What is it called when you clip a Poodle’s feet, face, tail, stomach and neck the same way you would if you were putting the dog in a Dutch clip, but….the setting of the body pattern is different?
You call it a Pajama Dutch Clip.
In a Pajama Dutch Clip, there is no narrow clipped strip that runs from the base of the tail up the backbone to the neck, there is only a clipped band around the middle of the dog. The topknot comes to a point on the back of the neck, but the body hair is left longer and scissored into shape. Now some of you who know a little about Poodle clips might be wondering why this isn’t a New Yorker clip. It would be, but the clipped band is much broader, and that, we guess, deserves a more casual name. Details matter.
Just when you think that’s all there is to it, au contraire! The Pittsburg Dutch clip has a line shaved between the withers and it follows the spine. It stops at the belly band line. But wait, there’s more!
The belly band line in a Chicago Dutch Clip is cut into a V-shape, and it ends with a narrow line along the spine.
We don’t have permission to share any of the photos we found of these clips (we’ve hyperlinked where we could), and we invites (which is to say, we’re asking!) that if our readers who are groomers have personal photos of the aforementioned clips and would grant us permission to share them here (full credit!), we’d be grateful!
For now, we share the photo of a windswept Poodle by eAlisa via Adobe Stock Photos
After working as a professional groomer for decades, there seems to be no definitive terminology for pet poodle styles, which is also true for any pet grooming terminology for any breed or mixed breeds. The only styles that I would call “official” is the continental, English saddle, and puppy style as specified by the AKC. When it comes to pet grooming on a poodle, even the simplest style, such as clipping or scissoring the coat the same length all over, can be called a kennel clip by some groomers, others an all over clip,a utility clip, or even a shave down. Everybody has different terms for different styles.
Shirlee Kalstone wrote a book that has a picture and term for many many poodle styles, such as the sweetheart clip, the mink collar clip, the bolero clip, etc etc .But that was long ago, and pet poodle fashion has changed. I remember when painting poodle nails vivid colors and sparkly ear bows was also de rigueur.
I’m afraid that now we are in the “doodle” generation the highly ciffed poodle look will only be found in the show ring.