Before beginning the actual clipping of your dog, it should ALWAYS be bathed first. A dirty dog will really wreak havoc on your clipper blades and will not look as finished if clipped before bathing. You can take your dog to a professional groomer, or learn to do it yourself. It really isn’t difficult! The blade of choice depends on your dog’s coat type and you may have to experiment to see which does a better job. You will want either a #10 or a #15 blade to do the clip. We don't want the dogs shaved closely as is done with Poodles (they are clipped with either a #30 or #40 surgical blade), but neither do we want them looking like it’s been 2 weeks since they were last done. If your are planning to show your dog, you’ll find you’ll have to clip it at least every 2 weeks - the hair grows too quickly to leave any longer than that span of time between clippings. As to when to clip before a show, we all clip sometime the week of the show, but it really doesn’t matter whether you do it on Tuesday or Friday for shows that weekend. The drawing that accompanies this will help serve as a guide for the areas to be clipped and those that are to be left natural. The shaded areas are what is clipped, the rest left UNTOUCHED by clippers, scissors, etc. On the areas of the dog left unclipped, NO HAIR IS REMOVED. Everything is left completely natural. You will use either a pin brush or a slicker brush and sometimes a comb to keep the coat from matting. But it is not permissible to "neaten" the coat. One area of contention is the face. NOTHING SHOULD BE CUT AWAY. Some dogs have a tremendous amount of hair covering the face and some are more open-faced (where eyes can be clearly seen). Both are correct. What is not correct is to cut the hair above or between the eyes so that the dogs can see or to remove the hair down the center of the muzzle. CLIPPED AREAS

1. The Body: Start by approximating where the center of the dog’s body is; part the hair, brushing forward towards the head the part that will be left as the mane. The mane should extend only so that IT JUST COVERS THE LAST RIB when natural. This means that the amount of hair that is clipped will vary with the length of your dog’s coat. If it is too short, you will not clip forward on the body as much. If it is long, you will clip more off the body. The loin area and the rump are clipped. You should see a portion of the back. If you don’t, you are not clipping forward far enough. 2. The Tail: Approximately half of the tail is clipped. If you have a short-tailed dog, you will clip a little more, leaving a plume of course, but giving the illusion of a longer tail (as called for in the standard). 3. The Legs: You will want to clip the hind legs first, because the hock joint will determine the amount of furnishings to be left on BOTH rear and front legs. Draw an imaginary line from the top of the hock on the rear leg parallel with the floor, forward past the front legs. Any hair left ABOVE this line will be clipped off, on both front and rear legs. This means that the front legs will have the hair clipped off generally ABOVE the knee joint or higher. Do not use the knee in front to determine where to clip - it is determined by the hock in the back. The clipped area on the front legs generally extend upward from that imaginary line to above the elbows. ** Note that you do not angle the clip at the hock joint downward in front (as is done with Poodles. It is a straight clip across the imaginary line. 4. The Feet: All hair is clipped off the feet UP TO WHERE THE DEWCLAWS are (or where the scar is if the dewclaws have been removed), on both front and back feet. This is a good deal higher than what is done on the Poodle feet. YOU MUST CLIP THE FEET IF YOU ARE SHOWING YOUR DOG IN THE LION CLIP. If the feet are not clipped, you will be excused from the ring.

Clip the shaded areas. Leave the rest untouched by clippers, scissors, etc

Remember, we as owners and breeders should present this, our breed, as uniformly as possible to the public, whether the dog is just a family pet or a regularly campaigned show dog. The cut is a means by which people can learn to identify our Little Lions. From the Löwchen Club of America Rev. 3/95