# This is NOT how to groom a TK



## Cameo (Feb 5, 2010)

Just found this on youtube and thought I'd post it here, lol.

What ever y'all do, please don't try this at home! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nen3oPnL0o


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## KPoos (Aug 29, 2009)

What's so wrong with it? It's not ideal but I've seen a lot worse topknots done by people claiming to be professionals. It wasn't that bad.


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## Aidan (Mar 4, 2009)

I don't think the dog enjoyed it either.


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## Harley_chik (Nov 7, 2008)

I'm not entirely sure why she decided to put that on youtube, but if it's her dog and she's happy w/ it, I don't see a problem. She didn't seem to pass herself off as a professional or an expert. She didn't post it on a grooming forum. It would be nice to have a critique, so we can learn, as opposed to just "don't do it that way." I found the comments on youtube catty and snobbish, but I guess she left herself open to it. 

I think that is a pretty dog btw and would love to see her fully groomed in a stylish trim.


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## Birdie (Jun 28, 2009)

OMG when she started doing that thing with her hands, like she was cutting kid's hair... I cringed. That's just... not at all how to do a topknot. I'm no pro groomer, and even I know that! Otherwise, it just seemed sloppy, certainly nothing to be showing off or posting it on Youtube, acting like it was a proper method. Considering the lack of a comb, fluffing, curved shears, and using a dirty dog... not to mention she was kept picking and bouncing around with the scissors... Okay so maybe it was really bad.  I mean, for an at home groomer, she can do it however she wants, but she shouldn't have posted the video and made it look like an example to people learning how to trim a TK, it's just all wrong. 

But seriously, where was her comb???


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## Aidan (Mar 4, 2009)

I'm very new to grooming and far from an expert but there are a few things she was doing wrong..

the main thing I noticed was the way she was holding her shears..I was always taught to hold them out in front of me slightly angled for top knots and straight in the 12 o clock position for scissoring the body, etc... 

She also seems to snip and then pull her scissors back a bit and then cut again and that can cause uneven scissoring, almost everyone does it starting out, i know i did.

I was also told to rest my thumb gently on the thumbnail in the bottom ring for control not to have it all the way in there or something but to be able to have total control of what the scissors are doing and to only use the thumb to open and close the shears, hard to explain and easier to show I think.. but im sure someone knows what i mean but i think the most important is to keep the index finger out of the ring and use it more to control the shears.

Also curved shears make a huge difference and just make it much easier..I can't imagine trying to do a topknot with straights.

I also would never want to cut on a dirty dog..for the sake of my shears and also it's difficult to get a nice even scissoring job done without a proper fluff dry.

That's just what i noticed in the short few seconds I watched...


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## Harley_chik (Nov 7, 2008)

Thank you Aidan!


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

I rofl'd when she used the undercoat rake to brush the topknot. And I see what you mean about her holding her scissors wrong, Aiden, that's not at all how I hold mine, or how any other groomer holds theirs. Though if this is how she likes her dogs topknots to be, then so be it for her.


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## Mister (Sep 10, 2008)

Too many odd things to mention lol. If shes happy with it then ok but i would never ever do a tk that way. You dont trim a dogs hair like a kids hair ha ha ha. But the end result was ok. Oh and the ears....she shaved em like it was a springer.


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

Yeah.. I'm not a fan of spaniel ears on poodles. =_=


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## Savannah (Jan 15, 2010)

KPoos said:


> What's so wrong with it? It's not ideal but I've seen a lot worse topknots done by people claiming to be professionals. It wasn't that bad.


Ack!
It isn't the finished look that was so horrendous, really it was the technique. First of all, that slicker made me cringe. Where's her comb? The dog wasn't even remotely fluffed out, and she hacked at the dog rather than using any scissoring finesse. I'm not saying it's wrong to groom your own poodle or that you have to do it any particular way; I just think that if you're going to post an instructional video, you need to know what you're doing!!!


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## KPoos (Aug 29, 2009)

Well, don't you think you sound a bit pretentious when you post someone's Youtube video and say this is how NOT to do a topknot? Sorry but a lot of people here ARE pet owners and not professional groomers and if they do any of those techniques because they either don't know any better or this is just what they do and are happy with the outcome, you come off as being very judgmental and snobbish even starting a thread like this but whatever.


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## jak (Aug 15, 2009)

KPoos said:


> Well, don't you think you sound a bit pretentious when you post someone's Youtube video and say this is how NOT to do a topknot? Sorry but a lot of people here ARE pet owners and not professional groomers and if they do any of those techniques because they either don't know any better or this is just what they do and are happy with the outcome, you come off as being very judgmental and snobbish even starting a thread like this but whatever.


Fair enough,

but as you said, there are a lot of pet owners on here, and when they are looking at trying to do their own grooming, having videos like this doesn't really help, and is kind of unfair to people learning to groom and they come across this


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## bigredpoodle (Sep 13, 2009)

The dog seemed embarassed at the end  Mine are always ooolah lah look at me ...


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## kanatadoggroomer (Jan 24, 2010)

I think I'm going to have nightmares. LOL She would have had better results with a snap-on-comb on the clippers instead of that choppy scissoring. Definitely not my way of doing a topknot, but if she's happy with it . . . .. LOL To each their own. I just hope she's not a "real" groomer.


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## Spencer (Oct 7, 2009)

I was nervous she was going to snip that poor dog's ear off the entire time. She was just snip snip snipping away!

I'm no groomer (I mean... I'm just going to take a moment to turn and look at my poor poodle) but at least I didn't hack at him like that! Well... at least not with video evidence! (Nah, I didn't, but he DOES look terrible!)

I'm not a big fan of the "big brains" top knot*, I much prefer TPFKAP's mohawk. However, I also didn't buy a poodle to have a poodle and make him not look like a poodle. I found a poodle. I think that gives me a bit more leeway to mess up his hair, lol!


*what I call it when nothing else is fluffy but the top of their head


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## ArreauStandardPoodle (Sep 1, 2009)

I have been grooming for about 38 years and I use straight scissors for everything. It is what I got used to and what I like. This lady's technique might seem a somewhat strange, but let me tell you, her finished job was a whole lot better than three grooms our Flynn got and the last few Betty-Jo and Jenny got!! Trillium and I would have been elated if their top knots had looked like this rather than what they were sent home with. And in fairness to this groomer, she didn`t have a lot to work with. The dogs face wasn`t freshly clipped, which always makes the head look better, and there was barely anything that needed to come off. I am not saying it is a great job or that she is doing it the way mlost of us would, but it isn`t awful. I have seen awful and this isn`t it.


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## Olie (Oct 10, 2009)

Thats what I was thinking...the final job was not that bad. hwell:

I was told that curved scissors are amazing and mine are still caught up in the mail :bird: and I cannot wait to get them. And that GOOD groomers can use a straight scissor all over the body with no problems. 

Me, I am NO groomer and truth be told - I have not seen any good grooming up close other than Suri (when I met her) and the pictures our groomers here share and they are wonderful!!  I truly think it's harder than people think to find a good groomer. I would not touch my dogs if I could get a few of you close to me! 

The video - I seen this one a while back and yep the woman is ruff around the edges but us people that are "home groomers" do it similar. I started laughing because I thought, yes that's me sitting on my living room floor clipping feet or the face lol! I do use my table more now because I am working on a grooming table.

Aidan's post was SUPER helpful by the way!


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## Mister (Sep 10, 2008)

I too use straights so everything including the tk....i never really use curves. Im more comfortable with straights.


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## flyingduster (Sep 6, 2009)

I often use straights as well, though I do prefer curveds, but i'm not all that worried.

Yes, the end result of the topknot looks fine, but I'd LOVE to get a comb through it (properly!), let the dog shake it up, and THEN see if it still looks ok! I can make a thick coat look good too, but fluff it back out properly and/or let the dog shake it all up and there's invariably a heap of sticky-outties, and that's when I use a comb to aid my scissoring anyway!!!!

It was a good giggle to watch the vid anyway. haha!


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## Leooonie (May 30, 2009)

I'm definately a 'pet groomer', after having just clipped harley for the first time the other day. eventually I'll get some scissors... but even I know that the technique she used was... amateur.
I would rather have my dog look topknotch, than do a quick'simple' way and look not a great


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## Olie (Oct 10, 2009)

Lol, my guess is she was also a pet groomer - I can't see a pro going on and doing that.


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## creativeparti (Mar 9, 2009)

omg that vid is so bad... that parti poo has such pretty markings on her head.. she would look better with a nice big top knot.....

fair enough that is her dog and she chose to do it but i hope she isnt charging ppl for grooms like that


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## KPoos (Aug 29, 2009)

Has anyone even considered that this person might be a member here? We don't know her name and many people lurk here so I hope she's not a member and reading all of the insulting comments regarding her grooming. At least if we are going to be constructive we could say so in a fashion that doesn't purposely hurt the person's feelings like calling them out in the open on a public forum.:doh:


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## Mercury's Mom (Dec 6, 2009)

The sad thing is, I WISH I could do a tk as well as that lady. I don't know about technique or the proper way to do it but Im to scared to even try it. I must admit she did make me nervous when she was cutting around the ears, but that may be because my biggest fear is cutting their ears or poking their eyes. 

It is very similar to the way a local groomer showed me to do a tk actually. She brushed all the hair back with a slicker brush (I think that's what the hedgehog like brushes are called anyway) and cut off anything that hung over the back of the skull, then all of it forward and cut off anything that went in front of the stop and eyes, then to one side and cut off everything that went past the top of the ear, and did the same thing on the other side. She then brushed it straight up and cut off the tips so it looked a bit like a flat top. I don't know if that's the right way to do it but it did seem to work for her. I like my tk's a bit fuller.


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## flyingduster (Sep 6, 2009)

yup, definitely the whole idea of brushing back and trimming the back, brushing forward and trimming the front, then doing both sides is the easiest way to set in a reasonable pet topknot. Though you should be using a comb, not a slicker brush or an undercoat rake... But yes, the theory is there, to make a square and then you can round it all off into a nice topknot. But the fingers thing, I only do with some breeds (ie a westie) but certainly not a poodle... And the total lack of a comb does bother me! lol.


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