GROOMING THE KERRY BLUE TERRIER
4
5
6
40
40
Corner of mouth
7
Hair Follicle
Short “fringe” or hair covers upper eye
15
Clip upper and inside of ear Use a 15 backwards on the neck and cheeks Clip the neck into a “V” ending at the top of the sternum Blend into legs
40
40
Brush fall forward between eyes. Lightly scissor or thin to keep it flat. Do not remove hair between eyes!
15
7
7
3/4
3/4
Entire eye is exposed
between the hind legs. The coat on the inside of the hocks is usu- ally trimmed short, but is longer on the back of the hocks, which are perpendicular to the ground (Diag. 1 & 7). The coat should be long enough so that the feet are not vis- ible; the pasterns should be straight. The coat should be rounded around the base of the front and hind feet (Diag. 8). After the coat has been clipped and trimmed, lightly mist it and scissor to even it. Put the dog on the floor, let it shake, and scissor any loose hairs or bulges. You can use a damp sponge on the fall, the body coat, and lightly down the legs. I use water mixed with a squirt of conditioner to mist and sponge the coat. There are also products that can add body to the thinner coats. Now you have a Kerry that looks like a Kerry should look! TRIMMING THE SHOW KERRY There are differences between a pet trim and a show trim. For show trims, the body and legs are scissored rather than clipped, and the coat is usually longer based on the substance of the dog, its coat type, and its size. In show trimming, a dog is initially observed both standing and moving, followed by a hands-on evaluation—usually more complete than that of a judge in the show ring. The purpose is to create an illusion of “the perfect” Kerry, both standing and mov- ing, and you must know what its virtues are as well as its faults. A good trim will accentuate the former and hide the latter. A correct dog that is balanced, with a good head and length of neck, correct tailset and carriage, body and legs, and a correct coat, is easier to trim than one with a lot of problems to cover up. Kerries are a “moderate” breed. Look at the standard; that word is used over and over. The head is an important component of Kerry type, so let’s begin there. “Long, but not exaggerated, and in good proportion to the rest of the body. Skull flat with very slight stop, moderate width between the ears, narrowing very slightly to the eyes. Fore- face full… not falling away appreciably… little apparent difference between the length of the skull and foreface… Cheeks - Clean and level…” In other words, when looking down on the top of the head, you should see a rectangle that tapers slightly from the back of the skull to the nose (Fig. 7). If the dog is cheeky, shave the cheeks with a 40, allowing some hair to fill in below the cheeks. If the dog is skully, clip the skull with a 30 or 40, allowing 4-6 days for regrowth, then blend with a thinning shear. Scissor the top of the skull, and pointing your shears forwards, lightly scissor the fall so that the entire head appears flat (Fig. 6). Avoid close clipping right before a show; that “eight ball” look will immediately draw the judge’s attention to the head. Pull the
Best to scissor front and hind legs
on the neck and scissor it to give an arched appearance to the neck, and smoothly blend it into the coat on the back. Blend the clipped underside of the neck into the sides of the neck and shoulders. The shoulders should be clipped (#5-15) so that they appear flat and blend into the neck. When looking down at the top of the dog, or from its front, the neck should gradually widen into the shoulders with no bulges; there should be straight lines from the neck down to the feet. The body can be clipped with a 1-inch, 3 3/4, 4, 5, or 7 blade, depending on the length of coat the client wants. The back should be trimmed to appear level. It should not slope either up or down towards the tail, and should not have a dip or roach in it (Diag. 7). The front of the tail can be clipped (5 or 7) or scissored. Blend the underside of the tail in with the front. The tail should be as straight as possible (the longer the tail, the more curve), high set, and taper slightly from the base to the tip, which is rounded. The tail should not resemble a finger, a dagger, or a sausage! The ribs should be almost flat, “deep rather than round,” and the coat on the brisket (chest) should be down to the elbows, fol- lowing the curve of the brisket to the loin, and curved into the coat on the front of the hind legs (Diag. 7). Use a curved shear to round the coat on the ribs into the brisket; the Kerry should not have a skirt on its sides. The brisket is moderately deep; it and the loin are not exaggerated (as in a Greyhound). Back-brush the legs and, using a 3 3/4 or 1-inch blade, lightly clip the coat below the shoulders and down the hips. Then scis- sor-finish the legs; the coat length should be longer than the body coat. When the dog is standing, facing you, there should be a space between between the front legs, approximately the width of a medium-sized male hand, that is in balance with the dog. The Kerry should not have a wide “bully” front or a narrow “two legs out of one hole” front. Trim the coat on the elbows so that they don’t stick out when the dog moves. The coat on the front legs should be rounded, with a straight line from the shoulders down to the feet. From the side, the coat on the hind legs should curve, show- ing the angulation of the rear legs (Diag. 7). There should be a “shelf ” below the tail, and the hocks should extend out behind the body when the dog is standing naturally. From the rear (Diag. 1), there should be a curve from the base of the tail down into the legs, which from the rear appears straight. There should be space
SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, MARCH 2022 | 247
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