Fortunately, our crew are all shorthaired. Nails on the other hand are a sore spot around here. They don't get bitey about it, they just start the squirm where sometimes it takes two people just to hold them still and I worry about pinning them down and hurting themselves trying to get away. So, often they're running around the house with only a two or three paw clipping.
Ya, all four of ours have their unique personalities, but our last adoptee, a parsons, is definately full of herself. At all of 13 pounds (and at best, half the size of the others), she pretty much rules the pack, and the house sometimes
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How can you be in two places at once, when your not anywhere at all?
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I really want to become a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.
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There are three kinds of people, those that can count, and those that can't.
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“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them." :Bertrand Russell
Grooming is a challenge for us too, with Gizzie, our Shi-Tzu "son." He is pretty much okay until I turn the corner and he knows suddenly where he's at. He trembles and shakes like he's having a seizure - for ten seconds, until I put him down and he can see who all is there. Molly, Pete and Purdue (two Scottie "twins") and so on.
After getting acquainted, he goes and visits the base of the grooming table and marks his spot. Nora says "(the males) think that it's a fire hydrant." Apparently, he is quite the character during his stay. If she is busy and forgets to acknowledge "Sir Gizzie," he will jump up and grab the back of her smock. He does that with my shirts, when I come home, too.
The downsides to grooming are, 1. just like Phil said, is that he is SO tired and 2. he doesn't feel well for 3-5 days afterwards. I think that the grooming "noose" messes with his throat.
Gizzie is now fixed but even now, the thought of taking him to shop at Petsmart strikes a chord, witrh me. The one time that i did, was "cleanup on aisle one, two, four, five, six, ten and the checkout and an impregnated bird...." No more, thanks. 
dhascall wrote:Grooming is a challenge for us too, with Gizzie, our Shi-Tzu "son." He is pretty much okay until I turn the corner and he knows suddenly where he's at. He trembles and shakes like he's having a seizure - for ten seconds, until I put him down and he can see who all is there. Molly, Pete and Purdue (two Scottie "twins") and so on.
After getting acquainted, he goes and visits the base of the grooming table and marks his spot. Nora says "(the males) think that it's a fire hydrant." Apparently, he is quite the character during his stay. If she is busy and forgets to acknowledge "Sir Gizzie," he will jump up and grab the back of her smock. He does that with my shirts, when I come home, too.
The downsides to grooming are, 1. just like Phil said, is that he is SO tired and 2. he doesn't feel well for 3-5 days afterwards. I think that the grooming "noose" messes with his throat.
Gizzie is now fixed but even now, the thought of taking him to shop at Petsmart strikes a chord, witrh me. The one time that i did, was "cleanup on aisle one, two, four, five, six, ten and the checkout and an impregnated bird...." No more, thanks.
I'll bet that bird felt violated.
__________________________________________________
How can you be in two places at once, when your not anywhere at all?
--------------------------------------------------
I really want to become a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.
--------------------------------------------------
There are three kinds of people, those that can count, and those that can't.
--------------------------------------------------
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them." :Bertrand Russell
With the past two giant breed long-haired dogs we've owned we could never afford to take them to a groomer. But we did a couple times and the costs were almost $200 for the full treatment.
I've probably mentioned a couple stories before about our last Great Pyrenees named Hugo who weighed 185 lbs. He hated water, or his feet touched, and when giving him a bath in the tub I had to muzzle him or he would bite you. Plus an absolute bear to get in the tub to begin with and would jump out if you didn't have a strong hold on him.
Once when I was gone Hugo had gone through this thick stand of bamboo growing on the edge of our yard. It must have been putting out spores and pure white Hugo came out black. So my small wife and daughter loaded him in the tub and got him all soaped up when he went absolutely ballistic. So they loaded him up in the Jeep as is and took him straight to the local groomer w/o even calling. My wife said I should have been there when she walked into the groomer with this huge black soap covered dog who was slobbering like heck. The people in the waiting room jaws dropped, they grabbed their dogs for safety, and the groomer said, "What the he__ is that!".
Another time I took Hugo to another local groomer in a vets office. This gal had her short sleeves rolled up showing real muscular arms and had a butch haircut. I offered her his muzzle and told her he will bite. She didn't take the muzzle and said, "I can handle any dog and if he needs muzzled I already have one". About 10 min after getting home I got a phone call from the receptionist asking if my dog had all his shots? She went on to say Hugo had bit the groomer pretty bad. That will teach her to never listen to a dog's owner on the demeanor of their pet!
Sorry if I've mentioned these stories a bunch of time before but they will always stick in my mind.
Charlie's a sweetheart in giving a bath and almost knows it will make him feel better. We also cut out large mats when bathing him. He's about due again.
Speaking of Charlie, he's been going nuts barking at night and know what it is. Last night he started raising cain and it turned into a pretty scary situation. A pack of coyotes were right past the edge of our yard in the woods barking/fighting like crazy. Sounded like there must have been 4-6 of them and I headed toward that direction yelling/clapping my hands. The last time I did this they stopped immediately but not this time and still carried on like crazy. Charlie started heading in the woods after them, I screamed his name at the top of my lungs, and luckily he came back. The coyotes then quit and I sure don't want Charlie tangling with one, let alone a whole pack.
Not sure what the coyotes were doing and could be mating or had a deer/animal down. I'm afraid they are going to kill/drive out the half-tame friendly fox that hangs around, may have been what the fight was about, and they are known to drive them out. Once they pack up like that they are bad news and almost like a pack of wolves. I'll have to pass the word around but unfortunately the local livestock owners may already be aware of them.
On another note, last night I watched a real disheartening show/story on Brian Williams Rock Center about the poaching of Rhinos in South Africa. The horns can be worth $250,000 each, one's poached every 18 hours, and a darnright gruesome story. Sounds like they are destined to be eradicated altogether and become extinct in the wild. 
Yay, humans! 
I'm not even going to go there because I know about it. All the legal drugs out there and people still doing this to animals (tigers, too). Just disgusts me to no end.
Groomers, another reason to have cats, LOL! I've read the horror stories about dogs being left on the leash on a table, then getting hung and killed (just because someone walked away to answer the phone). 
I've seen mobile groomers down here where it's a self-contained van that comes to your home and would guess you could be there to watch.
Uni, I think you should adopt the wild fox. Charlie needs company for his cold nights on the porch.
Yeah, almost didn't post that link to the Rhinos but watched a couple of the vids. Not half as disgusting as the whole episode on TV but still way too disturbing.
I'd like to adopt that fox and thought about when super cold putting out some food out where he hangs out. But one of the problems is they can carry rabies and distemper which I don't need around Charlie. And good luck taming a fox since I've seen them up close and they must have some cat in them. Wow, are they fast and can jump! Some Gray Foxes can even climb trees and they are known to for this.
Always thought it was kind of cute he would bark at me and/or Charlie. And Charlie would just ignore him. Haven't heard him lately and he's probably afraid to bark and bring the coyotes in. Just hope he's still ok since he's been around for at least 4 years and this woods is his home.
Here's a couple pics of our Fox and had to reduce the size. The winter one is not very clear since was shooting through 2 panes of glass in the living room which were half-fogged from the cold.
This is actually where their den was which is only about 150' from the house next to my drive.
Hard to take a shot in the dark woods with a sun beam coming through.
Ahhh, summertime and can't wait! LOL
