Grooming

Did you know I offer grooming as one of my wonderful services (haha)?  I do! 

I don't get a ton of people who decide they want their chin groomed, but of course, there's enough to keep it up on the website.

Just like grooming a dog, grooming a chin removes the dead hair / any mats, keeps the chin slightly cooler (due to the lack of dead hair), and lessens shedding (at least temporarily).  And it's quick!  Grooming takes maybe 5-10 minutes per chin, depending on how dense the fur is, and how much dead fur there is.

For show chins, we use several different grooming combs.  There's a whole range of widths between the "spines" and the higher the number, the more room between them.  So for example, a #4 comb would have more width between the spines than would a #2 comb.  Most breeders tend to have #'s 1-4 on combs (that's what I have), but they go as wide as 8, and as narrow as 00.  You can imagine on a 00, there's about no room between the spines.

The combs are expensive stinkers, they sell for $35 each, so a whole set is kinda pricey, so the average person thinking about grooming their pet chin probably isn't going to buy one of these, much less an entire set (and honestly, for grooming a pet, the whole set isn't necessary).  There's similar / cheaper stuff on the market for dogs, such as flea combs, which can basically be used to stand-in for a more expensive comb... but if you compare the two, side by side... they still are significantly different, and I would guess the stand-in-combs don't work as well removing the dead fur.  Though, part of it is knowing how to groom (and there are a lot of you-tube videos on this, if you're curious!), as you can really make a chin look bad, if you don't know what you're doing, and over-groom!

For the grooming I offer, a rough groom is $5, and includes the use of a #3 comb and a lint roller (a show groom is $10-15, and would include the use of more combs... but the average person has no need for such an in depth grooming).  With either groom, the entire chin (not including belly) is groomed with the comb (or combs, in the case of a show groom, starting with widest, working to narrowest), then lint rolled, and then fluffed out to end the grooming.  It's pretty quick, and the chins look better, though aren't usually thrilled about it.  And that's your lesson for today on grooming.