Our little fur ball

If we could use dog hair for weaves and wigs I do believe a Zuchon, Shichon, Bichon-Shih Tzu mix...JAX would be there to donate or sell his hair.  I don't think was not aware that dogs hair could GROW at the rate this puppy's hair does.  Thankfully it does not shed.  I grew up with dogs that shed all over the house, the furniture, the floors, my clothes...I'm not built for managing such a task as hair all over my house.  But I am also, I have found, not built for maintaining Jax's flowing locks at the rate the groomers charge!!

Jax came home in December, we had him groomed because he just smelled like dogs - I know dogs smell like dogs, but it was like he needed a fresh start. Plus, he smelled like not just Jax, but probably all that was in the pet store kennel with him. Come January we could hardly see Jax's eyes and his "potty path" was like an overgrown forest so poop would get stuck in his fur. Non-negotiable. I'm a clean kinda girl, as in, I don't want to see random nasties on my kids or my puppy! So he went in again for a full grooming, not just the puppy package, and he was a fluffy, fresh, nasties-free puppy again.  Two weeks later we couldn't see his eyes or his friggin' "potty path" either! WHAT!?!? So that was $45 for early January and $20 for mid-January.

Time out.

I decided when I picked up our fresh and fluffy Jax that THIS was NOT gonna work! So I looked into pet grooming tools I could get at home and at what price. How hard could it be to keep the hair out of his eyes and the poop flowing freely on the right path?! And for $20 to $40 I could do that whenever it was needed! SCORE! Heck, my daughter Jay nor I get our hair done for $25 a month, let alone $65!!! Be real! I knew for a fact that our puppy surely wasn't taking that kind of money out of the house!

So the little clipper set I found at Walmart has worked out beautifully! I have yet to master the back end trimming - Jax understandably would rather I didn't take a buzzing tool to his butt! And I feel the same way...I'd rather not have to do it! Plus he flaps his tail down over it when I'm back there, understandably, and I don't want to hurt him. So many times I'm sure it could use a good trim, but if he's clean after a potty session, I'm happy! Being nervous when trimming his face had to cease pretty quickly or I will surely hurt him. That's when I have to be in charge, have someone help hold him still and I get after it. Done and done, and it doesn't cost us $20 for the little clean up!

The next task will be learning to bathe our Jax. For some reason that really makes me anxious. Not for some reason, for these reasons: What if we don't get him good and clean, what if we leave product on his skin making him itchy, how on earth will we dry him? When he goes outside to play in the snow, or just potty for that matter, he comes in with balls of snow firmly frozen into his fur. That alone takes a good 10 minutes with the regular blow dryer to dry! What will a full-on wet puppy dog require?!?!? We may have to splurge on baths til winter's end...at least in the summer he can air dry outside...right? Man, I have a lot to learn.