Learning how to shape the eyebrows on commonly groomed pets, such as Scottish Terriers and Schnauzers, took a lot of practice. I'm pretty proud of how these breeds look when they trot out of my grooming studio, and many customers comment on how much they like how I groom these breeds. But sometimes, it pays to get a little creative.
Here is an example. Molly is an adorable little silver miniature Schnauzer. She's a curvy girl, fond of her treats, and it shows. Her humans like her trimmed in a traditional pattern but with very short furnishings. I'd been grooming her for a long time when they said, "We really like how she looks, but her eyebrows grow so fast that we can't see her eyes between visits. Can you do something different?"
My groomer ego had a little temper tantrum. Something different? Didn't they appreciate that I groomed her brows so nicely? After my ego simmered down a little, I could give Molly a good, hard look and think about what I might do to make her people happy. I looked at the dog's chubby cheeks. I took in her shorter-than-average furnishings. And it occurred to me that this dog would look utterly adorable if I changed up her brows. I could shorten them considerably and give them a non-traditional shape—more of a soft, abbreviated curve that would frame her eyes whimsically than the typical sharp-edge brow.
After Molly's bath, I put a little mousse on her brows and combed it through the fur. When I dried her, I covered her eyes with one hand and fluffed the brows up, not down towards her nose like I usually do when creating a traditional look. Once she was clean and dry and her clipper work done, I used a fine-toothed comb to fluff her brows upwards. Next, I trimmed her brows relatively short. I shaped them so they were standing up and curved like a squatty little upside-down "U." I finished edges with thinning shears to give a soft edge rather than a sharp one. When I stood back to examine the results, I saw that Molly's entire expression had changed. The short, rounded eyebrows gave her a whimsical expression. Her bright eyes were very clearly visible, and the curved outline went well with her round cheeks and body. At pick-up, her people were delighted with her mini makeover, and they requested that I repeat it on the next visit. "We could see her eyes the whole six weeks!"
It is great to know how to properly set the pattern on a breed trim, but it is also nice to be able to think outside the box and modify a groom to suit a particular dog or owner's request.
