“Practice makes perfect”. That old adage certainly applies to learning how to scissors a Bichon. While trimming, remember to continually lift the hair up and away from the body with your comb as you go along. This keeps the entire coat standing up and with practice you will be able to achieve the smooth but plush look you are after.
The hair of the Bichon’s beard, ears, and tail is always kept much longer than the rest of the coat. The actual length depends upon what you find easiest to maintain but remember that you are attempting to trim in the look of the breed.
The object in trimming the Bichon’s head is to create a continuous rounded look that encompasses the ears and beard. There is no indentation where the ears join the head. The complete circular look is one of the things that differentiate the Bichon’s look from that of the Poodle.
To have the ears lie into the circle you are attempting to create you may have to trim away a little of the hair along the neck under the ear. Remember, when cutting hair – a little at a time. You can always take more off to achieve the look you are after but you can’t put hair back if you’ve taken off too much.
• In order not to have the ear stand too far away from the head you must remove some of the hair along the neck under the ear. Facing your Bichon head on, your goal is to create a straight line from the outside of the ear on down to the foot. Begin the side trim under the ear and work down. Continue scissoring on down the shoulder.
• When you reach the foot, scissor around the leg to create a cylinder. Use the hair length on the outside of the leg as a guide for length around the entire leg. Once completed go to the other side of the dog and complete the under-ear-to-foot scissoring and rounding of the leg. If you have electric clippers, you can touch up that under-ear-to-foot line to make it straighter.
• Next step is to trim the sides of your Bichon using the shoulder length hair as a guide to length for the body. Continue right on to the root of the tail and down to the hip. Continue down the thigh and rear leg to the foot. Repeat that process on the other side of the dog. Round off thereat legs as you did the front legs.
• Lift the front foot up and scissor to round the bottom outside edges to match the cylinder effect of the leg. Repeat on the other foot. Repeat the rounding process on the rear feet. With electric clippers or scissors trim out the hair that grows between the pads of the feet.
• Head trim: Comb the hair of your Bichon’s forehead forward toward the nose. Using the straight scissors, cut a straight line parallel to the forehead so that the eyes are revealed.
• Step to the side of the head and using your curved sheers cut the head hair in a circular fashion from just above the eyes to the back of the skull.
• Return to the front of the head: comb the hair up and out and trim to smooth out the circular look viewed from the front and from the sides.
• Again using your curved sheers trim away any hairs that stand out in front of the eyes and from the top of the muzzle.
