Maltese Makeover: From “Home Haircut” to Perfect Pet Trim

Elevate Your Grooming

by Blake Hernandez

long-time popular pet breed, Maltese are known for their adorable large eyes and striking white coats, but groomers know how challenging it is to trim up such a soft-textured drop coat. The following will outline an easy-to-execute, go-to style used to revamp a pet dog’s last “home haircut.”

Fig 1) Every good trim starts with a nice bath and fluff. Scrub the skin and blow the coat straight so you can really see what you’re working with. This is especially important for when you are changing a dog’s style.

Fig 2) I often use a half-inch guard comb on pet dogs in general, but on a white dog with pink skin, a half-inch is about as short as you can go without exposing their delicate skin. Use your selected length to clip the body of the dog.

Fig 3) You’ll want to take the rear tighter than you did on the body, starting at the pin bone down to the point of hock.

a white Maltese, freshly bathed and blow dried, stands on a grooming surface

with the Maltese secured to the grooming table, a hand holding clippers removes hair from the white Malteses back

one hand holds the Maltese's tail as the other hand trims the hair from a rear leg starting at the pin bone

one hand holds one of the Maltese's rear paws as the other hand uses scissors to tightly trim the paw hair

a hand holds the Maltese's head up in order to trim beneath the chin

Fig 4) For a pet style, I always trim the feet tight and all the way up to the pad so their groom lasts longer.

Fig 5) The area under the chin, which is the throat latch, can be taken tighter than the rest of the trim overall.

Fig 1) Every good trim starts with a nice bath and fluff. Scrub the skin and blow the coat straight so you can really see what you’re working with. This is especially important for when you are changing a dog’s style.

Fig 2) I often use a half-inch guard comb on pet dogs in general, but on a white dog with pink skin, a half-inch is about as short as you can go without exposing their delicate skin. Use your selected length to clip the body of the dog.

Fig 3) You’ll want to take the rear tighter than you did on the body, starting at the pin bone down to the point of hock.

Fig 4) For a pet style, I always trim the feet tight and all the way up to the pad so their groom lasts longer.

Fig 5) The area under the chin, which is the throat latch, can be taken tighter than the rest of the trim overall.

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a hand holding clippers trims the hair on the back of the Maltese's head

scissors are used to tightly trim the outside corner of an eye

a thinning shear is used to blend the hair at the corner of the eye

the tail is held gently taut toward the floor and trimmed with scissors

wide view of freshly trimmed white Maltese standing while secured on a grooming table

Fig 6) From the back of the occiput and down to the body, go one length longer so that you can transition the topknot into the shoulders more easily.

Fig 7) For this dog, I simply neatened up the legs so that I can better balance out the overall shape.

Fig 8) Moving to the head, trim the outside corner of the eyes very tight.

Fig 9) Then blend out from the eye corners with a thinning shear and neaten any hairs in front of the eyes.

Fig 10) For pet dogs, trim the tail just enough so that it’s not dragging on the floor.

Fig 11) To finish, bevel the ears to create a perky face frame.

Whether you’re changing a style, executing a first-time trim or “fixing” a home haircut, this trim is good staple for Maltese, Cotons, Yorkies, Lhasas and so many more small drop-coat breeds.