This is Barney - a one year old Miniature Poodle and a typical example of a curly haired
dog.
He's about to have a grooming makeover in the hands of a real expert.
Jitka Krizova is one of Europe's top dog groomers.
Sasha is enjoying herself.
Originally from Slovakia, she now lives and works in Britain.
She's been showing and grooming dogs for 20 years and has won an impressive array of awards.
British Groomer of the Year Award 2006, Eurogroom winner three times in a row and in 2011 she
clipped and snipped her way to the World Championships as a member of Groom Team England.
Jitka's sharing her champion tips and techniques to help you keep your dog in pristine condition.
Curly and wavy coat types require a lot of work when it comes to grooming.
Other breeds with coats like Barney's include Bichon Frise, Bedlington Terrier, Irish Water
Spaniel and Kerry Blue Terrier.
So the grooming techniques are similar.
Brushing always should be firm and gentle, because we don't want to cause dogs discomfort
and skin irritation.
Grooming is a vital part of looking after your dog.
Miniature Poodle Barney's curly hair tangles easily and has a tendency to become dry.
Using a leave in conditioner before brushing will make the job much easier.
You have to make sure when you brush the coat you go right down to the skin and remove all
the dead hair and mat.
For this type of coat a soft slicker brush is best.
Gently work from the ends out first, making sure there are no mats or small tangles.
Slicker brushes are available at any pet shops, and it's very easy to brush the coat.
The technique I'm using we call line brushing.
With your left hand you hold up all the hair and gentle part and slide with your slicker
brush.
This way you make sure you brush the coat right down to the skin.
Curly and wavy haired dogs require 15 minutes of daily brushing to keep their coats in good
condition.
We have to start when the puppy's really small, about eight-nine weeks old when it arrives
in your home.
They get used to it easily and it makes a nice bond between you and your dog.
One of the best things about this type of coat is it doesn't shed so a poodle makes
an ideal pet for anyone who's house proud or suffers from allergies.
After we finish brushing we have to comb the hair.
This way we'll make sure there are not any knots left.
If the comb stops, it means there is a knot.
Then we have to use the brush again.
If we try to pull the knot with a comb, it's quite uncomfortable and painful for the dog.
Pay special attention to your dog's ears, arm pits, legs, back end and tail because
these are the areas that tangle easily.
When you're happy you've removed all the tangles you can use a hair dryer to fluff the dogs
hair.
We're going to use a slicker brush for fluff dry, and we're using the same line brushing
like we did earlier.
When we dry the dog we have to be aware of the temperature of the air, because if the
air is too hot it can cause skin irritation and skin burn.
Next Jitka uses the clippers to trim Barney's face, feet and back end.
This is tricky so it's best left to a professional groomer.
We have to be careful with the webbing between the dog's toes, and clip carefully around.
A trimmed face is easier to keep clean, especially in the area around eyes and ears and the dog's
mouth.
Next Jitka is going to trim Barnie's legs, head and tail with scissors.
With the tail we can be quite creative in poodles.
The tail can be shaved with pom pom, it can be completely shaved, or just shaped with
longer hair.
I will take probably three quarter of an inch to match it with his legs and topknot to make
the dog look balanced.
The topknot is the hair on Barney's head.
Jitka is going to create a classic pom pom.
She carefully measures the width and height to get the shape.
The height of the top knot is roughly the same distance as from the outside corners
of Barney's eyes.
Barney's hair cut has taken Jitka two hours but it is a low maintenance style for the
owner.
The hair on Barney's legs and body has been trimmed to about an inch long which makes
it easy to look after .
For summer we can go a little bit shorter, keep the dog cooler.
For winter, we can leave the jacket a little bit longer.
Barney's only one year old and I think he was really good today and I'm very proud of
him.
I think we can see the difference, before and after.
In between grooming sessions you should brush your dog regularly, trim his nails every four
to six weeks and check his ears for infection weekly.
Ears can be a particular challenge with wavy curly haired breeds - for further advice click
on our film called Ears.