102. Give Sammy a Haircut

This is not a goal that I had written down, but it was definitely goal worthy!  It was a challenge, it was positive, and it was an experience.

Sammy is our 6 going on 7 year old pup.  She was our first child and we love her dearly!  She was sick last month to the point of thinking we might lose her.  She has gotten sick three separate times with the same illness and we are lucky that we have found a blend of medications that have healed her each time. I thought about putting this on the list originally, but at the time of completion I still didn't know how healthy she is.  I am happy to say that it does look as though she is in the clear.

I have tried a couple of times to cut Sammy's hair but have been unsuccessful each time.  The first time I just went at it with scissors which was a complete failure.  I cut her a couple of times and nothing was even.  My mom used to cut our dog Friskie's hair with scissors, but it didn't work for me at all.  The second time I tried was with the clippers I use for my hair.  It didn't work at all because her hair is far too thick to cut with regular clippers.

For years I have thought about cutting her hair in order to save some money, but I had never had the courage to go any farther.  I decided to take the step to order dog grooming clippers to have a go at cutting her hair.  When I had searched before I had seen that good clippers could go up to the hundreds of dollars. I wasn't up for quite that level of commitment.  I did a number of google searches and found a few that were just over a hundred dollars.  I was close to buying one pair but the cost still seemed a bit steep for what I was willing to spend.  Finally I stumbled on a post about this pair.  I went over to Amazon and found the comments/reviews to be overwhelmingly positive. Out of 66 reviews only one person gave it 1 out of 5 stars.  On the opposite side, 61 of them were either 4 or 5 stars. Because of that response and the fact that they were the cheapest ones I had seen I figured this was the set I was going to try.

I got them in the mail yesterday but didn't cut her hair until today. It came with a training video that I watched with the girls when they got up from their naps.  They were interested for the first 8 minutes but after that the were ready for me to put something more interesting on.  I learned quite a bit. The clippers are cordless which is a feature I didn't know I would appreciate so much until grooming.  It is difficult enough getting around legs and in all the different areas without adding a cord in for extra difficulty.

Now for the haircut.  I have never quite realized how much hair Sammy has on her when she needs a haircut.  I know it is long and that she has a thick coat, but holy cow! Sadly I didn't have the foresight to have taken a before picture to show what this looked like when it was on her.  She was definitely in need of a cut.

Her face an paws still need some attention, but at the point she is at now, I am comfortable.  She was tired of me cutting her hair and had had enough.  I was proud that she made it as far as she did.

If I am being honest, I know that this is no professional grooming job, but it is much better than spending the usual amount that we do every 2 or 3 months.  Now I can cut it any time Sammy needs it.  This is going to be so great for summers!