At two years old now, Tiki isn’t really a baby anymore but, nonetheless, this weekend marked her first haircut. Part Poodle, part Doberman (plus lesser amounts of Sheltie and Bulldog), Tiki has a single coat but she does have long, curly “feathers” on her back legs. We’ve been trying to keep the feathers combed out but with no luck.
To make matters worse, this is definitely tick and flea season here; living in the country, we worry a lot about bugs on the dogs not to mention burrs and things like “spear grass” working its way into that hair. Last summer, our first full summer with Tiki, we were in a terrible drought so the bug numbers were very low but this summer it is much more of a problem.
And then there’s the heat. Most days are creeping up to about 97 degrees here with more heat to come. Tiki spends her days inside in the air conditioning but, when we take her outside, we don’t want her melting in that fur coat.
We recently read an article in the FIDO Friendly blog written by a member of the Texas A&M University veterinary school, which is located just a couple of hours from here and trains almost all the vets in this area. Their conclusion: that thick hair makes your dog hot, makes it hard to spot bugs, and, although some people say the hair helps insulate and cool the dog, “This would not hold true in our climate because of the levels of humidity” according to the article.
So we decided it was time for a haircut. I stopped short of a drastic cut but, first using scissors then the clippers, trimmed the ruff around her neck and the long hair around her ears then cut the feathers from her back legs. In all, we gathered about four dustpans full of Tiki hair!
Of course, all that attention to Tiki had Irie standing in line for her haircut! Irie, though, has perfect summer hair–or perfect hair for anytime for that matter. Her hair is so short it never gets burrs, never gets a tangle. Irie has never had a bad hair day!
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