Hi there! I'm Jim Zim...
This is my video about Cocker Spaniel grooming.
I knew I was going to do an intro,
so I figured I might as well do it somewhere pretty, right?
This is one of the prettiest places in my neck of the woods.
This is Pismo Beach California... about a mile from my house.
Well, let me tell you what you're gonna see
on the Cocker Spaniel grooming video.
You're gonna get a master class in how to groom a Cocker Spaniel...
but not from me, from a real pro! I'm gonna take you up to Washington state
and introduce you to my friends Gary and Eileen White.
And they are big time show-breeders of Cocker Spaniels
with many champion show dogs to their credit.
And Eileen is a professional dog groomer and she will take you through it step by step
and show you what you need to know.
But before that, we're going to have a very amateurish lesson
on Cocker Spaniel grooming... led by me! I am NOT a pro!
But what I've got going for me is
a lot of years experience on how to do a quick and easy version of grooming a Cocker.
So, I'm gonna show that to you.
And between my quick and easy version where, you know, hey!
the dog isn't gonna look absolutely fantastic at the end
but it won't have caused you much trouble
and then between that and Eileen's professional version
hopefully you can pick up some tips that you can use to groom a Cocker yourself.
I'm also gonna share with you just about the most valuable thing I've learned
in all the years that I've been with Cockers...
and that is how to prevent and treat ear infections.
Cocker Spaniels get ear infections all the time and...
it turns out that there is a easy way around that
and I'm going to share that secret with you.
Now, I moved about a mile inland from where we just were at the beach.
We're here in a quiet little corner of my back yard.
And THIS is Morgan.
A year ago we retired from Cocker Spaniel breeding
and we had had many many cockers over the years.
THIS is the one we decided to keep.
So, that should tell you that this is a pretty special dog.
Morgan gets to be the star of this segment: "The Worst Case Scenario".
to demonstrate a point.
The point is: what's the worst that can happen?
The worst thing that can happen
if you start grooming your Cocker Spaniel and you do a bad job
and things just go horribly wrong
and you end up with the goofiest looking hair cut, ever...
You can just shave all the hair off and start from scratch.
Just shave EVERYTHING down...
and eventually, with a little patience, after a few months...
it all grows back nice and pretty again.
If you look at Morgan here, I hope you would agree that she's a pretty good looking dog.
She is groomed as a pet.
She is so gonna get laughed out of the show ring, that's for sure
because she doesn't have that full long show coat...
But she's got a perfectly beautiful coat for a Cocker Spaniel pet.
But five months ago, things were a little different.
To make a point,
I shaved Morgan completely down five months ago.
Here's what she looked like 5 months ago...
That's Morgan COMPLETELY shaved down.
And now, to make the point a little further...
Here's what she looked like a month later...
One month after a shave down.
Here she is TWO months after shave down.
Here she is THREE months after her shave down... You can see the coat is growing out.
Four months after being shaved down... looking a lot better.
And so, back to our live shot... Here is Morgan five months after being shaved down.
You know, she's perfectly acceptable looking for a pet Cocker Spaniel.
You know, nobody would have any problem, I think,
with a Cocker Spaniel that looked like this as a pet.
And this is just five months after being completely shaved down.
So, what's the worst that could happen?
If you goof it up, you just shave it all off
and four or five months later you have a nice looking dog again...
and you give it another try!