows if their handler isn't careful enough to keep them adequately cooled. That's why they were traditionally sheared at the same time as the sheep.

Also, many owners are not going to put in the amount of work required to keep a full coat well-groomed. I shave an OES at work. For the first year I worked with him, the owners insisted that they wanted me to leave the hair as long as possible, but they didn't do enough brushing at home. As a result, his legs and belly were always horribly matted and had to be shaved short while his back and head weren't so bad and could be brushed out. Poor guy had the most hideous bowl cut for the longest time. You know it's bad when a 4th year vet student has to ask, "what kind of dog is that?" One day, when he had a particularly bad skin infection, I decided I was just going to cut it all off. The owners decided that it really did look better that way and his fur has looked much better ever since and I can't remember the last time his fur has been so badly matted that brushing it out wasn't even an option.

So the advantages for an OES are: keeps dog from overheating, keeps fur from getting irreversibly tangled and makes it easier to care for at home, gets air flow to the skin and makes skin infections easier to see before they get too bad. The disadvantages: if the fur is cut really short the dog may sunburn (especially on the parts where the fur is white and the skin pink), it can get costly depending on what your groomer charges and how often in needs to be done.

Most of the other sheepherding breeds I am familiar with have double coats with an outer coat and an under coat that were designed to help keep the dog warm in winter and cooler in the summer. I honestly can't think of a good non-medical reason to shave these breeds.

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