[DiDi]

I'm reading so much about tear stain issues with Malteses. I want to keep the hair real short in the face near the eyes to avoid that problem. My questions is: Can I cut the hair in the face myself? I don't want to wait til he sees the the groomer, so I wanted to keep it short myself. [/B]Is that really weird of me to want to do that?

 

[NC's Mom]

I cut the hair on both of my dogs' faces. I don't like it when it gets in front of their eyes so that they can't see well or, even worse, when it gets inside their eyes. It's as easy as pie for me as my dogs are not wiggle worms. However, my friend tried to cut some hair on her Malt's face and she accidentally snipped his face and made him bleed. The dog was fine; he knew an excellent guilt trip possibility when he saw it. She was very upset for quite a while and I think that she might not ever try to cut his hair again. Then again, this is an EXTREMELY wiggly dog. So, I guess what I'd say is go for it if you have a nice, calm little dog. Use small, round-tipped scissors. Do it when your baby is completely worn out...eventually, he'll probably get so used to it that he just sits down and presents his face whenever he sees scissors (my dogs do this!).

 

[jmm]

You certainly can, you just need to trim it often so the short growing hairs don't stick in the eye. If you just want to do the hairs in the corners of the eye, small scissors with rounded ends are good for that. If you want to do a slightly more thorough job, a little pair of mustache trimmers or Wahl pockets with a 1 inch blade can be used. Or, you can let the hair grow out.

 

[MalteseJane]

I would be reluctant to do it on a wiggly dog. Thank goodness Alex stays real still when I work around his eyes. Maybe he knows it could be dangerous to move

 

[I love my PALBERT]

Ugh, Palbert is a such a wiggle worm.

And I love cutting his face short- so it's kind of a problem. I try to put him in clothing to try and get him calm. Or, having another person hold the pup while the other cuts is pretty helpful. Sometimes I think I'd be better off going to a groomer.. but you never know what he'll come back looking like!