# My attempt at the Miami



## 3dogs (Nov 3, 2010)

Sookster you did a great job. My only recomendation would be at least from the photos that the front poms need to come up. They should line up with the hind poms. Hind ones start at the hock, you then just draw a mental line or use a yard stick to line up the front poms. Also, a cleaner line from short to long as you mentioned on the poms. It is hard to explain but the short comes to a definite stop line. You would then brush UP the pom hair & any hair that goes above the line will be scissored in line. Do that for the paw line as well, brush the poms down & all hair that crosses over the line is scissored off straight. Then round out the Poms or I like oblong Poms like you have.


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## Rowan (May 27, 2011)

I'm not a groomer either, Sookster, but I think Sonya looks great! 

Here's a thread that illustrates how to "bevel" the bracelets. I still haven't quite mastered this technique. 

http://www.poodleforum.com/9-poodle-grooming/3856-bevels.html


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## CurlyDog (Aug 20, 2008)

Goergeous! It's nice to hear the groomers' tips. (storing away for future use)


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## Sookster (Apr 11, 2011)

Rowan, thanks for the link to that thread! That helps A LOT. Now I want to put her back on the table and try again lol.


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## Chagall's mom (Jan 9, 2010)

You did such a nice job "practicing" on your pretty silver spoo, you want to take a shot at grooming another silver, say an over-sized mini boy, into a Miami? I'm game, you're good, and he'd behave! I admire what you've done. All you at-home grooming folks may help me work my nerve up yet. For now, it's still off to the groomer's we go. Sonya looks really pretty, and she's working it, too!


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## Sookster (Apr 11, 2011)

You can do it! I promise, if I can, anyone can. I must say I had years of practice grooming show cattle, which is actually REMARKABLY similar to grooming poodles. They even have very similar hair textures (the coarser the coat, the better in poodles or moo cows). So I at least knew how to operate a set of clippers. But there is no scissoring in cattle grooming. Everything is tweaked and shaped by hand with clippers (tedious work). I did a few grooming competitions back in my cattle showing days. 

And speaking of practice... I'm getting lots of practice now with all these new poodle pups I have volunteered to groom. Though I'm sure Chagall would behave MUCH better than these puppies! I was very close to doing this cut on Nova... but didn't get up the nerve. Sonya totally rocks it, but I don't think poms really suit Nova. So she just got a very short lamb clip. I have horrible blisters on my scissor holding fingers from scissoring Nova's leg hair... she had SO much of it.


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

Yes, as 3dogs said the poms do need to be up just a bit higher. When I went to a grooming seminar on show spoos hosted by Chris Bailey of Jaset Poodles, she said to take the back pom to the joint and have it as a slight downward angle going inside. Then she measured with a comb the height from the table to the top of the pom, then shaved the front poms just a tiny bit higher to have more room to work with.

I've read that it's good to even have the front poms slightly higher, this gives the illusion of walking up hill (more elegant looking), where as poms that are smaller in the front make the dog look like it's walking down hill.

Here's Vienna when I had her in the miami, her poms needed some major scissoring lol










You can even see on her front poms where I was unsatisfied with the position, and you can see a small ring of where I was beginning to grow them out higher.


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## Sookster (Apr 11, 2011)

Vienna's poms look so nice! I see what you mean about having them up slightly higher. Sonya's definitely need to come up some. And her tail is shaved WAY too far up. The last time she was groomed by someone other than me, they shaved it almost all the way to the tip and just left a tiny tip of hair on the end. I'm working on getting growing it back out to where it needs to be.


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## buttercup123 (Oct 7, 2010)

She looks really good! 
You did a great job on her top knot, I know at the salon I worked at years ago one of the professional groomers could even do that. 

I do notice the one front pom seems to have a little sticking out at the back (her left I think) and the right one isnt as high as the left one.

Her tail also needs to be rounded more at the end.
Other then that she looks great!


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## sandooch (Jan 20, 2011)

Hey, did you see the Miami I did on Gigi a couple months back??? Trust me...you're a professional groomer compared me.


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## Anntig (Jun 9, 2010)

You've done a wonderful job and I agree with everything 3dogs said just bring the line up a bit on the front and they'll look great. the tips in F.Ds thread really do work well too.


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

Oh man! I hate when groomers do the Dr. Seuss tails! I don't shave very much at all at the base of tails, Vienna's tail was pretty bad when I got her, not only was she recovering from a complete shave down, but the tail was half on half off. It took me a long time to fix it.

The day I got her, I hate that thunder thigh look with the town and country clip, and that's way too much shaved on her tail for my preference..









And I groomed her the day after, I softened the lines, and you can see the preferred place I began on her tail after









The old groomer also shaved her neck, and I like my topknots to come down to pretty much the shoulders and create a crest, so we grew that out too. Everyone has their own styles.. I just like mine more defined. 

Some months later, a little improvement (Your girls dock is longer, which I'm jealous of, so you can make a beautiful pom with hers when it grows out)









And this is just a few days ago, there's actually A LOT of hair on her tail, but it's normally squashed to her body (hence the urine staining on the bottom) so the hair's all flat on it. I do love poofy tails though!









SORRY I DIDN'T MEAN TO HIJACK YOUR THREAD!


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