and gets a bath every two weeks.It's Hard Work Being Beautiful.....
(The life of a show poodle)
This was written during Shine's show days to document the process of
her beautification. Now that she is "retired", she has a much shorter hair cut
and gets a bath every two weeks.
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I decided to feature this page to give you some idea of what Shine goes through to be so gorgeous. It may seem easy to you at first glance, but behind that flowing mane and gorgeous coat are a lot of hours spent in the name of beauty.
In regard to dog shows, the most important thing besides the actual physical conformation of a poodle is the poodle's coat and presentation. Actually, many shortcomings in conformation can be disguised or downplayed by an excellent presentation. This means a lot of work goes into growing, maintaining and grooming the hair.
The first rule in growing poodle hair is that clean hair grows
faster than dirty hair. This means that bathing the poodle is of utmost
importance
.
For Shine, I adhere to weekly baths. In between shows, I use a leave in
cream conditioner to help prevent matting. After the bath, the poodle must
be dried thoroughly
.
The best method for straightening the hair is to use a stand dryer and to brush
the hair while it is drying. The poodle must be taught from an early age
to submit to the process, sometimes it can be quite relaxing. After the
poodle is completely dry, thorough brushing and combing of the coat takes place
to ensure that there are no tangles or mats hiding near the skin
.
If the poodle is not being shown the next day, the long hair
on the mane must be protected from the damage of everyday life and from matting.
Wrapping the hair is the best way that I have found to accomplish this.
The hair is broken down into segments, brushed out and wrapped in plastic
wrappers
.
Sometimes I use Vetwrap (self adhesive bandaging) under the wrappers on the ears
for extra protection, as I have other dogs who like to try to chew the wrappers
off. I like to get many colors of wrapping so that I can change her
appearance and be festive for the season at hand.
Nail care is very important for the poodle. The nails are to
be quite short, so as to show off the well formed foot and not interfere in the
poodle's movement. I use a Dremel to file Shine's nails weekly
.