Executing an Efficient Pet Trim

side by side before and after pictures of a dog after a fresh trim

by Kelsey Ann Sexton

s a pet groomer you want to create beautiful grooms quickly and efficiently without sacrificing quality, style and safety. This tutorial on a drop-coat mix makes grooming a breeze with the comfort of knowing you didn’t miss a single step!

Before beginning any groom, the first crucial step is to examine the dog. You want to get a feel for how much work is going to go into the groom and decide how much time you need to pace yourself for. In this process, you can identify areas that are dirtier or need more attention, like armpits, sanitary, hocks, neck, chest or face.

Fig 1) Remove any matting that you don’t need to keep. If the belly is tangled or the hair on the face is matted and stained, go ahead and remove that before the bath with a clipper and blade designated for prep work and dirty coats.

dog getting their face scrubbed during a bath

Fig 2) Next is the bath. I do a facial rinse first and let the shampoo sit on the face while I bathe the body. You can also use a flea comb to break away debris from the face before and after rinsing.

Fig 3) Go over the entire dog with the dryer, concentrating on dry hair from the skin first and out to the ends. Don’t save the face for last. When the dog is almost dry all over, you can start working in sections to get that finish fluff.

ensuring a dog is tangle free after a wash

Fig 4) Brush and thoroughly comb through the dog. Once your pet is clean, dry and tangle free, you’re ready to make a decision on what trim you’re going to execute.

Fig 5) Start with your shortest blade first and trim paw pads, sanitary areas and the face. For the feet, pick the foot up naturally with the dog standing, brush the hair in the pads up and out, and use your clippers parallel to the entire pad to remove hair, stopping at the back of the pad.

For the face, use the edge of your blade like a pencil tip to execute definition to the corners of the eyes. I like to use a #15 blade for the inner eye corner with my clippers pointing away from the eye, directing towards the nose. Then switch to a #10 blade placed in between the eyes at the stop, moving upward with light pressure to blend.

To complete your prep work, clean up the sanitary area.

trimming a dogs feet as it stands upright

Fig 6) With the dog standing, place your shears (curved or straight) on the table at the base of the nail and make a “box.” Once you know where the foot begins and ends, you can box in your two sides. Here you are just removing length and can clean it up when you do the entire leg.

Fig 7) For your body clipper work, follow the direction of the coat and remove hair by completing one pass from the back of the neck and down the rear, then wrap around the stomach and chest. Here I am using a 5/8” guard comb. Think of just the body and debulking your legs to leave to blend at transition zones that have movable parts.

Fig 8) Spritz water or finishing spray into the air to fall onto the pet, then take a comb and fluff up the body that you clipped in the previous step.

Fig 9) Repeat the clipper work described in Fig. 7, again using long, smooth strokes following the direction of the coat.

Fig 10) Switch your blade to 2-3 lengths longer than the blade you were just using and go in reverse over the occiput and skull, skimming off at the brow bone. You can do the same under the chin to debulk anything there.

Then using the same blade, go over every leg. And just like the body work, I spritz, fluff and repeat.

Fig 11) Fine-tune your clipper work at the rear by taking this area tighter than the body. I used a #5 blade on the insides of the legs and to clean up the sanitary area, skimming off at the bottom of the back legs.

Fig 12) You’ll do the same for the neck by gently lifting the head and removing the hair in an upside-down “V” between the throat and jaw, skimming off where the chest begins.

Fig 13) To finish your body work, use shears to clean up your lines at each transition zone. Think of this as erasing anything outside of the lines—you aren’t taking anymore length off the body, you’re simply dusting away the hair that sticks out.

Fig 14) For the face, comb down the brow bone and take a curved shear in reverse to open up the outside eye corners.

Fig 15) Tilt the head down and make a soft “U” shape to connect the visor.

Fig 16) Moving to the jaw, make a straight line across the bottom.

trimming around a dog's natural curve of their muzzle

Fig 17) Now that you know where your shortest points on the face are, look at each side of the face and create a “C” shape, honoring the dog’s natural curve of the muzzle.

combing a dog's transition points on their face to trim it evenly

Fig 18) Comb everything up and out to blend. Again, you aren’t removing length, you are simply dusting the transition points of the face. This includes above the muzzle, depending on the style of face you are creating.

To finish, lightly trim the ears and tail, if the owner desires.

I find these steps are able to translate into every haircut I do. The variations never change, even in a shave-down or breed profile trim. You simply adjust the length and headpiece/tail/ears based on each pet. A trim like this can easily keep you efficient without wondering if you skipped a thing!

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