Exactly a year ago today, Jaz’s breeder gave me my first few grooming instructions. The breeder had already stripped Jaz her jacket and flats at eight weeks of age, but now that Jaz was about to turn twelve weeks, the furnishings, including beard and fall had to go (at some point, all the baby hair has to go to make room for a wire coat!).
Jaz didn’t enjoy the process very much the first few times, as you can see in the “then” side of the picture below. Her ears are up, but there is some sadness in those eyes. This is why we tried to keep sessions short and ‘fun’ in the beginning (this, of course, is debatable, as I’m not sure you can call getting your hairs pulled ‘fun’ 😉 ).
But nowadays, Jaz doesn’t mind it so much. In fact, she has become accustomed to the ritual, and was somewhat surprised when I asked her to sit on the table to pose for a picture (to Jaz, the grooming table means “standing only”), which explains her goofy look on the “now” side of the picture. You can see that she has become a lady, though, because she is keeping her legs closed! 😛
Then: November 5, 2011, almost 12 weeks old. Now: November 5, 2012, a year and many grooming sessions later…