Blade skimming is a “Lost Art” and many groomers don’t know about. This skill will save you time, money and your hands, as it is easier on your hands and body than to only rely on your scissor finishing. This is a sample breakdown mine and my mother’s book, The Golden Paws Complete Guide to Dog Grooming. Depending on your skill level some of the material will be familiar; I promise you will learn a great deal. Here are some of the parts of the chapter on blade skimming. Blade skimming will help you quickly fine finish a beautiful style and can be used on any breed and also cats.

Show grooming is different from pet grooming. The show dogs have a rigid grooming design standard that has to be met because these dogs are being judged by professional judges. The pet grooming profession does not have these rigid design standards because our clients judge their pet’s grooming. Our clients may not be professional judges but they do know if their dog looks nice and meets with their standards.
We as professionals pet stylists need to acquire quality grooming skills and incorporate this quality into our pet grooming. This is one of the reasons why the grooming from the previous two phases needs to be quality checked before the final fine finish phase. After the dog has been prepped along with the prep design and cut down in Phase I and bathed and dried in Phase II, it is time to do the quality check before starting the fine finish in Phase III.  
The previous work you did in Phase I and II has to be checked, perfected and redone if necessary. Fine finishing is the last phase of the grooming process, so it is important that the quality check is done first to make sure all of the previous work is correct. Forgot a part? Now is the time to do it. Shaving not smooth? Fix it by re-shaving. Not happy with the bath and dry?  Re-do it.  
Grooming is like a test. You always check it over to make sure you did not miss anything and everything is correct before you turn it in. The same principal applies to grooming. Make sure everything is correct before you hand the pet to the client. The quality check is first so you can perfect any of the previously groomed parts and refine the prep design parts by perfecting the shaved and the blended parts (if any). The guide blade steps are repeated (if there was a prep cut down) to refine the lines of the outline shape. Refining the lines is what gives the dog a beautiful finished look.  
For a quick review of this procedure, the quality check and perfecting the prep design is first, then a  second set of guide blade steps are repeated to refine the cut down outline shape. Then the Phase III fine finish portion follows by focusing on refining the body line parts of the outline shape. The fine finish portion is where you need to develop the rigid level of show quality fine finish skills. The lines need to be balanced, smooth, neat and perfectly shaped. You need to acquire this type of super-fine finishing skill.
At this point you have developed all of your grooming skills except for the fine finishing skills. In this fine finish portion you will develop scissor and blade movements to refine the different type of lines.  The correct tool angle, control with precise tool movement and the positioning the dog so you can see the lines of the outline shape are all emphasized in fine finishing. The fine finish steps are similar to the guide blade cut down steps (where you developed the lines) because you refine these same lines by lightly scissoring, thinning shear or by skimming over the line with the #7 blade (or using all tools) to make the line smooth and neat.  
The guide blade cut down process removes and sets the hair length while developing the lines. The fine finishing process perfects and refines these cut down lines. It is important to understand the concept of fine finishing. Fine finishing (or line refinement) is perfecting each line while balancing the entire outline shape at the same time. It is not about removing hair length (the length should have been removed during the cut down process). The only hair you need to remove is hair wisps or rough hair to make the line smooth, neat and as perfect as possible.  
The fine finishing process may challenge you because it is all about control of your tool and precision with the movement as you apply it correctly to refine the line. Fine finishing is like free-hand drawing, but instead of using a pencil to draw the line on paper you cut the line on the dog’s hair with the scissors or the blade.  Position yourself (or the dog) so you can actually “see” (not just know where the line is located) the line clearly. Analyze the line first to determine which hair needs to be cut off to perfect the line. Then determine where and how much hair to cut off. Angle the tool with the correct line movement to cut off the hair wisps or the rough hair to make the line smooth and neat. Fine finish each line. Quality fine finishing is what will make you a talented pet stylist.

Are you ready to open your own school of dog grooming? Are you ready to be “unchained” from your grooming table and run your business more profitably? How about just grooming your favorite four legged clients instead of dog after dog and going home feeling like a mack truck hit you?

I think those are some of the worst words us groomers hear after we just felt Fluffy and we know it is going to be like shearing a sheep or even worse the dog’s top coat is all nice and brushed out, but all the undercoat is matted. It is hard to feel and even I have been fooled on occasion. Then I have to try and discuss the options to the owner over the phone and it is harder in person.

We have heard all, from “Oh, Fluffy got out this morning and came back in all tangled” and I am thinking to myself “No, this is 6 months of you not brushing him and then bathing him! Can’t they see the big matts hanging there?” Then there is “We left Fluffy with a friend for 2 weeks and they didn’t brush poor Fluffy” again I am thinking to myself pretty much the same as above. My favorite is… “Well, Fluffy came home from grooming with a matt and it spread”.

There are many people who love animals and would like to work with them. A career in grooming is a wonderful alternative to many fields where a person is able to work with animals, Pet Stylists get to make them beautiful and feel good. Pet Stylists are also the first to notice a change that may affect the pet’s health and regular grooming also aides in keeping the pet healthy. For this we are rewarded by a pet that trusts us and we come to love the pets in our care. We are rewarded by the pet’s family in what I call “instant gratification”. Who doesn’t like to hear how great you are, how beautiful your work is and how much their pet enjoys coming in to see you! Very few fields enjoy that kind of praise on a daily basis. We also get rewarded financially. The pet grooming field is wide open and you have the potential to make as much as the effort you put in.

Hi Everyone!

This is just a sample chapter of the “New Golden Paws Complete Guide to Dog Grooming”. A new innovative book proven successful for close to 4 decades of teaching pet styling. Check out www.goldenpaws.com for all the rest of the chapter descriptions and available DVD’s. Golden Paws now gives you the power of choice whether you attend one of our nationwide schools or want to learn from the best Long Distance Learning Program available! Even if you are a professional pet stylist, you can learn to improve your styling skills.

This Sample Chapter is just a small part of this truly informative book along with DVD’s to learn great styling skills.