Thin silky slow growing coat

[Draco]

So I still haven't taken Draco to get his first grooming. He's never even had a trim besides me doing his paw pads, and areas for sanitary.
I don't think home grooming is for me, but here are some pics.
Pictures 1&2 are before bath. Picture 3 is after, and the 4th is after a trim. I didn't do too awful a job did I? I only used scissors. =/ Any tips for his coat would be helpful, though I don't plan on home grooming.


He still has a lot of black in coat though silver is coming in. I didn't really know how I wanted to it just that I didn't want it much shorter just a little neater. His coat is also a little thinner from a few months ago with allergies, thou his hair isn't falling out it's still rather thin. I just ordered Halo Dream Coat, I only stopped using because I forgot to order after a repair man knocked the bottle on the floor.

Also he's not neutered yet, think that has anything to do with a thiner/slow growing coat? I'm set on March which when I got him, though he turned a year a like a week ago I like to celebrate the day he came into my life. Also I'm thinking it'll be when I finally take him to a groomers

[Miranda619]

Props for trying. I think Draco looks fantastic! I can't even do Chewie's paws because he moves too much. I'm scared I'm going to hurt him. I'm going to schedule his first grooming appointment very soon. I'm with you, grooming is not for me. The extent of my grooming is bath, blow dry, and brush.

[jadabug]

Great job! Draco is a doll and his cut really suits him. I never dreamed I would be able to groom a dog and I taught myself to do my two guys. They haven't been to a professional groomer in years. We live in a rural area and there are no good groomers. In my case I had to learn.

[Cherie6446]

I think you did a terrific job. He is really cute.

[ShowGirlLola]

Looks good, the only thing I'd do is blend the black into the tan leg hair with thinning shears if you have them.

[Draco]

Thanks guys! @ShowGirlLola thanks, that was an area I wasn't too sure about, it looked like a skirt. And I do have thinning shears!
It's funny I don't let anyone else cut my hair because I'm afraid they'll do it wrong. And I've only ever let one person ever give me a haircut after I stopped wearing my hair long in high school.
But I'm scared to cut Draco's hair myself. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And the other thing is bugging me is his color has certain parts are growing faster than the other. like his back legs and bum area grow already grown in more silver where the top layer of dark hair on his back between his shoulders ending at his thigh is the slowest hair when it comes to growing. And his chest/belly hair is the fastest growing.

[Mistymillar]

I think you did a beautiful job and he has a gorgeous coat.

[Sunnydayz]

OMG he is adorable !!!! I agree, using thinning shears would help blend the black with the tan, or you could even do it with regular shears with what's called tipping. I'm a human hair stylist lol, but tipping is when you pull that black section out between your fingers, straight out parallel with his body and you can cut two different ways. #1 you could do what is called slithering while you have it pulled out in small sections, and slide the scissors down the hair in the v part by holding the open about half way, then slide the hair down through them, this is a great blending method. #2 you could, while holding the section between your two fingers again out away from his body, and cut many small V's into the tips of the sections, when it lays back down on the body when you et each section down, it should look much more blended.

Not sure if I explained each method well, but both should work for blending the colors :-) I will search for videos showing the ethos in a while so its easier to understand lol.

[yorkiefan_]

You did a great job with Draco! And his coat is almost exactly like Cookie's after a brushing. Cookie's is thin and really silky too, and looks amazing after I brush her but she looks like hobo dog after rolling around in the yard and on the floor an hour later lol.

[CouversMom]

I always use sheers in the summer and cut my two short. That keeps their body hair all the same length and you don't get the 'skirt' look.

[ShowGirlLola]

Originally Posted by Draco

But I'm scared to cut Draco's hair myself. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

You might as well try to cut his hair, at least it's free. You can always take him to get it fixed or put clothes on him if you mess up.

What you did to Draco's hair is basically when I'm going to do to Lola's hair, except I'm going to try to blend it with thinning shears and cut her legs shorter.

Here's a good post about cutting legs
Pet Grooming: The Good, The Bad, & The Furry: Scissoring a Yorkie

[Draco]

Thanks again everyone, giving me confidence to continue cutting Draco's hair myself.

@sunnydayz
Thanks so much, the second method is actually something I used to do to my hair when I had short kinda rockerish cut and wanted layers that wouldn't look choppy. I didn't even think to apply this method for Draco.

Originally Posted by yorkiefan_

You did a great job with Draco! And his coat is almost exactly like Cookie's after a brushing. Cookie's is thin and really silky too, and looks amazing after I brush her but she looks like hobo dog after rolling around in the yard and on the floor an hour later lol.

Draco would only look nice on bath day, every day after he'd look like scraggly and like a mop 5 minutes after brushing. He was in desperate need of a trim to get rid of some of that leftover puppy coat.

Originally Posted by ShowGirlLola

What you did to Draco's hair is basically when I'm going to do to Lola's hair, except I'm going to try to blend it with thinning shears and cut her legs shorter.

Thanks a lo for that link! Bookmarked it.
I couldn't find too much about scissiors on yorkies. Most used clippers for giving the yorkie a shorter cut. So it's good to see someone using them for medium hair.
I'm currently going to let Dracos legs grow out to see if I can cut them into that layered look before cutting them short.

I also really liked some of the haircuts people posted on here I think its was called the Zooey/Joey

And I'll try to blend Draco's legs and post pics by tomorrow to show you all the outcome.

[Draco]

Okay so I thinned and tried to blend and this is the outcome. There are still some pieces of the darker coat that are a bit uneven, and even though the difference isn't huge I think it looks quite a bit better! Thanks for all the tips you all!

Also Draco is being so good at not moving around so much I'm surprised! I remember seeing the folks at petsmart through the window trying to figure out how to be delicate while also holding him to get his nails trimmed he's always been a wiggle worm.

[Sunnydayz]

Originally Posted by Draco

Okay so I thinned and tried to blend and this is the outcome. There are still some pieces of the darker coat that are a bit uneven, and even though the difference isn't huge I think it looks quite a bit better! Thanks for all the tips you all!

Also Draco is being so good at not moving around so much I'm surprised! I remember seeing the folks at petsmart through the window trying to figure out how to be delicate while also holding him to get his nails trimmed he's always been a wiggle worm.

Definitely looks much better then the straight line :-) I say for your first time, you did an excellent job. I'm actually thinking of starting to do Gizmos myself as well, because well I love his groomer, he tends to always cut the hair to short with trimmers and I'm trying to let it grow out :-( I still need the groomer for getting the hair in his ears, doing his nails. But I've even having him groomed every 2 weeks and its getting quite expensive :-) I actually think I can do a better job at the cut too, even though he's a cotton coat, which takes longer to grow, which is exactly my issue with his hair being trimmed short in a puppy cut every time :-)

[ShowGirlLola]

Draco looks great!

Originally Posted by Sunnydayz

But I've even having him groomed every 2 weeks and its getting quite expensive :-)

What are you getting done most weeks?
I'd say he only needs a bath and maybe nails that often. Assuming you brush him.

And every 4 weeks or so a sanitary cut, arm pits, ears, paws and paw pads. He might not even need that stuff quite so often, depending on how fast his hair grows.

It seems most people on a regular groom schedule get their dogs groomed every 4-6 weeks.