What 3 hours of work looks like LOL

[mylady]

This is Libby, the labradoodle. Her owners don't have her groomed often enough so she is usually pretty matted. I've wet shaved her twice in the past. The last grooming I had to do a 4F strip on her. I probably see her about every 3-4 months. So this time she wasn't quite as matted as usual and I knew mom and dad were hosting Thanksgiving and wanted her to look nice, so I did a #1 comb lamb trim on her. She's got a great coat, if it was kept brushed. It is so thick it took me an hour to dry her. I wasn't about to pre strip her because she was filthy and I really hate wet shaving her. I end up with her fur stuck to me all over. After I took these pictures I put orange rosette bows in her ears. I got there at 6:30pm and put my scissors down at 9:30pm. Got on the road by 10pm. Mom and dad always try to feed me or get me to drink something! Very nice people and they did have to wait 3 weeks to get onto my schedule. She knows the drill now though, she grabbed a toy right out of my bucket before I even put it down. Mom thought she took something she wasn't supposed to! Apparently, mom has forgotten she gets a new toy at each visit! LOL. I SOOO wish Sully had a coat like this. She's the only black labradoodle I've seen. All of the other ones I've done look like oversized wheatens. She's also the only one with a tight curly coat I've done. So here it is, not my best groom, but I think a major improvement based on what I started with!

[Smart-n-Pretty]

I love how she knows she looks so good after grooming and her head and tail are up and her back is straight.

[Poodleluv]

She looks very nice,and I love how plush the finish is,and cute head.Those doodle heads take some styling skill to get that cute.

[Mollyclizbe]

She is a cutie
Great job!

[sheilabgroomer]

She looks just like Toby, a doodle that comes in my shop about every 3 months as well. Sounds like she is MUCH better behaved than Toby is and her owners are nicer to deal w/too. Toby's mama is.......um.......obnoxious (for lack of a better word). The SECOND she comes in (which is usually 30 min late), she bellows HELLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOO is anyone here. Drives me nuts! She then tells us that we didnt do something right last time. Head was either cut too short or left too long and made him look *gasp* like a POODLE. The last few grooms she has taken pair of scissors to his head leaving the infamous V cut going from brow to occiput and then tells us not to make him "look stupid"......lol.....

Sorry I got carried away w/Toby memories and hijaked your thread. Toby is very memorable though and is a big enough of a nusiance on his own (w/out any help from his owner) that I have actually gotten rather fond of him. Makes no sense to me either!! lol

Pretty groom on your girl! I am sure the owners were thankful for your skills on Thanksgiving!

[petgroomaustralia]

She looks beautiful.

[dogspaw]

Very pretty! Like SnP said, she knows she looks good!

[wet noze]

She's so cute but she's soooo big. And three hours in the van for the groom? Can't you insist she get on a tighter schedule so you wouldn't have to work so hard and so late? I bet you could groom three little dogs in the same amount of time. Just thinking of you....

[DaisyMae]

She looks so pretty!

[mylady]

Thanks all. I know she is a lot of work and I don't charge enough for her. One of my weak points is getting more assertive with the owners as I'm such a people pleaser. I'm working on it. I'm trying to get my scheduling down better so my employee and I talked about calling people when we were going to be in their area. I think they would book more often but they simply forget and it gets away from them.
She is a very good dog just really huge.

[Dog Daze]

You are way..... too hard on yourself. Your work always looks nice and better than I would be able to do especially at 9:00 pm (cause that's my bedtime).

She looks great to me.

[SpikeyTheYorkie]

Very nice work! I'm sure they'll be happy. Wait...no they wont, the breed standard for all doodles is Scruffy, dirty, and over-due for a groom, so now she's ruined!

But from a groomer's point of view, she's GAW-GEOUS!

Tammy in Utah

[Poodlestar]

I wonder...

how many doodles are in north america right now... are there doodles in europe, or australia? or anywhere else for that matter?

I don't think i've ever groomed a black one... lots of golden colored ones, and a blueish one. Many chocolate colored labradoodles. and I groom a silver SECOND GENERATION labradoodle with this crisp, spindly wire hair that is wonderful cause it dries in seconds. hehe.

[mylady]

I had to add, this client was referred from another mobile who stopped doing large dogs. I found out she also charged a flat fee for every dog and it's only $5 over my minimum and what I normally charge for a Yorkie! So I think the first time I did her they had a bit of sticker shock, but they were happy with how she looked. Her mom told her her MIL is scared of her because she pants with her mouth open and she can see her teeth, LOL.

[abandk03]

Love the doodle and I love grooming doodles.