For Rips[but anyone can look]-English Springer

I think you have done a good job there.If he is anything like Ollie he keeps walking around when trying to brush him so trying to trim would be a nightmare.

Great job... nice pics

great pics and great sandals as well......

Thanks Luke! He's looking in great shape.

About the ears, they look pretty good to me so far. I wouldn't trim them much more than that to be honest, it's always better to under trim as I've found out over the last few months! If you over trim the ears in the Livers, the colour tends to go a funny pale colour. So I'd just do as little as necessary. Also the length down the ear is pretty good, I've always been told to only go as far as the bottom of the little flap on the outside of the ear, or one third of the way down. The end aim is to get the ears lying flat to the head in a nice sloping line from head to ear end. Bit like this:


It's a good idea to trim the hair from the underside of he ear too to help achieve this, but it also helps air circulate round the ear and prevent infections after swimming.

With the top of the head, just try and take some more of the fluff off the top of his head so that it's all smooth.

With the neck, you want to trim to about 2 finger widths above the breast bone in a sort of U/V (not meaning Ultra Violet! ) shape leading up to the ears and blending in with the rest of the shoulder hair. Again with the thinning scissors.

With the feet just tidy them up with straight scissors to look neat and round and trim a straight line up to the stopper pad on the front feet.

The hocks look pretty good to me from those photos, just try and make them a bit smoother with the thinning scissors. Also use the thinning scissors to shape the tail to be neat and round.

And then there's the Butt! That I can't help you with as Isla has a very hairy Butt for a lady and so I'm having to seek advice on that area! (Spent a lot of Crufts at the Springer ring, staring at and taking photos of their Butts! ) For now though just tidy that area up in a sort of small Diamond shape underneath the tail.

Sorry this seems to have turned into an incredibly boring grooming post! Hope that helps a bit though Luke, it also can't help to strip away some of the straggly hairs on Ralph's body/sides/flank too, if there are any!

Just out of interest how tall is he at the shoulder Luke? He perhaps lacks some depth of forechest, but then so do most Blacks (the cause believed by some to be due to Collies being behind the Blacks, but not sure of the accuracy of that one?). He does have a nice neck length and a nice sloping topline though!

What's he like on the move? Isla has great movement on profile, but does kick out slightly cow hocked which may mark her down quite a bit. But like I say, it's just a bit of fun at the end of the day.

I'm only a novice too at the mo, so I'd take my opinions with a pinch of salt though TBH!

Ah Ralph. I just love this dog xx

Thanks folks
Rips-thanks for all the grooming advice, I didn't want to go to over the top as, to me, English Springer's should be fairly natural.
I shall whip out the measuring tape tomorrow, he isn't as big as he seems in the photos.
Movement wise-he's getting sued to 'trotting', while being baited with lots of cheese (!), as he never was fond before. Its difficult, off the lead and romping through fields he moves like a dream..as a Springer should, with swiftness yet quite 'steady', yet get him on a lead and he really dislikes it..so this will take time in getting him used too.
Thanks for all the advice btw

No problem Luke. I do tend to trim on the natural side, unfortunately many Show Springers are quite severly trimmed which was never the intention really. However if you want to show him you will need to do all of the above to some extent.

I found that once Isla was trained to walk to heel she moved a lot more fluently on the lead whilst being trotted. Just something to try maybe?

Good luck and let me know how you get on, or if you need any more help/info etc.

I think he looks gorgeous!

Ralph has grown into a lovely dog Luke