First of all have the dog relaxed. Support under his head and I start on the top of her neck up here. I put my hand in some chalk to give me a grip, lift up there head to look at it and then you start pulling. Blend in down the neck. What is sticking usually wants to come out. Then from the neck, you want to emphasize where the shoulder blade is. As much as you can pull down over the front of the neck because the more shortcuts you take today will make it the work twice as hard in the future.

Be fairly relaxed while you are holding the dog so he’s not fighting you too much. This is a nice length of coat just ready to blend in for shaping the dog.

I usually have the dog this way for doing this side and then so that when your pulling the coat down away from the dog with out. So that when the next new coat comes in it will grow nicely grow in the right angle because if you were pulling it this way, the coat will grow up the way when the next coat comes through.

It helps to have it lying nice and clean so any judge when they see the dog, we’ll see where the shoulder blade goes.