Oh, there were some very close guesses...Vic actually guessed the Kerry Blue correctly on my last post. Congrats!
I must admit, before the client sent me photos of Marshall, I had never seen such a strange looking dog before; in full show cut, that is. They do look quite different with the hair not groomed and could pass for an entirely different breed of dog altogether! This is true of so many terriers, especially if one is not familiar with the more uncommon breeds.
At today's sitting, I concentrated on the short clipped fur on the neckline "v", making sure the outline of the cut matches the standard for the breed. I am finding all this quite interesting and am learning much about the grooming for this terrier just by drawing his coat. The long flowing wavy fur above the eye is called the fall and apparently protects the eyes of the dog as it hunts for vermin. The fur around the mouth is left long, probably for the same reasoning. I am only guessing that the clipped fur around the neck is kept short to prevent debris and plant material from tangling in the fur when the dog is hunting rats, weasels and rabbits down their holes. The rest of the body fur is clipped short but not shaved....probably just long enough to protect the skin and just short enough so that any debris can be more easily removed from the coat.
