Wowza. He's going to have to learn to deal with dull scissors, then lol.

I'm really careful. He holds very still for everything except the face... which is why I left it largely untouched. I keep the sessions short so he won't get frustrated... sometimes I've ended up brushing for too long and he'll swivel around really quickly and give me a LOOK - I don't want him making sudden movements when I have sharp things, so I keep it short. I'm fairly confident about not hurting him with scissors... do dogs often get hurt by idiots with clippers? I've never used clippers, not even on a horse... but when my riding instructor used them she seemed to go really quickly, and wasn't too concerned about nicking the horse even around the muzzle (this could have just been because of years of experience, though). The clippers seemed so easy to use on the youtube video, and you can set them a little longer so they're not clipping right down to the skin...

I was thinking about taking him to a smaller groomer... or one that will come by your house... to see what I could learn by watching them do it. Petsmart is weird about letting the owners stick around. But I wouldn't want to offend the groomer... "here, teach me how to do it better so I don't have to pay you again".

I'm hoping to be able to do enough myself so we only have to get him groomed every once in a while to touch things up. In theory, I will be saving my parents more than $300 after 15 or so years of his life... but it will be harder to get them to make that inital expenditure, I think.

And I love him so much... and his doggy family.. I think that when I get a dog myself it will be a Shih tzu. So there's lots of incentive for me to learn how to do it myself...

-- And the Lord came unto the cheery Panda and spake, saying, "Although thou art a peaceful critter, thou shalt defend yourself furiously when attacked and rippe the limbs from thine enemies and make them wish they had never been born..."

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Sex is like musical talent. Some guys just naturally have it, some don't. Some can be taught, some want to but will always be tone deaf, and some don't care to be. And some are like a genre of music that you can't stand; you listen because it's on and you can't change the station, but no matter how hard you try you just can't make yourself enjoy it.
-- thedens

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