How to Minimize Your Dog's Faults through Creative Grooming

Has anyone ever commented that your dog has funny looking feet? Or that his tail is set so low you can hardly see it? Does his snout seem longer than his neck? Or his ears appear too high or too low? Would you like to make his legs look longer and his body not so round? Then you have come to the right place.

If you have mastered using the scissors and clippers, now you can use your skill and do some creative grooming. Whether you want to create an exotic look for a special occasion, like heart-shaped pom-poms for Valentine's Day, or simply hide or enhance a specific part of your dog's look, this can be done with a little creative grooming.

Unfortunately, if you have the shorthaired dog your chances of hiding his faults are slim to none. Most require at least two inches of coat to work with in order to minimize most structural faults. So beginning with your longhaired dog bathed and thoroughly brushed, we can begin.

In order for you to fully understand how to correct a fault, you must know the correct basic structure for your dog. Do you know where his tail is supposed to be set, and are you able to visualize straight bone with structure? With all corrections, you must overlook the way the bone is to where it should be.

Fixing crooked legs: For instance, supposed you want to correct the dog's front legs from looking as though they turn out at the elbow. The first thing you need to do is to secure your dog's head in a grooming noose or have someone hold him steady. It is imperative that your dog remains still and in a natural stand.

Using a pair of good straight scissors and imagining the invisible line the dog's leg should be in, begin to remove hair at the outside edge of the elbow. If you are working with hair that is curly, you have an advantage as it can be trimmed close without seeing skin. Then as you trim down along the leg to the foot the length of the hair gradually becomes longer. Usually with a leg the bows out at the elbow, the feet turn in towards each other, so when you trim the inside part of the leg you would reverse the look, trimming close at the toes and longer at the top by his ribs.

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