[gemy]

\okay some input from a novice exhibitor. It takes me about 2.5 to three hours to wash, blow dry, oil and wrap Razz's coat. The wrapping is the longest process for me, because I'm still a bit clumsy with it all. I am also a perfectionist, so I wash really throughly, and rinse like crazy, and I usually do two shampoos, and 2 creme rinses as well.

My boy came to me very very good on the grooming table. He stands, sits, or is very quiet when I clip his nails, use the clippers on his feet and ears, and of course all that blow drying and oiling. That is the breeders doing, and also his parents character as well. Ilona before I got him at 14 wks or so, was and had already bathed him x times and clipped nails, trimmed ears etc.

Okay about the dying or enhancing or whatever Pure Paws was doing with their product.

I have never used these products on Razzle or my other show dogs. But I have used spf products and washes that help to product the coat when I swim and hike with my dogs.

Are there some exhibitors who use them? I'm sure, but there is no statistical objective survey which will tell us how many.

Can a judge tell if the dog has been enhanced? Good question, but not sure of the answer. But I have had judges lift up RAzzz's coat on his legs to see just how far the tan goes up. I've had judges lift up the body coat and peer underneath. I have had judges put his coat on the back of his hand. Do you all understand why the judge did that?

I'm sure Donna Mary and Tina know. Perhaps besides what I know to be why, maybe they can tell enhancements that way IDK. Here is what I do know; Leg coat lift; the tan/gold should only extend up to the elbow/stifle. Coat on back of hand; should feel cool to the touch with a pure silk coat. The lifting up of the coat on body could be to see how much if any tummy hairs I trimmed clipped, if none I might have wanted to show a fuller coat. Also they look for the drape and sheen and return to "normal" when they let go.

Do you all know that the tan should be shaded? deeper at roots, and lighter at tips? That the quality of the blue steel is a function of how the light refracts off a true blue coat?

Now I can't endorse "cheating" at all, but I can understand, if at one time or another your Yorkie somehow got sun bleached and you just want to put the coat back to what you know she/he has.