AAH! Did My puppy just join the army?

Now that Callie is four months old, we've been excited for her to join society. You know, doggie sniffing, puppy playgrounds, chasing sticks outside, rather than in the confines of our living/dining/kitchen/office room - yes that's all a single room.

In honor of her first rabies vaccine (amongst others) we decided to get our Callielicious puppster groomed. She needed it pretty bad. Havanese grow their hair pretty quickly, and while they have an overcoat and undercoat, thankfully the undercoat doesn't shed, which makes little Callie here great for families with allergy issues.

A quick look in Google returned over a dozen dog groomers in our area. Some are independent shops, others are big-box stores. After calling around, I decided on one of the big-box stores. The price was decent: around $75 for a bath and cut which includes nail trim, blow dry, brushing, and some other things.

Unfortunately, $75 wasn't going to cut it. On intake, we learned that poor Callie's last four months of being a Havanese puppy had left her fur quite matted. While her long fur was fluffy and soft, pieces of the fur were stuck together such that just a trim/cut would not look good. She would need shaved to keep her healthy. That jumped the price up to almost $100. So - lesson for my daughter...vigilant brushing!

I didn't know that animal fur has little spurs that run along the shaft of the hair. When these spurs snag on each other, it can create tangles. Brushing and combing through both the overcoat and undercoat unlatches these spurs. Tangles that aren't brushed out turn into mats. Thrown in a bunch of daily play, those tangles aren't coming out with brushing and you're left with a matted pooch.

My daughter and I shopped the store for a few minutes. My daughter pleaded for a chinchilla, a mouse, even a bearded dragon. "We just got you a puppy," I said as we grabbed a few teeth-cleaning chew toys.

It's amazing how much fur adds to the volume of our small dog. Without it, she looks like an enormous albino rat, save the cute face, which thankfully avoided the crew cut. Aawwww - that face!