I'm a poodle lover. I can put up with their neurotic behavior and weird quirks because 1- if they had a voice box, they'd probably be more eloquent than me and 2 - they don't shed or smell! love that!
But something needs to be said - The Continental Trim is ridiculous. In fact, I think it gives poodles a bad name. I mean when you see a poodle in a lazy lamb/puppy cut - UGH! YOU NEED TO SMOOSH AND CUDDLE AND KISS!
This one......leaves me with questions.

However, there is no denying that this is the king of show trims. So when Jay and Sue said they wanted to start a show trim line, we knew which video would be or first. I figured that I would stifle my
giggles and by best Elvis impression, and just get down to filming. Through the course of the day, I actually learned a lot, and figured I would pass these tidbits on to you. Maybe it'll help you from judging the poor poodle under the bouffant. Maybe not.
Here are the top five things you might not have known about the
Continental Trim:
1. It started as a functional trim. Poodles are water dogs. In fact, Pudel is german for "splashes in water." What?! German not French. Surely you lie! See. You're learning lots of poodle facts today. Back
to the point - when the poodles would go out hunting with their owners, their hair would get in the way. Solution...shave them down! But how do you protect their organs and joints? Leave areas unshaved. So the pom poms on the back were to protect the kidneys and hips. The "jacket" protected the heart and lungs and the socks protected the
ankle joints. I'm all for function. I love big ugly parkas in winter.
2. The reason the cut got so huge and ridiculous was all for fashion. This also makes perfect sense to me. We see this all the time. Let's bring back the ridiculous fad of 80s shoulder pads. People get on board, and then someone has to make it look like Mickey Mouse. I reference the below.
3. It takes 3+ hours to cut this hair cut. And that's not even accounting for the bath and blow dry. So you're looking at a solid 6 hours to do this. What? That's half the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 6 Hours?! That's a flight from Boston to London. Six hours? That is determination. Jenny, our poodle demo, took us close to 4 hours from start to finish. You're not done though...After the show is over, you have to wash out the hairspray, so that it doesn't destroy the coat. Imagine leaving hairspray in your hair after the prom. Your hair would get matted and your scalp would break out. I.e. super grossness. So add another wash and try - and you're looking at a solid day of work for only 10 minutes in the show ring. This is dedication and deserves a I <3 poodle t-shirt just for trying.
4. The fact that you can use hairspray on a dog warrants it's on bullet point. I mean, I could've styled my pet dog, Jones' hair as opposed to all my barbies. Wouldn't my mom have been thrilled! And,
you don't even need to buy special hair spray. I could've gone right into my mom's cabinet and been good to go with her Paul Mitchell or Shiseido - that stuff HELD! No, for real. Sue uses all sorts of human hair products on her poodles: combs, elastics, and scrunchies. Current hairspray of choice - Big Sexy Hair! I love that Jenny is wearing more hairspray than Melissa would ever wear in her life!

5.My last bit of trivia comes from the world of Art History, which I love. Poodles have been portrayed wearing the Continental Trim in paintings, etchings and other artifacts dating as far back as 1533.
That's a long time. At the time - the printing press was only 83 years old and the Mona Lisa? only 29.

So, Jenny, you rock on with that Continental Trim! - Leesh
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