The bath can prove to be
an important part of the Papillon grooming and can many times assist in
helping to give your dog that extra little finished look. Using a good
quality dog shampoo & conditioner is highly recommended. We look for
a shampoo that will clean but not coat the hair shaft, does not over
bubble, rinses out easily and puts a nice soft bright sparkle to the
coat. Occasionally if the hair is appearing a bit limp we would suggest
using a clarifying shampoo to wash any excess build up of oils &
dirt from the coat. Over clarifying can sometimes cause the hair to dry
out and possibly break off so overuse is not recommended. There are a
number of bluing shampoos on the market and there are just as many
methods to using a bluing product. The biggest tip we can give when
using a Bluing shampoo is CAUTION! Over bluing, letting the blue sit on
the coat or weekly bluing, can soak into the hair shaft and give your
pretty white Pap the most lovely of lavender hues. There is no worse
feeling than arriving ringside in a fluorescent lighted building to find
out you have over blued your dog. We seldom use bluing products and will
only use them when a dog’s coat looks very yellow and only after we
have tried a clarifying and regular shampoo first.
The next step in the
bathing process is use of a conditioner. A conditioner should help
soften
& nourish the coat plus reduce static. A good quality
conditioner is important. We use a light conditioner that is lanolin
free. Lanolin on the Papillon coat will eventually build up, cause a
limp heavy look and sometimes give the coat a yellow dingy cast. Take
special care to rinse and rinse again the fringe on the dog’s ears.
Over conditioning will make the fringe clump and look oily. One of the
biggest errors in bathing a dog is not totally rinsing the shampoo out
of the coat. Lack of proper rinsing will cause the coat lay lifeless on
the body and sometimes have a slightly oily texture. This is the reason
why we look for a low sudsing and easy rinsing shampoo. Another common
error in bathing the dog is not reading & following the directions
on the product label. Most quality shampoos and conditioners require a
ratio mixture of so many parts product to so many parts water. Making
eyeball judgments or pouring straight from a bottle can cause a variety
of different results from a limp coat and oily spots to a lack of
cleansing.
Along with every pre show
bath, a good blow-drying is a must. A variety of blow dryers from stand
dryers to hand held dryers are available. Dryers can cost hundreds of
dollars or fewer than twenty dollars. At home we use a stand-heated
dryer that give us hands free ease and use. If a stand dryer is out of
your price range, pick a hand held dryer with a couple of heat settings.
We do not recommend cage drying when preparing the dog to be shown.
Proper blow drying of your Papillon is a vital key to the overall
finished look of the dog. A Papillon coat should be abundant, soft,
silky, long & flowing. It is not a double coat and is not supposed
to take on the puffy appearance of a double coat or stand up on end.
When drying, always dry the body coat down in a line brushing style. The
air of the dryer most often should be blowing in the direction the coat
lays. Back brushing or brushing against the grain can cause the hair to
look puffy, curl backward or be somewhat unruly. Take special care when
drying your Papillons ear fringe. When drying the ear fringe we usually
start with the dryer blowing on the back of the dogs ear and by brushing
from the inner side of the ear near the base going towards the outside
of the ear. In this area we do not brush against the grain of the hair
but brush in the same direction the hair flows. After the back of the
ear is dry we turn the dog or move the dryer to the front of the ear and
dry any portions of the hair on the front side of the ear that may still
be damp. Sometimes the short hair on the top of the ear may appear to
clump together and give the impression that the ear is pointed.
Occasionally we hear that some groomers will lightly trim this area.
Trimming the ear in our opinion is a great big No No and will cause the
groomer to continue to
need to trim the ear in the future. Many times
the short hair is in a growth stage that will be grown completely out in
a few months. Instead of taking this drastic scissors measure we prefer
to do the following. Take the ear leather in your hands and lightly
separate the short hairs with our fingers or soft brush. The dryer
should be on a low setting. Separating should be accomplished by going
against the grain or brushing the short hair in the direction of the
other ear, away from the potential point. By just taking a few extra
moments in the drying time you can prevent that pointy eared looked. The
application of moose, spraying bodifiers, or applying oil products can
change the overall soft texture of the coat. The most important key to
blow-drying is making sure the dog is dry all over. That includes not
only on top of the coat but near the skin. If the coat is not
sufficiently dry it can take on a wavy appearance.

After the drying the
coat, it is time to start trimming. We usually begin with the feet. The
front and rear feet should be trimmed to make the foot have a clean
appearance and give the look of a hare foot. A hare foot resembles the
foot of a rabbit. The foot should not be overtrimmed and should have a
tuft or bit of hair coming to a point in the front of the foot. If this
little bit of hair is missing, the dog will have what amounts to a cat
foot. A cat foot is completely trimmed all around the outside of the
foot, with no extra hair protruding from the front of the foot or toes.
Trimming the whiskers on
show Papillons has always been debated among some breeders. We find that
dogs with wider muzzles look more refined with the whiskers off. A
cleaner look is also gained with the removal of the whiskers, but this
grooming should be a personal decision. Use
sharp scissors and have a
bit of time to spend on this type of grooming. Some exhibitors even use
small electric or battery powered clippers to remove excess whiskers on
an around the face. If you choose the clipper method make sure that you
do not trim to close to the muzzle. Trimming to close can give your dog
a snippy look. Papillon whiskers are moveable and you will need to look
in different directions to make sure you have removed them all. There
are also stray whiskers that come out under the jaw and around the head
of the dog that need to be trimmed short. If you decide to remove the
whiskers also remove the long eyebrow whiskers that grow out over the
eyes.
We like to clean up the
hair around the anus of a show dog. In fact we do this with all of our
dogs. Trimming up around the anus does not mean we scissor around the
tail set similar to a Pom. Do not over trim! Just a couple of simple
snips of the long wispy pieces of hair that grow around the anus &
the pigmented portions of the anus gives a cleaner look and also
prevents any remnants of feces from sticking to the coat. Use special
care when scissoring around the anus as a wrong snip could really upset
you and your dog.
The last grooming tip is
trimming and cleaning up the look of the hock on the rear leg. The hock
is the area up the rear leg to the stifle joint or knee. On many
Papillons the hair on the rear or back of the hock gets fuzzy, long or
very thick. This extra hair should be removed so the hock does not give
the impression of heavy bone. Papillons should not have a heavy boned
look, as they are a refined breed of dog. The extra hair should be
combed outward from the hock and trimmed within a ½ inch of the hock,
following the contour of that portion of the leg. The next step is
thinning this leftover hair closer to the back of the hock. This step
requires the use of thinning shears. Use the shears to take off extra
hair without making the back of the hock seemed scissored. The thinning
shears cut only some of the hair with each snip, but special care must
be used to always have the teeth side of the shears away from the dog.
This method gives a more natural appearance. It takes a bit of time to
take off just the right amount of hair and patience and practice are
important. The best thing to do is practice on a non-showing dog. This
way if you do make a mistake, and we all do, no harm is done.
The tools needed to trim
your Papillon are very important. This is one area where quality does
count very much. A good pair of scissors and thinning shears will go a
long way to improve the final look of your show Papillon. The basic
tools are a sharp pair of scissors, a good quality pair of thinning
shears, a fine steel comb and of course a pin brush. These are grooming
tools that anyone showing Papillons should have on hand. A hand
stripper, dremel tool and electric or battery-powered clippers can also
be helpful in show grooming. We use two pair of scissors, a small 5-inch
pair for
fine close cutting, as in doing the pads on the feet, and a 7
1/2-inch pair for more general use. You can get away with just the small
scissors to perform all of the show grooming. Thinning shears come in
various varieties. They have different numbers of teeth that take more
or less hair off with each closure of the shears. You may want to borrow
different ones to experiment with to see how much hair is removed and
which type you find more comfortable to use. A good steel comb is used
to brush out and pull out the hair away from the foot or leg. A small
slicker brush can also be used the same way. Take care and spend the
extra money for a quality pin brush that has flexible pins that will not
cause unwanted coat lost. As you can imagine it does help to train your
dog to sit still while grooming is performed. All of this grooming and
trimming is easier if the dog is under control. Most small dogs are not
thrilled to have their feet held and messed with, so the best advice is
to train your puppies at a young age to sit still for all sorts of
grooming.
Good grooming is only one
facet of a show Papillon. Included in the winning package, the dog must
conform to the breed standard with overall breed type, structural
soundness, an outgoing happy butterfly like temperament, proper texture
& sufficiently coat. Another plus is good ring presentation. Good
luck in your show grooming and we hope some of these tips and practices
are useful and helpful. There is nothing prettier than a lovely
butterfly in the ring.
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