The goal of this trim is to maintain a natural look of the coat, while accentuating the athleticism of the sporting dogs.  Most of these breeds were bred to do a job that required muscle tone and stamina. You want to show of these features. Knowing and applying proper breed profile trimming techniques will help you in creating a well balanced, stylish dog.

• To keep your dog’s coat to look natural, don’t clip the back coat unless the coat is very unruly. Instead, use simple carding and hand stripping techniques.
• When clipping, choose a longer blade length – such as a No. 7F, No. 5F, No. 4F, or even longer – to easily blend the shorter areas into the longer, natural ones.
• Transition lines need a fair amount of room to make the pattern lines invisible due to the nature of the coat and techniques used to blend the two areas.
• Carding removes soft undercoat. It can be done by pulling a number of tools through the coat, working with the grain. A No. 40 blade held between your fingers, a fine toothed stripping knife, or a lava-like pumic stone.
• Blend heavily, using a combination of top thinning and bulk thinning methods. You should not be able to see a pattern line when you are a few feet from your dog.
• Normally, the lower outline of the dog is left more natural with only minor shaping of the furnishings, unless you want the length taken off for ease of coat care.

Top Thinning

Top thinning is when the coat is trimmed from the top, removing length, leaving a very soft and natural look. The hand will bounce slightly with each cut, clearing the cut fur out of the way for the next cut allowing the stylist to watch the progress.

Bulk Thinning

Bulk thinning is done to remove bulk from an area in the coat while maintaining a very natural look with longer fur. To bulk thin an area, open the blades of your thinning shears. Insert the shear under the fur. Focus on the bulky area that needs to be smoothed down.

The smooth blade will glide along the dog’s body while the toothed blade is beveled away from the skin, eliminating the risk of cutting or pinching the dog’s skin. Make one cut then extract the shear, brushing the cut coat out with a heavy slicker brush. If the area needs more work, repeat the cut, brush process until you have achieved the look you desire.

The key to success with bulk thinning is to work slowly, constantly removing the trimmed fur as you go to monitor your progress.

How to Achieve Balance and Symmetry

Work with the overall balance of the dog to create a pleasing harmony over the different sections of the body.

• Thinning shears can be your best friend for blending and eliminating minor rough spots in your work.
• When using thinning shears for top thinning, you will bounce your hand slightly each time you close the shear. This small movement will clear the hair just enough so you don’t re-cut already trimmed fur.
• To make sure pattern lines are set at the same level from side to side, stand behind the dog once the pattern line is set and make pointer fingers with each hand. Place your index pointer finger at the pattern point on either side of the dog. Imagine an invisible line through the dog, connecting the tips of your fingers.
• When viewed from the front or rear, front and back legs should be straight falling from the widest sections of the shoulder and hip areas.