Thursday, April 22, 2010

How to Shave a Great Pyrenees

Some of you may remember my Great Pyrenees Samson. He was a great dog and BIG and white with long, silky hair.

The breed is a favorite in my family, and a few years ago I drove my Grandma to Hutchinson to get a couple of puppies. One was for my aunt in Oklahoma and the other my Grandma kept. She named her Dutchess and although she was supposed to be purebred, she looks a little different from Samson.

Her coat is much, much thicker, with big, black spots. She doesn't shed well like he did and my 88 year-old Grandmother can't take care of her coat like it needs, so I set out this spring to shave her.

This ought to be interesting....

I had my horse clippers with the largest blade I could buy, a couple of cans of blade coolant, some showsheen for the knots, her brush, a leadrope to hang onto her with and lots of plastic bags for the hair.

I was out there for over three hours! Dutchess was such a good "little" puppy!

And when we finished, she didn't look very good, but she certainly acted like she felt much better.

I actually thought she looked a little like a clipped Olde English Sheepdog :)

I wonder if I could make a living shearing large farmdogs? Well, on second thought, I think I'll just stick to clipping my horses!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My great pyrenees has almost the exact same coat colorings! Only one other pup in her litter had the colorings (came from dad) but she was said to be purebred. The only miz I have found these markings is in is a newfoundland-pyrenees cross, but I've also read that because they had to breed black in to get the dark rims on eyes and mouth, that it may just be a recessive trait, and that breeders often historically put down or spayed pups with these markings (the mask, the freckes, and the black and white two-tone) Do you know anything about the markings?