Getting Ready

Splash Day is this Saturday!  Alfie's going to enjoy a playday with all the other GDTx puppies.  It's also the day he'll go home with another raiser for a month-long swap, so I'm trying to prepare him for it.  One thing I've learned about doodles and splash day:  long curly fur + water + sand + burs + doggie slobber = HOURS AND HOURS OF GROOMING!!!  Here's our doodle Dakota (now a working dog) at Splash Day last year.  Look at his long wet curls! 

Despite the fact that Dakota had been nicely groomed before, he took me hours...well, days, really...to get kinda-sorta back to normal.  Not wanting to get Alfie and his swap family off to a bad start, I thought I'd give him a nice short haircut to make things easier.  He accepted the clippers pretty well, and although it did take me a long time, I was able to do most of it by myself.  When we got to the tricky part around his head, I had Charissa come help me hold him, but other than that he was fine.

The super-short hair does make him look a bit scrawny I think!  Every time I clip him, I think, Now he won't look as cute and people won't stop and talk to him while he's working.  Wrong!  The very next day I was in Walmart and people were oohing and aahhhing as usual...the checker even asked me what I did to get his hair so beautiful and shiny, because (I quote!) "It's prettier than mine!"  So I give up.  Whoever Alfie gets matched to...I hope they like attention because apparently he's a head-turner in any haircut!  Silly boy!

Sorry these pictures aren't the greatest, but they're the best side views I have to give you an idea of BEFORE (coat a little more than 2" long all over)...

and AFTER (coat about 3/4" long).  I prefer it a little longer but it grows so fast that it doesn't seem worth the trouble of clipping unless you do it pretty short.

Which makes me think, this is as good a time as any to share the odd bit of trivia that Alfie actually doesn't like his picture taken -- quite unlike Dakota, who hammed it up at every opportunity.  For every decent shot I take I have to throw away 10 like this one, because he barks at the camera! 

He doesn't mind you taking a picture while he's doing something else, but being posed just seems to tax his patience.  Which reminds me, some of my friends are exactly the same way (you know who you are, hehe!)

Ah, Alfie, we'll miss you while you're gone!

I'll be back!!