GROOMING THE KERRY BLUE TERRIER
7 on top of skull or scissor flat
8
7 or scissor front of tail
7 40
15
Use 3/4 or scissor. Blend neck into body
Blend into legs and body. Scissor legs
7
4
3/4
Feet should not be visible and pasterns straight
Trim around bottom of foot while dog is standing
4
5-7
Show angulation on hind legs
Blend shoulder into neck, legs, and body
3/4
case with the long-legged Kerry. The coat on the top of the neck gradually lengthens as the neck joins the withers, and is blended into the body. If the dog has an arched neck, well-laid-back shoul- ders, and a short body, the coat does not have to be overly long. With a short neck, the coat gradually lengthens over the withers into “the middle of the back,” which gives the illusion of a longer neck and shorter body. An arch can be created by clipping an exag- gerated arch on the side of the neck and trimming the coat on the top of the neck (Fig. 5 and Diag. 7). The shoulders should be flat. Looking down at the dog, there should be a straight line from the top of the neck, which gradually widens; there should be a straight line from the shoulders to the front legs to the ground. For a heavy, bulging shoulder, scissor or clipper the shoulder flat, being careful to fill in with coat where the neck meets the shoulder. The shoulders blend into the back, which should be “short, strong, and straight (level)..." The back does not include the loin, which is that area from the end of the ribs to the point of the hip (ilium). The back plus the loin equals the body. Too many call a dog “long-backed” when the length is in its loin; the dog should more correctly be termed “long- bodied.” Body length is measured from the point of the shoulder to the “pin bone” (ischium) of the hip, which is below the tail and forms the “shelf.” TRIMMING THE BODY AND LEGS Trim the coat so that the body appears straight and level from where the shoulders blend into the back to the tail. If the tail is low-set, leave more coat on the front of it, blending the coat into the croup; the area from the ilium to the tail. Hold the dog’s tail up and blend in the coat; you should not see any puffiness or bulges, nor should you when the tail is relaxed. If the dog does not have a level topline, or if the back is roached or arched over the loins, you will have to trim the coat shorter over the roach, leaving it longer on either side of it. The body coat should make the dog appear “well covered but tidy.” The length should be sufficient that the texture is obvious, but not so long that it flops around when the dog moves. If the dog is tall and/or well-muscled, the coat can be shorter, while a smaller or more refined dog can carry more coat to give the illusion of more substance or size. The coat on the body should be blended into that on the ribs (“deep rather than round”); take more coat off a fat dog or one with barrel ribs, and blend the coat into the brisket. If the dog’s brisket reaches the elbows (it may not in puppies, immature dogs, and some adults), trim the coat shorter; if it doesn’t, leave the coat longer down to the elbows and between the front legs to give the illusion of a deep chest. Taper and blend the coat gradually into the loin. The Kerry should not appear “wasp-waisted” or have an exag- gerated drop in chest with a high-curved loin as in a Greyhound. From above, there should be only a slight indentation over the loin. The Kerry’s body should not resemble a sausage!
Round coat on ribs into chest. No skirt!
Blend into legs and body. Scissor legs
Hocks low and perpendicular to the ground
7
whiskers out from each side and trim off the coat that is flaring out from the muzzle. You can also use thinning shears to reduce the volume of coat if the dog has thick furnishings. Scissor a line from the corner of the eye to the corner of the lip. Lightly scissor the coat under the eye, so when you look down on the head you will not see a bulge or an indentation below the eye. Clip under the jaw to the lip (right around that little hair follicle). If the dog has a short muzzle, you can clip a little further forward than that. Taper the beard so that it increases gradually in length and tapers to a point. For a short-headed dog, long face furnishings that extend out from the nose will make the overall appearance of the head look longer. But a huge clump of untapered beard can make the head look short. The face furnishings should be in balance with the head and the rest of the dog. Avoid the “billy goat” look. From the side, the head should also appear rectangular, with the beard tapering gradually to the end of the whiskers. The ears should be “...carried forward close to the cheeks with the top of the folded ear slightly above the level of the skull.” If the ears appear too low, the coat on top of the skull can be closely scissored. The tips of the ears and part of the leather should touch the side of the skull right above the corner of the eye. If the ears are too high (“flying”), leaving coat on the underside of the flaps could give the illusion that the tips are touching the skull. Trim closely around the edges of the ears, particularly if they are large. Eyes: “Dark, small, not prominent...” Trim from the outside corner of the eye, tapering so that the coat gets longer as it reaches the inside corner. This will make a large or round eye look small- er, and the coat over the eye will make a light eye appear darker. (Diag. 6). The Neck and Sternum (Fig. 8): The neck is "Clean and mod- erately long, gradually widening to the shoulders..." It should have a definite arch. Using a 15, clip from the underside of the jaw down the underside of the neck, and from the base of the ear down to— or just above—the tip of the sternum. If the dog has a long, clean neck, clip down to the sternum. A short neck can also be clipped that far down, unless the dog is ewe-necked and has a bulge above the sternum. In that case, clip down to approximately the middle of the bulge, and gradually taper the coat so that the neck appears straight from the head down to the toes. Even though the legs are naturally under the body, we fill in with coat to give an illusion of a straight line (the “straight terrier front”), even though the sternum slightly protrudes. Some trimmers are now showing the prominent sternum, with the forelegs slightly under the body, which is the
248 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, MARCH 2022
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