Call him Mr. McDivot

If I were still showing Cooper in the conformation ring, I’d have collapsed on the floor and cried. As it is, I can’t bear to take a picture of what happened.

I had just finished cleaning and oiling my clipper blades, getting ready to give Cooper a trim. I wanted him to look nice for next weekend’s Rally Obedience trial in Salem.

I’d gotten out the grooming table, my combs and brushes, and my scissors. Cooper surprised me by jumping up on the grooming table, so after giving him a piece of homemade chicken jerky, I grabbed the clipper and started to work on his back, just over his shoulders. After a few moments, I thought to myself, “Wow. That blade is much sharper than I remembered.”

And right after that, I thought, “OMG!” and dropped the clipper.

Wrong blade. The blade I use the most, the one that cuts a nice 3/4″ length isn’t the sharpest blade. The sharp blade I actually had on my clipper was a #10. That one cuts about 1/4″. Maybe. If I’m lucky.

Normally I use that blade to clip his muzzle. And too late, I realized that it was the one that was still on my clipper when I finished cleaning and oiling them all. So here is my beautiful Pretty Boy with three clipper-blade-wide, 4″-long divots of really short coat over his whithers.

Well, there’s nothing to do for it except keep clipping him. Not with the #10. It’s still too cold around here for that. I switched to my 3/4″ blade, and clipped against the grain of the coat on his back. That leaves the coat at about 5/8″. Still a lot longer than 1/4″, but I hoped that the 5/8″ cut would make a slightly less obvious contrast with the #10 blade than a 3/4″ cut would.

Wishful thinking and denial combined, but it kept me going. And if I do say so myself, I did a really nice job on his legs — usually the hardest part for me.

But about his back? It’ll just have to grow out so I can clip it again. Hopefully with the right blade.

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Train first, THEN bathe

Saturday evening we had guests coming, so Saturday morning I got busy brushing and combing the dogs. It always takes a while. Tooey gets mats behind her ears and between her toes, and Cooper’s coat collects a sample of every bit of vegetation he wanders through.

So by the time our guests arrived, the dogs were relatively neat, and our guests were mostly charmed. (Perhaps they got a little tired of Cooper’s frequent offers of a soggy tennis ball, and Tooey did her stand-offish bit for a while…)

Then Sunday morning, after our guests went off for the day, and it being an absolutely and uncharacteristically beautiful, warm, and dry October day, we decided to go field training.

Tooey bringing Russ the bumper after a 100 yard retrieve

Russ being very pleased with Tooey’s 100 yard retrieve through 2 foot cover

We had a lot of fun. We always do. We did walking singles and lining drills, and both dogs did pretty well.

The dogs also collected hundreds and hundreds, nay thousands, of seeds. The field was covered with 1 to 3 foot grass cover, all of it ripe and waiting for some force to come along and help distribute the seeds. My dogs were happy to be that force.

And distribute the seeds they did. I could have planted an entire meadow with the seeds my dogs collected, even with the dogs’ short field cuts. I pulled seeds out from between their toes, from under the eyelids (thank you Rod for your advice about checking the eyelids), and from around the ears (though none got into the ears, thank you Martyn for your advice on ear grooming).

Brushing didn’t get all the seeds out, so both dogs went into the bath, which got out a lot more of seeds, and then got blown dry, which got out almost all the rest of them.

So, I guess I could have (should have) waited until Sunday to do all that brushing and combing. The dogs probably would have liked that better. But the extra brushing didn’t hurt. And they’re clean now. For at least a while.

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Sportdog haircut

I gave up trying to comb the mats out of Tooey’s legs and ears. So I just cut her coat off short.

I used a 3/4″ blade everywhere except her topknot and her front legs. Even the ears. Tooey was very patient. I’d like to think she’s more comfortable now, but who knows. I’m pretty sure she’s not unhappy. She still wags her tail at me and, suspecting she’ll be rewarded with liver, still happily hops up on the grooming table.

This cut worked out great for our Sunday training session. Tooey didn’t bring back nearly the amount of twigs and debris that Cooper caught up in his coat.

The reason for this is that Cooper (in the background) is wearing the Irish Water Spaniel show dog cut. Not that I’m going to show him any time soon. And I like the short cut on Cooper, too. It’s just that he’s just recently gone through this amazing bout of shedding. At his last bath, handfuls of coat came off. I’m afraid that if I cut his coat down, he’ll end up being naked.

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Mats on the ears, knots in the toes

That’s what you get when you don’t comb out your Irish Water Spaniel for two weeks: mats and knots.

Especially if that Irish Water Spaniel is Tooey.

Cooper, now, he’s easy. For whatever reason, his coat is not thick. That has its down sides, like not being thick enough to protect the skin between the pads of his feet. But one of the up sides is that he’s easy to comb out.

In his grooming session earlier this week, he was so easy and fast to comb out that I had it done one morning before I went to work. I found one measly little mat between a couple of toes on his front feet. So small that I could work it out with my fingers.

Tooey, the sweet darling, is another story.

Her coat is so thick that if I don’t keep up with her grooming — if I don’t comb her out completely every week — then I pay. And so does she. I end up having to spend at least an hour, or more, combing, brushing, or cutting out the mats and knots, and she has to put up with it. And neither one of us likes it much at all.

Her last brush-out and bath was the day we got home from our last hunting trip. That morning, she’d rolled delightedly in something not visible. It wasn’t poop, but it probably was urine of some kind. Stinky, musky, pervasive, and she loved it.

So without even letting her out of the car, I quickly unpacked the car, whisked her to you-bathe-it place, and got her clean. That was 15 days ago.

I spend the intervening time procrastinating. I should have known I would pay.

So last evening, I spent a good 1-1/2 hours working with the detangling spray, slicker brush, pin brush, poodle comb, and regular comb, working out all the knots and debris.

She had knots behind each ear, more between her front toes, and one or two in each arm pit.

She kind of likes getting her ears brushed and combed. That spot in the back of her head, where the ear is attached to the skull — that’s one of her favorite places to get scratched. So the combing probably feels good to her.

But her feet and armpits? Brushing, and combing especially, appear to be torture. I spray the detangler liberally on those spots, brush it through, and then go on to less sensitive areas while waiting for it to do its job.

But eventually, I have to get the knots out between the toes. That is a battle. At the least pull on a mat, she starts trying her best to get her feet away from me. If I can’t get the mat out quickly, I usually resort quickly to scissoring them out. She’s not a show dog anymore, so it’s okay if the coat on her feet looks slightly misshapen for awhile.

The underarms are almost worse. Last night, I laid her on her side on the grooming table, and had Russ feed her treats while I combed her armpits as gently as I could. When I got all the knots out, I clipped the fur under there with the hope that this will cut down on future mats.

But really, the only cure is to brush her once a week. No excuses. No procrastination. I know better — I just need to follow my own advice. And we’ll both be happier.

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3rd autumn pheasant hunt, day 1

Ending score? 14 pheasants flushed, 3 pheasant shot at, 1 pheasant hit, and 3 apples retrieved to hand.

The dogs flushed up 14 pheasants. About half of those were roosters (you can’t shoot hens). The gunners shot at 3, and hit one. That one fell like a lead weight, right into the middle of some very dense, thorny bushes.

All four dogs and all four people searched, but none of us ever found anything resembling a bird. The dogs didn’t find the bird or its scent, and the people didn’t see any feathers or other evidence that a pheasant had ever been shot, much less fallen to earth.

Tooey, Rio, Cooper, and Kasen

But fortunately, the scenery and the weather at Lower Goose Lakes were absolutely beautiful. Mid-40′s, blue skies with wispy white clouds, just a bit of wind, fractured basalt cliffs, glittering blue lakes, the scent of mint and sagebrush. Perfect for hiking.

Rio, Tooey, Kasen, Cooper, Rod, Renae, and Russ

Oh, I guess we're going that way

Rio did get one scent that really excited him. He dived into some heavy cover to grab his favorite — apples. He loves apples. It was sort of funny that Rio retrieved apples on a bird hunting trip. But all of us were happy to take a break to enjoy their juicy sweetness. All you have to do is wipe off the bird doo-doo, get out the pocket knife, and cut slices for everyone. Even Cooper took a slice when he saw all the other dogs enjoying them.

Cooper and Tooey, surveying the terrain

Cooper has not yet had his hunting “lightbulb” moment this year. We really need to get him out somewhere, like a game preserve, where we can arrange for birds to be planted in identified locations. That way, we can direct Cooper to those birds so that when he flushes one, he can associate the excitement of the flush and retrieve with the birds’ scent and typical hiding places. Today, he mostly wanted to stay close to Russ, or to come find me. He’s birdy, though, so I know that with more experience, it’ll come.

I was very pleased with Tooey. We haven’t taken her out hunting before, so she doesn’t have a clue about what she’s supposed to be doing out there. But she clearly enjoyed herself. She checked in with us often, but she was also pretty adventurous, searching the rocks and bushes for whatever was out there.

And the water… Tooey loves to swim — she’ll swim just for the unadulterated joy of it. And the Lower Goose Lakes area is filled with, you guessed it, lakes. Little lakes, strung like beads along desert canyons.

string of lakes

more lakes

Whenever we couldn’t see Tooey, all we had to do was listen for the sound of splashing and paddling. If we heard that, we knew Tooey was swimming again. And loving every minute of it, even in the cold water on a cold November day.

And then, after all the day’s fun, the not-so-fun. The plants in the field provide cover for birds and are wonderful to the nose. But they also festoon the dogs with seeds, twigs, seeds, thorns, and more seeds. And every single bit has to be picked or brushed out. Especially, I’m told, the cheatgrass seeds. For some reason, cheat grass seeds love to hide between dog toes, and in the ears, eyes, and mouth. They can even work their way through the skin into body cavities such as lungs and abdomen and cause serious infections as they move though and get lodged in body tissues. Nasty.

So before dinner, before changing clothes, before even a glass of Scotch, out come the combs and brushes.

Trice brushing out the seeds and debris after a day of hunting

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Pre-show summer portrait

The last time I wrote about Cooper’s grooming, I was very much enjoying his new short field cut. It was March, and I was looking forward to months of less debris and less grooming time. Not to mention improving Coop’s ability to see.

Well, now we’re getting ready for Cooper’s (probably) last conformation show in about 3 weeks. So we’ve been growing his coat out, with the idea of sculpting it back into dog-show condition.

It’s not sculpted yet though. Take a look:

For the show, we’ll probably clip his muzzle to get rid of the muttonchops. And we’ll shape the topknot. The ears, though, are the interesting issue. The ear fur seems to have grown a lot slower than the topknot fur, so it’s unlikely that they’ll be grown out to their full length to the show.

Which is OK. Part of me is sorely tempted to give him a modified field cut. He’s a hunting dog, after all, and I’d like people to see him in all his hunting-dog style. But I don’t know just yet.

And fortunately, I don’t have to decide right now.

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Cooper’s new hairdo

I was so enamored when I saw the pictures of Cooper’s sisters, Darcy and Tosca. I just loved the way that Louise and Pepi have trimmed their topknots and ears. So easy to maintain. So practical for a field dog.

Darcy, photo by Louise Bailey

Tosca, photo © Pepi Barrington

So, I wanted to try it on Cooper. Colleen once again agreed to help me out. Actually, she did most all of the work. And I think it turned out pretty darn good.

Cooper with new hairdo

When I got home from Colleen’s, I asked Russ what he thought of it. Diplomat that he is, Russ just said, “Well, you’re the one who grooms him.”

Okay, I get it. Not Russ’s favorite. And I have to admit it was a shock looking at him for the first several days. It’s really different from how he looked for his birthday photo. But it’s growing on me. It’s really growing on me.

And the real test will be next Sunday, when he’s out hunting for pheasant and chukar. I’m betting it will be much easier to get out all the debris and mats out of the new ‘do. I’ll let you know what I find out.

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It’s official: Now we can get out the clippers

It’s really true. Cooper’s a champion. And this week, we got the two pictures that tell the tale.

Cooper, Best of Winners and New Champion, Rose City Classic 2011
photo by Steven Ross

proof from the AKC website

Now that it’s official that Cooper got his championship, I don’t have to maintain a show coat any more, at all, ever. Unless I want to. Which is unlikely. If you listen hard enough, I’m sure you can hear me cheering.

After the next bath, we’ll get out the clippers and the scissors and give him a nice short field clip. I’ll leave a little on the topknot and some on the ears, just so he looks like an Irish Water Spaniel.

Let’s hope the new hairdo will put Cooper in mind to succeed during this 2011 hunt test season.

Go Team Cooper!

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He asked to see her eyes

Tooey has been with Butch at Parkdale Kennels for (a long) 2.5 months now, and I think he must have been feeding her — she grew out so much coat!

(Also, as a side note, I really know he’s been feeding her because she’s fat. I understand that problem completely. Too bad I don’t have a kennel manager who can simply cut back my ration of kibbles.)

The night before we took her to Parkdale, we gave Tooey a very close field clip, leaving her beard and enough coat on her ears and topknot so that she looked like an Irish Water Spaniel. Last time we were there, a couple of weeks ago, I could see that cut had grown out. A lot.

So this morning, I arrived at the kennel early, armed with clippers, scissors, a comb, and a slicker brush. Boy, did she need a trim. I wanted to make sure that she wouldn’t get knots in behind her ears and in her armpits any more easily than necessary, and Butch wanted to be able to see her eyes.

Tooey didn’t particularly want to be brushed or combed or clipped. She hasn’t been on a grooming table all this time except to get brushed out before her monthly bath. She is completely out of the habit of being calm on the table, getting combed, brushed, combed, brushed, and trimmed. Pretty much, she wanted to look at me and lick my face. That was sweet for the first few minutes, and then totally not helpful.

I had only an hour before the training session started. Russ helped by holding her in place, and by brushing while I was clipping. We were pretty rushed at the end, so I don’t have any pictures of her with her new ‘do. She looks OK — about 3/4″ long all over her legs and body. Following Renae’s advice, I also shaved off most of Tooey’s beard.

And I cut the topknot must shorter, especially around her face, so Butch can see her eyes. He said he knows what the dog is thinking and whether she’s paying attention by looking in the eyes. I believe it. Glad I could help.

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Portrait session with Cooper

This week, Cooper has been getting ready for his 3rd appearance at the Rose City Classic dog show here in Portland, Oregon. He is one win away from his AKC Championship, providing that his final win is a major competition.

So several times this week, he has been going from field training in the driving rain and mud, to the dog wash and grooming station. In order to document his clean coat and show cut, I took him into the studio for a portrait session. Afterward, of course, we stopped off for another training session on the way home and one more bath before he hits the ring tomorrow.

He is such a good dog to work with as a model, I thought that I would set up a small video camera and just record a typical photo shoot with the Coop.

Here is a sample of one of the photos that Cooper and I made together (we are a team).

If he wins a major this weekend, then this coat will get trimmed way down so he can just be a hunting dog. If this actually happens, Patrice will be making a significant blog post, as it has been over 3 years of going to dog shows, gradually accumulating enough points for this final milestone.

And if he doesn’t pull it off this weekend, then the coat stays and we look for some more dog shows — majors only. Stay tuned.

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the beauty queen gets ready for duck camp

Tomorrow is almost here. It’s a day I’ve been waiting for, for months. The day before which I really, really wanted to get Tooey’s show championship.

Tomorrow is the day Tooey leaves for three months to work with Butch Higgins of Parkdale Kennels. He will teach her the finer points of heeling and sitting politely at heel, fetching up a bumper or duck (or whatever she’s been directed to fetch), and holding it in her mouth until directed to give it to the handler.

She’ll also learn to watch for ducks or bumpers to fall out of the sky and retrieve them, to go out to find bumpers or ducks that she hasn’t seen fall, and myriad other tasks required for hunting retrievers.

In thinking about Tooey’s sojourn at “duck camp,” I long ago decided that Tooey’s show coat had to come off beforehand. Tooey’s show coat is too long, much thicker than Cooper’s, and velcro-like in the presence of burrs, brambles, stickers, seeds, twigs, thorns, and other botanical debris. Trying to maintain a long, flowing show coat in the field is a time consuming pain in the butt.

Thankfully, Tooey got her show championship a couple of weekends ago, and yesterday her breeder got to see her in all her show glory. So today, finally, there was no longer any reason to keep the show coat on.

This evening, the show coat came off. Tooey now has a short, very comfy, easier-to-care-for ‘do. Cooper approves completely.

Cooper observing, Tooey getting trimmed

And besides, concentrating on the the trimming has so far kept me from feeling sad. From realizing just how much I’m going to miss Tooey while she’s gone.

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musings from the 1-point club

Three stories from this weekend at the Gig Harbor Kennel Club show in Shelton, Washington (told in reverse chronological order). It’s true: Good things can happen at dog shows.

“Did something just happen?” the judge asked

In the dog show ring today were two 14-point bitches and one other bitch that has a couple of points. This show was worth 1 point, and if one of those 14-point bitches won, that bitch would have the 15 points needed to “finish.” In other words, get her Champion title.

And indeed, after showing outside, in the rain, on slippery grass, one of the 14-point bitches won it. Kassie, the older one, the one who has been trying for many, many months to get that one last point, took her finishing point.

We three handlers erupted into cheers, smiles, pats on the back, and hurrahs. The judge, perhaps not very accustomed to losers being so happy, asked, “Did something just happen?” We all chimed in at once, “She just finished!” The judge smiled, and gesturing at the pouring rain, said, “Well, this is the perfect weather for finishing an Irish Water Spaniel. Congratulations.”

What was also strange is that this morning, when I woke up, I knew Kassie was going to win. I could see the judge giving Jill, Kassie’s handler, the ribbon. I tried very hard and several times to re-visualize this, to see myself running effortlessly around the ring, Tooey floating along side me, and the judge pointing at Tooey for the win. But no matter how many times I tried this, the vision always ended with Kassie getting the nod.

So, when Kassie actually did get it, I wasn’t particularly shocked. And I was happy — I have wanted this for Jill for awhile. Of course, I was disappointed that Tooey didn’t win — I would love to be finished.

But I can hold two contradictory ideas in my head at one time. And, as I have been told many times, Tooey’s championship will come.

Falling asleep holding “hands”

Tooey and I spent Saturday night on one of Jill’s very comfortable guest beds. Out in the country, where Jill lives, there is almost no light at night, and it’s very quiet. Both of us were ready for sleep. Showing in the dog show ring, getting groomed (again!), and running around playing ball with the other dogs had tired Tooey out. I was simply tired from having gotten up at 5:30 a.m. to prepare us both for the ring, and knew I’d be getting up the next morning at 5:30 again to do it all over again.

We were both lying on our sides, bellies facing each other, when Tooey pawed gently me a couple of times. I reached out to pet her and tell her good night, when she simply placed her paw in my hand. I laid my hand down on the bed, and her paw stayed cradled in my palm. I could feel the heat and the roughness of her pads. We feel asleep like that, paw in hand.

If this had been a movie, and my sleeping partner a human instead of a dog, it would have been one of those romantic “awww…” moments. As it was, it was simply sweet. It’ll be a memory I carry with me a long time.

Now a member of the 1-point club

The Gig Harbor Kennel Club dog show, like many weekend-long dog shows, is actually two shows. Tooey had gotten her 13th point just a week prior, at the Wenatchee show, and I had a chance to finish her this weekend if Tooey could win both shows.

The past week has been hell. I was stressed, I really wanted to finish, and none of the people who frequently help me groom were available. I’m not a great groomer, but I remembered Colleen telling me (to my shock) that it’s not unusual for person who’s going to show an Irish Water Spaniel to do a little grooming every night before a show. That gives the groomer the chance to see the effect after the dog has moved around and the fur has fallen into place.

So that’s what I did. I put poor Tooey up on the table for an hour every night last week. Each time, I asked Russ to help me see where it was uneven, or not matching from side to side, or too long, or the wrong shape, or … He’s not a groomer, either, but he’s got an artistic eye, and he’s watched some great IWS groomers do their stuff many times over. He caught a lot of areas that needed work, and I appreciate it.

Finally, about an hour before I had to leave to get to Jill’s house, where I was staying the night before the show, I just had to stop. I decided that Tooey looked good enough to show without my being humiliated.

And then the gods smiled on me. When I did get to Jill’s house, I found that Jayme, the groomer who has worked on both Cooper and Tooey in the past, was also staying at Jill’s house. And yes, she said she’d take a look at Tooey.

So up on the table Tooey went. Jayme studied her for a few minutes, and then looked up, and said, “You did this?” I nodded. Hard to know where a question phrased this way is coming from.

Jayme walked around the table and surveyed Tooey a bit more. Finally, she said, “You did a great job.” I let out a breath.

And truthfully, Jayme didn’t do a lot more. She took off some more fur along the belly, where I hadn’t been brave enough with my scissors, she shaped a bit around the back of the back legs, and touched up some uneven spots on the front legs. But basically, she told me that I could have easily taken Tooey into the ring without her help.

“Wouldn’t it be funny,” Jayme asked, “if you finally got good at this just as you were finishing Tooey?”

Yeah. Funny.

Oh, and we did get the point on Saturday, bringing Tooey up to 14 points. Now she needs just 1 point, making her a member of the “1-Point Club.”

May Tooey’s membership be very short.

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Pretty girl gets a chest

I have been so blessed with a bevy of friends who are wonderul Irish Water Spaniel groomers: (in alphabetical order) Colleen, Jayme, Rebecca, and Tammy. Each one does a lovely job, and each one has a slightly different esthetic.

I have my own ideas, too, but I can’t bring them into reality like these ladies.

Tooey and I are going to yet another dog show this weekend, and I realized that one of the things I wanted this time was slightly more fullness on her chest. Tooey doesn’t really have much of a chest*, but a good groomer can sometimes create the illusion of one. So Colleen is magicking a chest on Tooey with comb and scissors.

As we saw a couple of weeks ago, grooming isn’t the most important factor in winning a dog show. But it doesn’t hurt, either.

* Later in the evening, after I’d published this post, Colleen called me to say that I should add “yet” as in “Tooey doesn’t really have a chest yet.” Tooey’s only 19 months old, and could still develop a chest. She has broadened somewhat already, so it’s possible. Only the proverbial time will tell.

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Tooey gets prettied up for the show

The 2010 Seattle Kennel Club show is coming up this weekend. Last night I got Tooey all brushed and bathed, and tonight, Colleen came over to help trim Tooey’s mass of raggedy fur into shape. We start by getting the topknot and ears out of the way of the scissors by tucking them up into a snood.

Tooey in her sparkly snood

Tooey gets pretty while Cooper sympathizes

I was going to start out this blog entry by saying that “the show is next weekend, so it’s time to start getting ready.” I will admit that such was my actual thought process. These thoughts reveal me to be an amateur.

If I’m going to be serious about this dog show stuff with an Irish Water Spaniel, I have to get with the program. Had I been following said program, I would have started the grooming process weeks and weeks ago.

Here’s the minimum weekly regime that I should have been following:

1. brush out thoroughly: first with a rake (wide-toothed comb) in the direction of the fur growth and then with a slicker brush
2. bathe
3. rake again, this time through wet fur in the direction of fur growth
4. brush wet fur with a pin brush
5. air dry (use this time to brush teeth, clean ears, and clip nails)
6. trim off of all the little pieces of dry fur that are sticking out with scissors
7. many times over the next 24 hours, lightly mist Tooey’s back with water and scrunch it in
8. repeat process the next week

I have been told this by several people now — all people who have gotten championships on their dogs. I would suppose that they know what they’re talking about, darn it. And we do need to get ready for the 2010 Irish Water Spaniel Club of America National Specialty, which occurs at the end of April.

Guess I’d better get started as soon as I get home from the Seattle show.

Sigh…

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My first words: OMG!

I walked back into the grooming area at the Portland Expo Center, where the Rose City Classic dog shows are being held, to pick up Tooey. When I got to Stacy’s grooming space and saw Tooey, the first words out of my mouth were, “Oh, my God!” (“Thank you SO much” came later.)

I really, really wish I had taken a picture of Tooey before I dropped her off with Stacy last evening, so I could show you the transformation. She went from looking like a raggedy Muppet to a sculpted paragon of IWS beauty.

Rosemary reminds me that winning in a dog show takes more than a beautifully groomed coat. I know that’s true. A dog also needs structure and movement and attitude. I know that.

But, wow. Tooey looks like a fairy-godmothered show princess. Let’s hope she also moves and behaves like one in the breed ring tomorrow and Saturday.

And I should add: Let’s hope I remember to breathe and don’t fall all over myself while escorting Tooey around the ring.

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