Jon-An's Yorkshire Terriers (How I wrap a show dog)

How to wrap a show dog

First, I want to thank a wonderful friend for doing all the drawings for

me. I could never have done this article without her. She won't let me

tell you her name, in fact she made me promise not to tell, but she's

also the same one that helped me with another one of my pages. My

sincere thanks sweetie.

Ok, now we get down to some serious work here. First you'll need all

the necessary items. Wraps, rubber bands and a jacket (optional). I've

used a few different wraps over the years. My 2 favorites are the donut

papers and rice papers. The donut papers are just that. They are the

papers the donut shops use to pick up donuts and put them in your box

to take home.

I get these at Sam's Club. You can buy a whole box for just a few

dollars and they work great. Rice papers are good too and are longer

than the donut papers. I usually have to use these once my dog's in full

coat as the donut papers aren't long enough, especially on the topknot and tail.

There are many good dealers you can get them from. I get mine from

Cynthia Kage http://www.yorkie.org/dog_bows/dog_bow.html

I'm going to tell you how to fold the donut papers because they have

two sides. The rice paper only has one side so just apply the same

thing to them. One side of the donut paper is shiny and wax coated.

The other side is flat. You want to fold the paper so that the flat side

winds up on the inside and the wax side on the outside. I'm going to

show you the picture first, then tell you what I did so you'll have a

better idea of what I'm talking about.

Hold the wrap lengthways and then fold the top and bottom over 1/4 of

an inch. The donut papers have a serated edge on them that might cut

the hair. The white area is the waxed side. The shaded area is the flat

side.

Next fold the paper in half with the waxed side on the outside. This

will put all the flat side of the paper, along with the rough edges on the

inside.

Then fold the paper in three equal parts. Lay your dogs hair right in

the middle and bring one side over the hair and then the other side.

Make sure all the hair is inside the wrap (especially the bottom hair)

and then start from the bottom and fold it up toward the top. It usually

takes three folds. Once you fold it to the top, then put your rubber

band around the middle and you're done.... Well, with wrap number

one anyway!

When you're finished, it should look like this.

Thanks to my friend, Leslie Simms for this picture of her

Ch. Tally's Figment McTavish.

This is a picture of a fully wraped Yorkie. You can see where the

wraps should be placed. There's only one area you might not know

what to do with on this pictures so I'm going to tell you. The rest you

can see for yourself.

This area is the area under the tail. What I do is part it right down the

middle and pull it to the side and include it in the back leg hair. This

I do on all my girls, otherwise they soil the back wrap when they go

take care of business. On a male, you can make an extra wrap in this

area and it won't bother him.

Each Yorkie is a total individual as I'm sure you know. Some will

take to wrapping like a duck to water and some will chew the wraps

out....... HAIR AND ALL .....EKKKKK!!!!! You have to watch these

little darlings like a hawk!!!

Wraps should be checked every day for matting. It's very unusual to

find any matting inside the wrap, but right on top of the wrap is the

prime place for matts to sneak in and make a real mess. Wraps should

be checked everyday for matting. If you get a mat, which won't

happen if you rewrap every day or two, first pick it apart with your

fingers and get it as loose as possible. Then work from the bottom of

the hair toward the top with a wide tooth metal comb. Be as careful

as you can and work the mat out....GENTLY!!!

Now I have to tell you that I do very little wraping anymore. I got rid

of all my carpeting and put in ceramic tile. I also have a large patio that

my pups run on so they're not in the grass. They don't sleep with me

either until they're finished showing and are cut down. They sleep in

their crates on satin pillows. When they're finished showing, then they

get to be my bed buddies .....unless they pee on me.

What I do is band them. I use the small latex yellow rubber bands and

everywhere I would put a wrap, I use the band instead. I never pull them

out to redo them. I cut them out to save hair.

I have 3 bands down each side. You can put 4 if you want. Then there's one

band in the tail. There's two in the topknot and 2 in his whiskers, one on

each side. This is Mick when he started his show career. Now he's a

Champion and bed buddy.

Now once the coat is dragging the floor, you almost always have to wrap or

the ends get broken. Just hope you get them finished before that happens.

Good luck with your show dog and happy showing.

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