Nadi goes to the doggy beauty salon

It was a tough day for my dog Nadi. In the morning after our short walk which is short only because it is hot as the blue blazes outside and the street will melt her feet, I left her alone in the house for hours while I went bowling with a few friends to practice up for our regular Thursday session. Then when I got home she went through her usual "so happy to see me" process and I took her back outside, which she is always excited about. Her joy quickly turned to dread though when we arrived at the doggy beauty salon.

_{No! I don't wanna go!}

I don't know what it is about dogs that they can quickly identify by smell or something a place that they rarely go to, but remember that they hate it there. I suppose I can understand why Nadi would feel this way, because it is the only time that she is in an unfamiliar environment for hours at a time and I am not there. To make matters worse, she has strangers getting her wet, cutting her hair, blowdrying her, and the worst part, they cut her nails.

It was quite necessary though as her hair was getting too long and disheveled looking.

I don't have a schedule for when I decide to take her to the dog haircut shop but normally it is when I can no longer see her paws and the fluff on her face is starting to obstruct her vision. In the past I had told the shop to just cut all of her hair completely off, if for no other reason than to help her keep cool. My dog doesn't care what she looks like and if it was left up to her, she would probably never get a haircut or take another bath in her life.

This time though I found a picture online that if I were to show it to anyone who knows Nadi, perhaps even me, they would think it was her.

I gave this image to the dog salon and just told them to do that. I had my doubts that they would be capable of it, but when I went to pick her up a full 2 hours later, I think the results are spot on

In my mind this is a more sensible haircut and it manages to make her look a bit more like her breed, which is a Shih-Tzu mix as far as I can tell. I say this because I don't believe she is full-blooded since I have seen AKC registered purebreeds and their hair is softer and they are lighter animals. I don't really care if Nadi is pure-blooded or not, I love her regardless.

So now Nadi is back to her usual routine of sitting in a chair behind me, dozing off from time to time and waiting for the moment for me to get up and grab the leash so she can walk around and pee on everything as well as perhaps go and meet some human friends in the neighborhood.

This full treatment costs a mere $12 and that is just amazing to me. When I lived back in the States I never had a dog that needed haircuts but if I did I would bet that it would probably cost 5-10 times as much as this. Nadi is the first non-shedding dog that I have ever had so regular haircuts was not something that was needed until I got involved with her. I'll tell you thinks much: I would much rather go to bi-monthly haircuts than have dog hair all over my house!