hair cut or not?

[Marsha]

I have a terrier mix with wirey hair. Left on its on it grows over his eyes, a very shaggy look, much like alot of wire haired terrier types. I once had his facial hair trimmed out of his eyes. The family thought it was cuter in its unruly state. It's now growing over his eyes again. I was wondering if there's any reason other than look preference to cut it. His hair sticks out, so it doesn't just hang straight down into his eyes. In other words, it's not touching his eyes and bothering him. I don't know if it effects his sight or not. Also, if I decide to have a groomer trim it, I'm wondering what to say other than trim it out of his eyes. She could groom the fur all around his face. I see little terriers with cute cuts. Would I say I wanted a terrier cut? Is there such a thing as that?
I've posted pictures of him in the past on here both with hair all scraggly and with a neat little cut.

[Sheryl]

That's a good question about any reason other than look preference to cut the hair. Do they care if they can see really well or not? If he's been so shaggy for his whole life, is he used to it? Sailor's hair does hang in his eyes and he's always getting 'goop' (for lack of a better word) in the corners that he doesn't like when I try to pick it out. We did trim it a bit jsut so he could see better, but if I take him to a groomer I also was wondering what to call a haircut. I have heard the terms 'puppy cut' and 'kennel cut' but don't really know what they mean.

[Marsha]

He's only a year old, and he's had 1 hair cut. It was about 6 months ago, and it's just now shaggy and in his eyes again. I can't remember what I asked them to do to it. I was trying to look on-line and see if they had a word for the way Benji from the movies has his. Spanky probably looks somewhat similar to him. Any of the shaggy little terriers and even schnauzers probably have trims similar to what he had before. Spanky gets goop around his mouth fur (it's also wirey and shaggy) from eating stuff that he's not supposed to, but he's never gotten gunk in the fur around his eyes. He has gotten a tangle on the fur on his head or neck, though. I guess if he were a yorkie or schnauzer I would know that it's customary to get them trimmed, but I can't decide what to do with his shagginess.

[Lauren Frisbie]

I work in a groom shop so I'll try to help. The "puppy cut" isn't really a cut per say. However, it's the most common cut we do. Basically, we trim the visor(the hair hanging in front of his eyes, trim the hair around the head into an almost round look all around the head(like a yorkie puppy), and mostly we tip the ears(trim up all the excessively long hair on the ears). Honestly there really doen't have to be a specific "cut". The groomer who owns the shop I work in hates it when people just say "oh the puppy cut will be fine!" Well, the puppy cut can mean many different things. She absolutely adores it when people come in and say exactly what they want where they want it. Look at your dog and think about how you like it's hair to look. I personally like my silky terriers hair to get long so I can pull it up into a topknot even though silky's aren't supposed to have a topknot. If all else fails, go to Sally's Beauty, buy a $10 pair of shears and go for it. At first I was scared to cut my pup's hair, but then I said, it's just hair, it'll grow back! Now I do all of my dogs grooming myself, I learned through trial and error. One time I cut Whiskey's visor all crooked and too short, I had to wait for it to grow out before I could fix it. But who cares I still think my baby looked absolutely adorable all crooked and such. Ok, enough ranting going on here. Good luck and post pics of his hair cut, ~Lauren

[Lesly Stevens]

Well, Marsha, be aware that groomers can give you what you're not expecting, even when there's a formal well-known name for a specific clip! Arrrrgh!

A good groomer is worth his/her weight in gold, so don't think I don't appreciate their skill and all that goes into their craft! I started grooming my Standard Poodles because then I could only bit** at myself haha! For some reason every groomer I tried would use the clippers to clip over their eye, despite my telling them not to, and even showing a picture of exactly how I wanted it! They also had this thing about wanting to leave a really stupid looking round ball on the end of their tails, DESPITE my telling them to shave NO MORE THAN 2 finger widths at the base of the tail! Arrrgh! See what I mean?

So, before you go to the groomer, search on the internet for a picture of a dog whose face and head have the look you want - even if one picture has the right head clip, and another pic shows how you want the face to look. Even then you might not get what you think you're going to get! But, it's worth a try.

Good luck!

Lesly, Maddy and Bo



I have a terrier mix with wirey hair. Left on its on it grows over his eyes, a very shaggy look, much like alot of wire haired terrier types. I once had his facial hair trimmed out of his eyes. The family thought it was cuter in its unruly state. It's now growing over his eyes again. I was wondering if there's any reason other than look preference to cut it. His hair sticks out, so it doesn't just hang straight down into his eyes. In other words, it's not touching his eyes and bothering him. I don't know if it effects his sight or not. Also, if I decide to have a groomer trim it, I'm wondering what to say other than trim it out of his eyes. She could groom the fur all around his face. I see little terriers with cute cuts. Would I say I wanted a terrier cut? Is there such a thing as that?
I've posted pictures of him in the past on here both with hair all scraggly and with a neat little cut.

[Marsha]

before cut:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/marshajab/DSC00048.jpg

and after haircut:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/marshajab/spankychewing.jpg

This was his haircut before this post. He's had it cut a couple more times just around the eyes like this. Right now, it's getting to the 'shaggy' look again!!

[Sheryl]

He's a handsome guy both with the 'shag' and with the cut. I had Sailor's face trimmed at Christmas, and wasn't happy because he didn't look like the same dog. But I got used to it after a couple of days, and am now quite happy with it. It's much better for doing training when I can see his eyes.
I don't have my camera with me now.... I'll post pics when I'm back home in a couple of weeks.

[Luciann]

if you like the benji cut i would find a pic and print it out and take it to the groomer so that you can say that is how i want my dog to look...

fortunately i have short haired dogs so i don't have to worry

but i have to say that Spanky looks cute either way

[Annucia]

There may be another reason to cut hair over a dog's eyes. I remember reading in a book somewhere that when another dog approaches a dog with hair covering his eyes, it can be a bit confusing for that dog, because dogs give off signals with their eyes.

[Marsha]

I hadn't thought about that. I have read that the wirey hair might can stick in their eyes and cause irritation. I'm going to take him this week for a bath at a groomer's shop and talk to her about her opinion when I get there. She has been highly recommended, so hopefully it will be a good experience whether she cuts the hair or not. I expect that it will be. While Spanky doesn't love baths, he loves attention.