Grinch feet

[corbinam]

I think I have gotten pretty good (okay, by my standards!) at doing the dogs' front feet. The hair underneath (by the paw pads) is kept short, as are the nails. I trim the fur around their nails so you can see their paws...

BUT

Their back feet STILL look like grinch feet! The front feet look pretty nice. I am doing the method that the Illustrated Guide recommends, which is to brush up the fur and use the thinning shears to trim what "sticks up". Problem is, the cutting seems sort of arbitrary. Then, when I'm done, it still looks grinchy. I tried cutting more, and I could see the pink of their toes--too much cutting!

Any advice?

 

[Narmowen]

What I do:

After I trim the hair on the bottom (my dog is on his back, laying in front of me), I trim all around the foot with regular scissors. That usually takes care of grinch feet. Even with the nails, basically, perpendicular to the floor.

Then, the bits of hair sticking up from the top of the foot are cut right off. No thinning shears, just cut off.

So if the foot looked like this:

http://i.ehow.com/images/a05/0v/cm/groom-nails-shetland-sheepdog-sheltie-1.1-800X800.jpg

The little (or big) tufts are cut right off.

From one of our members (Geerome):

http://sheltie-hair.blogspot.com/2008/08/grooming-those-sheltie-feet.html

another helpful site:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1915654/how_to_groom_sheltie_feet_pg2.html?cat=53

 

[BarbV]

I do all of the above, but my final step is to take my ladies bikini shaver and very lightly skim over the top of the foot, and around the nails, and on the pad. This shaver is very gentle so it won't take out big chunks ($15 at Walmart)

I find that this just evens everything out wonderfully, and is very forgiving of mistakes. Perfect for those final stray hairs.

 

[BarbV]

One other thing I've noticed is the shape of the dogs foot makes a difference as well.

Bacca's foot is very round and compact, so it's easy to get that nice shape to it. Indy's has long toes and they are somewhat wider-spread, which means his feet tend to start looking "grinchier" alot faster.

 

[corbinam]

One other thing I've noticed is the shape of the dogs foot makes a difference as well.

Bacca's foot is very round and compact, so it's easy to get that nice shape to it. Indy's has long toes and they are somewhat wider-spread, which means his feet tend to start looking "grinchier" alot faster.

That makes a lot of sense! The hair on Bentley's toes just makes his toes look long. The hair around the toes is even with the end of his toe, but the hair itself just lays "long looking" down his toe-knuckle!