Puppy Cuts

Rio tends to morph into a little sheep around springtime. His curly grey hair makes him twice his normal size and people who see him at his fluffiest accuse me of having a fat dog. Even veterinarians. Without fail people comment on his size and begin to recommend changes in his diet, increased exercise or that I should pretty much start acting like a responsible dog owner and slim my pup down. The explanations of how fluffy his hair is or how he is actually very small when he is shaved fall on deaf ears and sound like excuses that I am making on his behalf. I have given up trying to justify his winter size. I know my little dog is a healthy underneath all his fur and I quite enjoy the way he looks when he's at his fluffiest, like a little sheep.

I got Rio when he was 8 weeks old. Back then he had soft curly black hair and dark little eyes. I could hardly tell where his nose began or ended because it blended in perfectly to the background. His whole little face was just a mix of different textures, each soft and new. I was in love with his color. I liked how deep the black of his fur was and how dark his features were. I like that everything blended together into one little face and body.

In the weeks after I got Rio I started to notice that his hair wasn't as black as before. As I looked closer and closer I noticed that his new hair was coming in white, especially around his face. WHITE! I was so disappointed. I had fallen in love with my little black dog and now he was changing to white? I hoped everyday that it wouldn't get any worse, but each day his hair got longer and more white upstaged the black.

It came time to accept that I no longer had a little dark black puppy but rather one that was grey/white/black and somewhat shaggy. I faced the facts and bought a clipper. The time had come to accept that my dog had changed colors and that I couldn't hold on to his lovely black hair any longer. Besides, Rio could care less what color he was. He was only concerned with the temperature. I noticed that he no longer liked going outside and would find the nearest spot of shade to hide under whenever he was outdoors. This made the decision crystal clear: his hair had to go.

His first hair cut revealed that I had a mostly grey dog with dark hair on his ears, around his eyes and nose, and on his tail. He looked like a mix between little panda and a koala. I started to like his new look and enjoyed how different his coloring was. With each pass of the clippers, I uncovered new shades of grey and white and I liked what I saw. Rio liked what he felt. In the course of an hour my dog had gone from a slightly morose hot being to a fresh and cool high energy mutt. I was astounded by the change in his personality. It was like I had a whole new dog. He was so much happier. When I had finished clipping his hair I set him down in the yard and he took off like a shot and started running around in what can only be described as circles of joy. He was so happy to be rid of his lovely black hair. To see him that happy made me forget about the image of the small puppy with curly dark black hair that I had fallen in love with and instead let me see my dog for what he was, a happy greyish mutt who kinda looked like a panda/koala.

Over the past few weeks, the weather has changed in Ensenada and I could see that Rio was due for his spring cut. I took advantage of a Saturday and got down to business. I set up everything in the backyard that I needed including clippers, a pink cat brush (that Rio likes), a dog slicker brush (that Rio hates) and a variety of combs. Now I just needed the dog.

At our house, Rio doesn't get to go in the backyard unless someone is with him because it's not fenced in. As a result, Rio has become obsessed with spending time in the extremely enticing off-limits backyard and eagerly awaits any excuse to be allowed to run back there. He shot out like a rocket when I opened the gate and sprinted to the backyard to smell the rocks, eat the really long grass and hack up gross green colored spit. As soon as he got to the backyard he stopped dead in his tracks and was like "Wow! What's that smell? Oh. no. Clipper oil? Oh. No. That must mean...GASP!" Before he could sneak away I grabbed him up and set him down on our outside cement sink/table and got to work.

Rio has always been a super good dog when it comes to baths and hair cuts but that doesn't stop him from using all his puppy ways to guilt me to the max. He looks at me like why in the world should such a good dog like me be subjected to this horrid cruel grooming thing? And I answer because sheep don't get to sleep inside. They sleep outside, at night, when it's dark and cold, alone. Catch my drift, buddy? Ya I thought so, now stick out your paw.

After a few hours of clipping and brushing, Rio was half his size and was looking eagerly at the ground, excited to be set down, free to run amok without his winter coat of fur. He still gets as excited about having short hair as when he was little. When I finally set him down on the ground, newly clipped, to me he looked and acted like the same little puppy I had years ago who ran around the yard in circles of joy. It probably helped that I gave him a hot dog for being a good boy.