I'm a professional dog groomer, and though my basenji's tail isn't bushy I can give you 2 different options. 1. Go to a petsmart and get a pair of Martha Stewart Thinning Shears, essentially you will just scissor repeatedly in the same spot until all the hair is uniformly trimmed, (You can use a pair of small straight or curved shears, but it would be blunt and to unnatural looking). Or 2. go to a reputable groomer, get your baby a lovely bath, and ask her to do the trimming, if the groomer wants to shave it, tell her to do it with a "3 blade" or "5/8ths blade". that would leave the hair longer and not shaved looking.
Grooming tails
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Bindi Before
Bindi After
My grooming tools
The comb is used to backcomb the tail to loosen dead hair and to better determine the thick and thin areas of the tail. I comb it back the correct way prior to starting a trim however. I know many show folks will cringe at the thought of using a battery operated trimmer but with a blade guard and a very gentle touch, I find it to be a fabulous tool to start the trim. Scissors are used for the final touches.
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<_>
No flinching here
I used thinning shears for a few years, until more than one friend said "good lord, try this…" and it looked just as good, and took about 3/4 of the time :)_ -
Nice job - I've always used thinning shears and then trimed and neatened with regular shears. Of course now with bi-focals I never seem to get the right distance and the right head tilt - and then it's hard to trim when it's waggling.
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I have always used thinning shears too… takes me about 10 minutes to do a really fat bushy tail. I have never had the best luck with trimmers... unless I used the guards.. then I still had to clean it up with scissors.
