# How to cut/groom the leg hair



## camfan (Oct 30, 2006)

I'm sort of at a loss. And I think I blew it. I'm letting (or, I thought I was) Ollie's coat grow for the winter and today I decided to trim his feet up because the ground has been yuckie and they were getting too icky. ok, so I know how to do that (although getting a good trim on his front paws is challenging because he doesn't like them touched). so then it seemed like it looked "off balance" because the feet hair was short but the leg hair was a good few inches long. I assumed I needed to "taper" so I did. But now the length of his leg hair is overall too short I think! Do you all have advice/techniques on how to cut the foot/leg hair appropriately??

Poor Ollie--he hasn't been to the groomer since mid June and he is now my grooming guinea pig...


----------



## Linus McDuff (Jul 12, 2006)

I know how you feel, Linus is in the same boat! :brownbag: I've left his legs long, so now it looks like he has leg warmers. I'm keep checking in on this one to see if there are any good tips.


----------



## Missy&Maggie (Jun 17, 2007)

I don't have any advice, but I can sympathize. Maggie's legs and paws always seem to have a mess look even have they have been combed! I'm interested to see what advice others have!!


----------



## camfan (Oct 30, 2006)

> I know how you feel, Linus is in the same boat! :brownbag: I've left his legs long, so now it looks like he has leg warmers. I'm keep checking in on this one to see if there are any good tips.[/B]


LOL! Yes! Ollie had leg warmer legs!! LOL!! So I tried to taper it from the feet up. It's not easy!


----------



## Krystal (Feb 3, 2007)

WHAT, we dont get pics!!! LOL.....I think we are all due for an Ollie fix!!


----------



## bellaratamaltese (May 24, 2006)

I'm very good at doing hack jobs so I'm not help!


----------



## camfan (Oct 30, 2006)

> WHAT, we dont get pics!!! LOL.....I think we are all due for an Ollie fix!![/B]


ok, ok, I'll take pics maybe tomorrow...or whenever this freaking rain stops!! It's wet and dark outside and dark and dreary in the house...


----------



## momtoboo (Jan 30, 2006)

Well, I'll try to explain how I trim Boo & Hannahs feet. They do go to a groomer every 6 to 8 weeks, but sometimes I do little touchups & trims on them if they don't really need a full groom yet. I don't actually cut the hair on the top of the feet. I use scissors & go around the edge of the foot, cutting it even with the townails & giving the foot a rounded look. Then I use blending shears on the very top edge & cut at an angle to give it a natural fluffy look. I use blunt tip baby scissors to trim the pads. I actually like the way I do it better than the way the groomer does it. They always have kitty cat feet when she does it.  I just don't really care for the tapered effect. I do keep the leg hair the same length as the body hair, usually 1" to 2" maybe 3" long in winter. As long as I keep it at that length, I can trim up the feet with no problem.


----------



## jmm (Nov 23, 2004)

I layer the feet, shortest on the bottom, working to longer. Trim all the hair off the bottom of the feet. Hair on the back of the foot even with the rest so it is even all around. Then, if I'm keeping the legs trimmed, for the back leg I pick up the foot and extend it behind them so their knee is bent. I trim that coat at a slight curve around the bent knee, not trimming anymore off the hair I just trimmed, gently getting a bit longer as I go around the leg. It should follow the curve of the leg. 

Here's a scissored puppy cut leg. 









A little bit longer









And a messy puppy, but you can see how his rear leg is trimmed (and yes, it was trimmed about a month before hand) - to follow the natural line.









Longer coat, legs not trimmed, but the feet are.


----------



## Gemma (Jan 19, 2006)

Pam, I have been wanting to trim Sparkey's legs for a month now :smrofl: I just know I will screw up. well he still has his IV leg. so this time it can't get any worse than that?  it is so hard to push all that hair in his shoes :blush: 

wow JMM, you do such a good job. I learned so much from your posts already. I can't believe how even the leg looks in the first picture. :w00t: you make me want to trim sp's legs tonight.


----------



## camfan (Oct 30, 2006)

Thanks everyone! THANK YOU JMM for taking the time to post and for those photos (what a gorgeous pup). Yeah, I think I basically puppy cut Ollie's legs today and I didn't mean to. It doesn't look too bad because the rest of his coat is still relatively short. Hopefully next time I get can get it right....


----------

