The NFC B-Day Chat Thread

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Blooie said:
Actually those “stupid show cuts” served a purpose back in the day. Poodles were bred as retrievers, and many could do that job yet today. Because of the coat texture, the early fanciers realized that it could easily be shaped for maximum effectiveness and protection in water retrieves. The big, fluffy areas left in varying configurations around the torso and head were believed to have protected the brain, lungs and heart from cold water. The Pom-poms on the feet and legs aided in moving efficiently through water, much as flippers aid a swimmer in gliding through water with less effort than bare feet, but leaving all of that leg coat on would act as “drag”, slowing them down and tiring them. They have webbed feet as well, and because they had strong toes to help them grip wet rocks, they were left bare to take advantage of that. A lot of coat left on those feet would have made them slick, and fur left between the toes would have hampered that gripping ability.

Maintaining the standard puppy cut at home is very simple and serves them very well into old age. You just have to pay special attention to areas that tend to mat and keep those areas combed out regularly. Food gets dried in the coat around the muzzle, and on the ends of the ears. And as they scratch their ears and the area under them, they tangle the longer hairs there. Matting areas are pretty much the same with most dogs- even short haired dogs get them under and behind the ears.

@sharron, if Bella has fungal skin, you need anti-fungal treatment. Antibiotics don’t do a thing for fungus except treat any secondary infections. The thing with her feet could be from anxiety as easily as allergies. When they get stressed, they sometimes react by nervous licking and biting at themslves. They also will do this if they’re bored. Those spots get irritated, stay damp, and then they lick and bite at them even more in response. Lick granulomas can be notoriously difficult to cure, in part because the licking has become a habit that doesn’t stop when the spot(s) are cleared. I had to retire a Flatcoat from the ring because of a bad area on her back leg. It was just so chronic that no amount of grooming could resolve it. Hers started when she injured an eye while hunting. She couldn’t reach the irritated spot with the bandages on, so she transferred that to an area on her back leg. By the time the vet removed the bandages, the lick granuloma was well established. <sigh>

And watch a dog that can’t react well to change. New environment, an new animal or even a new family member, and his territory or pack order is disrupted. So he will often pick a spot in the house, and when he’s stressed he’ll go to that spot and start licking, usually his legs, feet or belly.

Oh, and we’re home!! ;) I’ll keep catching up - I probably shouldn’t have started by going backwards through the posts.
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Huh, that’s very interesting. I think I actually had read that but I hadn’t known about the leg puffs being like little flippers or the amazing rock gripping abilities, super cool. I figured the leg and hip puffs were to protect joints since the organs were protected but maybe both. And it’s funny you should mention more fur increasing drag because I remember when I was reading it I thought “Why wouldn’t they just leave all the fur on? Seems it would provide more protection.” But your answer makes sense.

And yeah, behind the ears definitely seems to get matted a lot. Even on my indoor cat she seems to get little knots back there. Whenever she gets mats, it’s always behind the ears, under the chin, on her stomach/underbelly, or on her butt fluff aha but she doesn’t get matted anymore since we started keeping her inside exclusively but she used to go out and get the pine sap all in her fur and get so many mats if we didn’t catch it right away.

And what’s the difference between puppy cut and some of the other full body cuts? Is there one called a sport cut or something like that? I seem to remember liking that one. But when I just Googled, I found a few charts with about a million different cuts with the tiniest little variations and it’s so confusing.

What cut would you consider this? I know it’s a little bit hard to see in the videos but this seems to be a fairly common one? Or maybe a slightly longer version of this. And I like this one and this type of one is somewhat what I was envisioning.



CapricornFarm said:
Everyone does that because of time it takes to clip or scissor dogs of varying sizes and hair type. Different styles cost more depending on complexity and how much dematting has to be done. I used to be a professional dog groomer.
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That makes sense! Although wouldn't it be easier to go by weight and/or fur length?

N F C said:
You said 'no lectures' so I won't. You have to be exhausted B, with all the travel and activities on top of what seems to me your usual busy days. Just take care of yourself as best you can :hugs

(And I hope you get the Charlie Brown tree out, the story behind it and the memories it evokes seems me to be one of the most heart-warming parts of Christmas.)
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And I think I may have had that bells thing once. Maybe not but one time many years ago my one upper lip just like stopped working. Like I would smile and it wouldn’t go up with the other side of my face. I never told anybody or did anything about it because I never knew Bells Palsy was a thing and also kinda thought it was nothing or that that was just how it was gonna be now. Figured, oh well. Or actually worried I may have had a stroke or something for a moment but then figured I would’ve known if I did. I don’t really remember what happened. I guess it finally did go away on it’s own but it was like that for a while and my lip is still occasionally numb.
 
N F C said:
We love grits :lol: A while back, DH cooked breakfast for his maintenance crew and included grits in the food line up. Got a very mixed bag of reactions. Most of them had never eaten them before and had no idea what they were.:gig
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I LOVE grits, but you can't buy them in Canada. Denny's serves them, but nobody here knows how to cook them properly.
 

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