Newbie question:

[my.cats.name.is.psycho]

For learning breed standards, should I study AKC like everyone says? Is this at all relevant to me, or should I study CKC or both?

Come to think of it, I'm not going to be doing show-dogs so do I even need one of those books or will books like notes from the grooming table, my school material, and web info on breed cuts suffice?

[RudyRoo]

I would study them, I love going to the local shows and getting to chance to see the dogs as they should look. Will I ever groom a show dog, prob not, but the more you know, the better your " pet grooms" will look. Thats my 2 cents worth!

[Beanermom]

I think it's very, very important to learn breed standards and how the different breeds are 'supposed' to look- if only to have a proper 'picture' in your head while you groom each breed. The AKC book has information on what each dog should look like, conformationally (is that even a word?lol) that you will have in your mind as you groom your pet quality dogs. You can then tweak your groom to make a less than perfect dog look great! If you ever decide to pursue certification, most, or all-not sure- of the organizations take their test directly from the AKC book. I would also say, since most of the best groomers I have seen out there go by the AKC book, I will do what they did and hopefully get as good as they are! :0) Just my two cents...

[k2p1e]

it is pretty much the same

i would stuy anything and everything you can

[keyray]

I would start out with Notes from the Grooming Table. It has already taken the breed standards and interpreted them for grooming. With that book I can groom a dog and make it look somewhat like it is suppose to, even if I have never seen the breed before.

From there you can start specializing. A while back I started grooming 2 Dandie Dinmont Terriers. So every time I groom them I tweak the groom, trying to get closer and closer to "breed standard". I've done that with a lot of different breeds.

I do have the AKC book but it would be so difficult to try to use it to figure out how to groom a pattern.