I was welcomed in UK by some fantastic spring weather, trees in blossom all around and warm sun that allowed me to lay down barefoot in St James Park. I headed south after enjoying some days in London.
I arrived to Cornwall after a 6 hours drive, and I meet Amin O’Carroll with whom I spent a couple of days and we had a private grooming class.
We worked (and I spoke, A LOT!) over 4 hours on his BS boy Dublin and later on, after lunch and a long break we moved to do some work on Diva. The goal was to start Amin on the idea of having them on a rolling coat. I had to clarify some basic points before he believed me that ROLLING a coat didn’t mean cutting the hair. Apparently, this is a wrong concept that some people have in mind and hence they fear the idea of rolling the coat and if they do they do not get the happiest results. I also worked the legs of the minis all the way with thinning shears, and he was absolutely amazed by the idea of doing the whole with them. I said to him, I hate scissors, I’m not good with them so I had to find a way to use a scissor where I could make the less mistakes as possible, and this is what I do!
He seemed happy to have seen this ‘technique’; specially because it is a simple way to work and the results can be good and easy to achieve with a little bit of practice.
Of course, there are some concepts on HOW to build the things that are even more fundamental than whatever tools we are using to groom the dogs.
Amin told me he is pretty new in the ‘dog show world’ but he seems to know what he wants, so, good luck on the journey, Amin! And congratulations to your first litter.
After my work with Amin I went to Dartmoor where I had a 3 day workshop, this time it was me the one who had to learn.
The subject: ANIMAL SCULPTURE.
The result: A little sitting Schnauzer.
The place: Mapstone studio, Dartmoor.
The teacher: Nick Mackman.
You can see more about my sculptures at www.applerainart.com
Of course I didn’t went all the way around around in Dartmoor without having a walk in the fields and enjoying that the weather was on my side! If you are in UK and the sun shines you gotta go for it!!
The next two photographs illustrates a bit of what I saw around, you’ll find more on my FB album.
After my own studies on sculpture I went back to Cornwall to teach grooming once more, this time I had the pleasure to work with a cute Standard Schnauzer (my favorite breed) and her friendly owner, Pat Maiden.
Our goal was the same, get that coat to roll 🙂
Pat has a clear idea of how her dog must look, so we worked on some ideas about details. I share concepts and I hope that every ‘student’ would make their own conclusions and experiment as much as they can, cause in the end, there’s no dog alike, no coat alike, no groomer alike… Life would be so boring if so.
And to whoever keep saying that in England there’s only rain… here’s another sunny day 🙂
Private grooming classes can be scheduled in UK during the spring and summer 2016. Small groups can also be organized for seminars. Don’t hesitate to contact me for more info. The focus of the lessons are ROLLING COATS but in general we’ll be talking common sense ideas on how to fit the grooming to the dog you are working with. trufasnegras@yahoo.com / frailebarbara@gmail.com
Barbara.
http://www.trufasnegras.com – Kennel Website
http://www.trufasnegras.wordpress.com – Kennel Blog
http://www.applerainart.com – Dog Sculptures
