Bichon's with good hair

[Poodlefluff]

Is it me or are there hardly any bichons with good scissor hair. When I go to dog shows Scott Sommers the handler is the only one there with a good thick coat on his Bichons, the other ones are just OK. And all the ones I groom have thin hair or cotton hair or Maltese hair,lol. I want to groom one that has really good hair, where are they all lol. Do any of you have a good coated one?

[DAPER DAWG]

Sorry all the ones get have really thin mixed up not pillowy hair either. It's really hard to make em look half decent too.

[Bearmtn]

All of mine are the same as you discribe. I thought I had one that was going to have a nice coat, as is was a little thicker but was still real soft, and I asked how old it was and the owner said it was almost 4 years old. Well, that blew that theory.

[dogsenvogue]

We have quite a few that have great scissor coats, some come from up north during the winter(snowbirds) and a few live here year round, but their coats are not quite as nice as the snowbirds. They are fun to do when they have substantial coat aren't they. By the way I love your avatar pic, beautiful head study, is that your dog ?

[plushpuppy]

Sorry all the ones get have really thin mixed up not pillowy hair either. It's really hard to make em look half decent too.

I agree whispy crummy hair is what I get

[Arrooh]

I have a couple of good ones

they do take forever to dry. Sooooo thick. No skin anywhere. But really need hard work stretch drying to make look nice.

[pamperedpups]

Breeding and diet! Like most, you're working with pets, and likely poorly-bred pets fed McKibble. I think over the years I've worked on ONE Bichon that didn't have icky hair...

[Shampooch]

I guess I’m one of the lucky ones. Most I do see are cottony and thin, but there is one that comes in with a wonder full coat. She turns out so pretty. She is really fun to work on, except her front legs. She likes to dodge the shears and tuck her elbow up under her rib cage to try and prevent me from scissoring her. But I couldn’t ask for a better coat to work on.

[Poodlefluff]

You guys are lucky then. I have heard of dogs growing a better coat when they live somewhere cold. And my avatar pic is my poodles grandma. They have the same face but mine is still growing hair, she only has about half that amount.

[RevWind]

We have a few where I'm at. We have one that prefers leaving the neck large and stuff, like in a show bichon (though not quite show quality, still pretty nice hair). I've done it twice now, not really knowing what I was doing, other than a lot of scissoring and a large neck. I'd love to know how to do a real bichon head. All mine just end up being round popsicle heads. :P

[misscatahoula]

The only one I get in with an amazing plush coat doesn't get a proper bichon trim, darnit! The 2 that want full scissor cuts have ****** coats.(Sigh)

[k9srule]

I must be really lucky! I have several bichons that have great scissoring coats and like to have a full bichon clip too. A couple that don't have good coats have extreme allergies and are getting older. I hadn't heard about them having better coats if they live in cooler climates. But maybe that does help!

[sheilabgroomer]

Thanks to the BYB's out to make a quick buck it is hard to find Bishons w/good hair. I have a new client that has a wonderful coat, but she is a real buster to work on (of course!). I am hoping w/time and patience she will get a little more tolerant of the grooming process!

[k9stylist1968]

I had one with good hair today! And other than being a bit chunky, actually structurally correct! I'd say if he lost 3-4 pounds, he'd be a really handsome boy. He even had a correct head/face.... You know the "rule"--perfect equilateral triangle between the outside corners of the eyes and the end of his nose.... His only major flaw was he didn't have much neck.... But that could be partly because of his chunkiness.... I did manage to scissor in the illusion of a neck.... AND unlike most clients with the rare dogs that are both anatomically correct AND have great hair, this one wanted a true Bichon style cut.... He looked AWESOME when finished--hope I don't break my arm patting my own back :-D OH! I wish my camera wasn't broken!

[bow_wow_wheels]

I thank my lucky stars that I have the most wonderful Bichon clients!! Good to excellent coat and very well maintained! Have you guys tried using the Chris Christensen Clean Start/AfterBath/Thick-n-Thicker combo of products on the ones with wimpy coats? It really does work to help the coat stand for scissoring. If anyone is coming to APF I can introduce you to a friend of mine who has several being shown right now. She really does a *very* nice head and I'm sure she'd be happy to pass along some pointers to you if you're interested