Creative/Extreme Grooming

Dodger passed on Sept 5,2009. He will be missed by many people!

Meet my first Std Poodle, Tea L Sea's Artful Dodger C.G.C.. This picture was taken in his prime July 5, 2000. What can I say- he's a ham for the camera! Rarely in his lifetime was he in natural colour, this was the time period when I decided to show him in the show ring. Alas his heart was not in it, he was a clown in disguise! He definately prefers to be coloured! In fact he sulks if his son (Mumpitz The Joke's on You) is dyed and he isn't

ABC Grooming Center

Creative/Extreme Grooming

Creative grooming began many years ago at the All American Show, run by Jerry Schinberg. I am sure he had no idea what would happen from the first competition! It has grown into a very creative outlet for groomers indeed! While some people criticize the idea of dyeing dogs, groomers are meticulous about the dyes they use which tend to be less harsh than what people use on their own heads, most being vegetable based- the dyes that is, not the heads! In the late 80's when I first came across creative grooming it was very a secretive industry. When I acquired my first Poodle in 1997 I was determined to venture into the field. By that time the groomers were becoming much more open about how to make the colours. I have fun with my creations and have yet to replicate a creative groom- to me it is the challenge to get there and once there I have to do a different one! Enjoy the journey I have led in this very special area of grooming!

More recently there was an article by People Magazine that highlighted what they called Extreme Grooming, unfortunately this title seems to have caught on due to the polpularity of the Internet and the fact that the images that were highlighted with the article were copied and sent all over the World via email! Please keep in mind these images are all copyrighted and if you have any of the images on a website or blog to please put on photo credits to the owners of the copyright and refer back to the page at PeoplePets.com where they all came from! Not knowing where they came from in this day and age of Internet Search is not an excuse! Violation of Copyright is a very serious offense.

Creative Grooming is a fun way for groomers to get creative juices flowing! I have enjoyed creating masterpieces on my 2 boys Dodger & Jokes since the 1990's! Enjoy the one of a kind creations!

November 2006 we entered the Elmira Holiday Parade, little did we know at the time we would end up on the front page of the local paper! We had fun creating a bright colourful clown look for Dodger. For the groomers interested he has Manic Panic Electric Lizard, Midnight Blue, Ultra Violet, Pillarbox Red, Vampire Red and one other colour I cannot for the life of me remember! We did the colours seperate over several days and protected the regions with Cholestrol when we did new sections. Joker went as a pink Bunny and the dogs were a hit! We started at the fron of the parade and ended up at the very end, so many kids wanted to touch the boys and see them up close. It was a freezing day although the boys had lots of hair to protect them we couldn't get enough hot chocolate for ourselves!

Dodger Parade Day

Dodger Parade Memorial Day 2007

Memorial Day 2007 was a fun escapade. It was our 3rd parade in less than 7 months and was a challenge to get the grooms grown out from previous dyeing! But Dodger made it and showed up with his Stars & Stripes a-flying! It was so HOT and he was showing his age at the end! It was probably his last parade but he went out with flying colours! At the age of nearly 10 here he was still thrilled to be in the thick of things. However, since then he has had a stroke and rallied from it but he does not have the stmaina for walking miles to show off his colours. He has not been retired from dyeing though and we are working on a new 'Do for him to be seen at the Pet Expo at the First Arena in September 2008!

Dodger On the Table

Dodger Memorial Day 2007

What a patient old man he is! For a dog who can barely stand still for 2 minutes( people think he is the puppy of the two ) he will stand for hours to be dyed! He is coloured with Manic Panic AfterMidnight Blue and Pillarbox Red for those groomers interested in dyeing, but the colours take a little differently on his coat as he is a cream! I really loved this groom and am considering recycling parts of it in the future but i have never repeated a creative groom yet! Too much to do and I find it more challenging to create new ones rather than repeat!

Joker St Patrick's Day 2007

Imagine my surprise to be contacted by People Magazine in relation to an article they were doing on Creative Grooming. I gladly gave my experiences in an interview and provided what background I could on the art form. I was very honoured to be included in the likes of competitive groomers since I do not compete. My family got a big kick out of seeing Joker on the PeoplePets site and the funniest story in relation to this is when a friend of mine told me about an email she received from a friend that contained all these funny looking grooms and that one dog looked so familiar to her. I reminded her that it was Joker and she laughed. The next day she received a calll from her neighbour about the same email and when she told the woman that the St Patrick's Day Poodle lived right here in town the woman could not believe it. She forwarded the email to me and I got a great kick out of sending it to family and friends with the title "I am now infamous because of my dog!" Little did I know how far and wide this email had gone by this point as several people outside the USA had already received it and had no clue that that was one of my boys!! Only later when I did a web search did I realize how far this email had gone! So here is Joker in the groom St Patrick's Day 2007. If anyone has this on your site you can now add the proper copyright info for Annette Bamper/ABC Grooming Center !