Two Plus Weeks At sPawDays - What A Change

During Xmas we had a full house of boarders, one being this Bichon Frise. He came in with a coat quite clumped up, and in need of a good grooming .. his owners were well aware and were frightened to take him to one of the local grooming places as last time they shaved him to the skin even tho the length they wanted had been discussed prior. With the Xmas rush and preparing to go away, plus the snow we've had (which yes mats the hair big time!), they hadn't had the time to keep him up. So ... I asked ... would you mind if I gave it a shot? I don't own clippers, so no shaving! and I'd like to do more of a 'show trim' on him. I got the go ahead.
Here's how he started out. What one has to remember is as you brush a coat (hair not fur) like this out it 'grows'! and I mean grows .... So bit, by bit hour by hour, day by day I worked on him.

As I brushed him out, I trimmed as he just had so much hair. Here he's pictured after about 6 hours of work.

Come'on enough pics already!

(swear I must have taken some 100 shots thru the whole process)

Now we're getting down to D-Day, the day before he's to leave. I've got him down to a more manageable length, most of the clumps out so it's time for the bath and a good conditioner to work out what's left.
Blow drying is a different story on this kind of hair. My high powered dryer doesn't do the same kind of job as it does on the shelties! This meant switching up, and using a regular hair dryer. (remember this is a totally new breed for me to do!) The more his hair dried, the LONGER it got! Sheesh! I thought I'd trimmed a lot to start with? As you can see he loved the pampering.
Finally ... after starting @ 10 am, breaks here and there, brushing, more trimming, more brushing, trimming, I finished him up later that evening and I think he looks pretty spiffy for his owners.
Here's a full view of him. If you go back and look at his original pic it doesn't look like too much length was taken off, but I'd say upwards of 2" has been trimmed. I didn't want to drastically change his overall look, but even at this length both his owners & I feel we could go shorter so his love for playing in the snow doesn't tangle his coat up any more than necessary.

Needless to say, his owners were ECSTATIC with how he looked.

Humm .... I think I'd give myself 2 Paws up too!