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How to wrap a show dog
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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. 
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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. 
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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. 
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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
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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. 
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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.
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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. 
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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. 
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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! 
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When you're finished, it should look like this. 
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 Thanks to my friend, Leslie Simms for this picture of her 
Ch. Tally's Figment McTavish.
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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.
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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!!!
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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. 
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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. 
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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. 
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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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