Saturday, December 15, 2007

Kirby: To Trim or Not to Trim?

It's holiday time and most folks around here are talking about trimming their Christmas trees. In our home, the conversation has instead turned to trimming Kirby.

Since Kirby is of diverse breed lineage, the sky's the limit when it comes to options for proper hairstyle. To date, the extent of his trimming has been toenail clipping and cutting his eyebrows so he can see out from under them.

For me, it's been a matter of curiosity -- while his back and legs are wiry, his cheeks, neck and ears are covered with longer, softer hair. As a pup, he looked more wiry because his facial hair was shorter. But over the past year we've been watching this softer hair grow and grow and grow. Now he's looking a bit like a Yorkie mix.

There's a part of me that wants to just leave things as they are to see just how long the hair will grow. The extra hair on his ears makes them look a bit floppier and it fills out his face nicely. On the other hand, as my husband pointed out the other day, Kirby was pretty darned cute when his facial hair was a bit shorter.

So I'm putting it out there -- as we contemplate whether to trim up the little guy for the holidays, should we take a little off the ears, cheeks and neck or should we just let his long-haired genes express themselves unfettered?

Visual aids - of course, he'll never look like a puppy, but you get the idea:

Long/adult:






Medium/older puppy:

















Short/puppy:






3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like it kind of long, but a trim so he can see would be good. Paco's hair is kind of long on his face but it doesn't seem to grow. I was surprised at the difference since he was a pup. we hope he is doing well with his treatment. Looking forward to seeing new pics of him. Lots of dog kisses from Paco & Nemo

Cyn said...

I would experiment and give his face a trim, after all it will soon grow again. I always give my rough Griffons a good trim in the summer and keep their eyes and ears trimmed in the winter. I also trim their feet because the hair makes their feet look huge. I think

Cyn said...

I would experiment and give his face a trim, after all it will soon grow again. I always give my rough Griffons a good trim in the summer and keep their eyes and ears trimmed in the winter. I also trim their feet because the hair makes their feet look huge. I wouldn't trim off his beard though.