Spa Day for the LGDs!!!!

Our Siberians are pretty 'self grooming'.....well....if they all lived in the house it would be a different story but since they live outside, I can be a compulsive fur plucker, plucking loose clumps of fur as I go about my daily chores and a few times a year tossing them on the grooming table for a blow or brush out.
Although they shed profusely, they don't matt up at all!

Our LGD (Livestock Guardian Dogs) Bear and more specifically Cricket are a different story!!! Cricket lived on her own on a First Nation Reserve for quite awhile before coming into rescue. She was a matted mess when they got her and came to us shaved. Since then we have done yearly shaves on her. Otherwise she turns into mess with all kinds of forest souvenirs embedded in her huge coat.
Bear's coat is much better, but he came to us sporting dreadlocks on his HUGELY long tail.

Our friend Nina owns a grooming business in Whitecourt, Alberta and very kindly offered to come out and do a Spa Day for Cricket here at the kennel!

After taking a good look at Cricks, Nina was confident that she could brush and trim her coat rather than do the dreaded shave!

And so it began.....the brushing...

(and a big shout out to Nina here.....from carrying buckets and dragging excited sled dogs around I have pretty good upper body strength. I cannot, however, pick up Cricket. Tiny little Nina not only hefted her up onto the grooming table, but later into the bathtub in our garage. WOW! She tells me it is because she picks up dogs every day at work. But still ... WOW!)

....and more brushing....

and more brushing....

....and then bathing....

(Nina says the first shampooing produced BLACK rinse water!)

.... and bathing....

(Please excuse Cricket's nose. She had a run-in with mosquitoes the other night and then rubbed it raw afterwards. We are treating it and it is healing well now.)

......and 'floofing'....

and brushing....

.....and brushing....

....and trimming and floofing...

.....and TA-DA!!!!

She looks and feels GREAT!!!!!!!

Bear spent the day closely watching all the proceedings.

When Nina offered to give him a bit of a brushing and trim to get those dreads out of his tail, he was happy for the attention.

He's starting to think the gig here at NorthWapiti is a pretty good one!

Thanks Nina for all your hard work!!!! The LGDs think you rock!!!! We agree!!!