Day 66. At Home Haircuts.

I will begin by telling you that I have given MANY haircuts in my time. I never said "professional" haircuts, mind you. But I can get by on a basic, little boy's haircut. I can trim bangs just fine, and I often cut my husband's hair! I've learned a few tricks that get me through, and it comes in handy at times.  Today, I decided to try cutting my little dog's hair.  This was a different situation indeed.  This picture was taken on Sunday.  Although a bit blurry, you get the idea.

This picture was taken today... of what I cut off the defenseless, little animal. 
 

And this is the finished product.

The pictures are actually quite forgiving.  I assure you this was not my best "stylist" moment.

I learned a few things, though.  Some "do"s and "don't"s in cutting a dog's hair:

1.  DO set aside at least an hour before attempting this for the first time.  Holy cow!
2.  DO close AND lock the door if your 5 year old child is running around the house, and decides to give the dog a chance to break free!
3.  Do NOT try using clippers BEFORE using scissors to cut off all of excess hair that has grown since the previous fall.
4.  Do NOT cut your dog with the scissors, because you're getting completely overwhelmed by how much hair you continue to cut, and it looks like you're getting NOWHERE, so you start going too quickly!

And lastly,

5. DO come to the realization that there is a reason we pay dog groomers to do this tedious chore, and fork out the $40 bucks to save yourself a lot of time and effort, along with saving your poor, little doggie the stress and pain!  She was actually quite patient, and sat so still while I chopped away.  She's a good, little dog.

As if she doesn't already have insecurity issues when THIS is her beautiful, baby sister.  The poor girl just can't get a break, and then I go and give her the worst haircut a dog has EVER seen?!  I am a bad doggie-mommy!  :(