Before and after

HRH had a haircut a few weeks ago. I meant to post the picture then but every day, there was something else to blog about. I've surprised myself, I've actually managed to maintain this blog, there's actually stuff to write about.

HRH gets a puppy cut, not a standard Schnauzer cut. And when she starts to look like an Ewok, she gets cut again. We used to have her shaved, much to everyone's horror, when we were novice Schnauzer parents, but now we've discovered the puppy cut and a patient groomer. Still, it means she hovers between a sleek greyhound look and a fuzzy teddy bear look.

I know some of the other Schnauzer folk, especially the show people, hate me because my Schnauzer doesn't have the Schnauzer show cut -- no eyebrows, no beard and no belly fringe. I have no real defence other than I don't much care how HRH looks, as long as she is comfortable. The beard is murder to comb out and belly fringe knots something horrible. And she's a girl, I don't really want her to look like Fu Manchu.

So why did I chose to have a Schnauzer? The simple answer is: I didn't. She chose to have me. As did the Jack Russell before her. I was ready for a dog, the dog was ready for a home, it mattered not what breed the dog was. So she arrived a Schnauzer. And she arrived at a Chinese home. I don't think it mattered to her what race we were, as it didn't matter to us what breed she is.

I know some people do a lot to further their breed. Which is fine, really. I'm just not a show person and I don't need a show dog. At best, Kennel Club standards are just something that some dead white men once put together. At worst, the breeding circuit is like someone's idea that only blonde and blue-eyeds are the only ones that should be allowed to breed and look where that idealogy led to some 60 years ago.

If you ask me, I don't think HRH cares whether she looks like a Schnauzer either. She doesn't look in the mirror much. And she doesn't seem to care how the other dogs look. A good sniff at the butt does more than a good haircut. It's all olfactory to them, they're not going to bother who does your hair.

And I don't think Schnauzers ever decided one day what they had to look like. A person made that decision, somewhere along the way, it became a Kennel Cllub standard and now they have to live with the beard and fringe, like the poodles have to live with their pouffe cuts, the poor things.

It's also like stereotyping during Racial Harmony Day in school when the Chinese show up in qipao, the Indians in saris and the Malays in baju kurong. And then the next day, everyone goes back to jeans and look like normal people again.

So my Schnauzer just doesn't wear a Schnauzer costume. This also sorts out the dog people who're in the know, the ones who can look beyond the closely cropped standard dog look to ask me if she is a Schnauzer. Yes, she's a Schnauzer. More importantly, she's all dog.