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Rose Chandless Grooming Book

Discussion in 'Show Grooming' started by HopeShelties, Feb 21, 2012.

  1. Aynesa

    Aynesa Forums Regular

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    Aug 15, 2011
    Las Vegas
    Sorry for the delay in this reply!

    I received the Rose Chandless book after a wait of far too long. However, Rose herself called me the night before it shipped to explain that they were doing a new, updated version and that it had been delayed at the printers. It's some kind of good customer service when the author calls you to explain!

    First things first, what it is not: It's not actually a book, it's more of a lengthy essay of around 30 pages, give or take. I looked back at the Rose Chandless website, and she doesn't bill it as a book, either. It's a 'guide'. This is something that the customer should be made more aware of. I was honestly expecting a book, and so what I got surprised me. This particular work came to me more as one of my students' reports, wrapped in a moderate quality document protector cover (The vinyl back with the clear top?), and looked like it had been printed at Kinko's. This presentation took me by surprise. There was no dedicated cover with art or the like. A comb or wire binding would have enhanced the presentation of this as a 'book', which when we see words like 'guide', I think we all expect. If you want a book, Sheltie Talk by Betty Jo Mckinney is far more comprehensive and complete, and 10x longer... and 5 dollars more expensive on Amazon (new). It's also not about all aspects of grooming. It includes very little (though there is some) information about how to trim/scissor the dogs for a show. However, Barb Ross' guide to sheltie grooming is by far the seminal work in that field. Both of those are significantly longer, bound professionally, and do not cost much more than this one does at 25.00.

    What it is: It IS a very comprehensive book with all sorts of tips and shortcuts for how to get a dog that is already mostly trimmed (or where you are going for the 'natural' look) from the muddy back yard to show-ring ready. It includes a list of the equipment you'll need, how to use it, and what to do when. Some parts are less helpful to me, but I can see where they would be more helpful to others, for example: how to bathe dogs. I found the last half of the essay most helpful: It included instructions on things I had never understood, like precisely how to use Colesterol, what it does, and why it's useful among other things. It also included a list of things to do that spanned three days before the show, to day of show itself. That 'how to' guide was by far the most helpful element TO ME, because I was often left with a dog on the grooming table, me staring at him saying 'why can't I get his ruff up!?" This did answer those questions and gave me a timetable which I used in preparation for the local shows, and it turned out really well! Though we didn't win, it was not because I didn't have a well groomed and good looking dog. I had a great deal of the grooming done well in advance, and would have felt comfortable for the first time having a second dog to show alone, which I do credit to this book.

    In the interest of a thorough review, there were also problems with the work. To begin, there were many, many extraneous 'clipart' illustrations which added nothing to the document but took up space. It was also clear that the work was done with little knowledge of how to utilize the tools within word, so there were strange pagination, indentations, and spacings throughout the document. These looked strange at best. There were also many spelling and grammar errors through the document, and several areas (most notably in the beginning) where the text left me with as many questions as answers. Since I had spoken to Rose before, I contacted her again and asked me if she'd like me to go over it with an editors eye (I write for a living, largely). An offer she accepted. I did my edits and sent them back a couple of months ago, with an offer of further assistance helping her use the tools within Word, but I have not heard back from her on if she intends to take the questions/edits/advice/corrections and incorporate them in a third edition or not.

    There were also areas that I felt didn't belong in a guide like this, such as how to select a show prospect puppy. She didn't go into enough detail on this, so it seemed to only take the focus away from what the work was supposed to be about: Grooming.

    I did get the DVDs, all of them, with the book, and I will say, those were exceptionally helpful, and demonstrated excellent techniques for how to show a dog in the show ring that I happily employed the next weekend of shows and raised my confidence enormously.

    So, to summarize, I think this is extremely useful as a guide for how to bathe and brush a sheltie in preparation for your entry into the AKC show ring. However, if you don't know what to expect then it will take you by surprise, and not in a good way. It is good for dog show novices who are not sure how to get their dog ready and don't always have a mentor able to take them to the shows and be with them, or for those who do have that mentor, but want a different point of view for the sake of thoroughness. It is even good for the more advanced handler that would like a list of tips and tricks that will save time, or at least saved me a great deal of time. However, I'm not sure that I agree with the pricetag on this particular work given that Barb Ross and Betty McKinney's works aren't that much more expensive.

    Hope this helps!
     
  2. Aynesa

    Aynesa Forums Regular

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    Aug 15, 2011
    Las Vegas

    Sorry, Barb, there are no actual step by step photos anywhere in this guide, nor are there really any illustrations, just the occasional clipart or a picture of brushes here and there.
     
  3. HopeShelties

    HopeShelties Forums Enthusiast

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    Dec 2, 2008
    Kentucky
    I'm somewhat disappointed to hear it. Thank you so much for the thorough review. I think I may still get it.... There is no one useful in Kentucky to mentor me, so what I do is from what I have managed to gather mostly on my own. Anything from a professionals routine on preparing a show dog could be helpful to me.
     

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