Dog shearing?

I said I was against it, but we did it anyway. Our house dog, Quinn, is a pure bred Miniature American Eskimo. His breed is supposed to be brushed everyday, not shaved down. When we picked him out, back when he was a puppy, he was so cute, I was just sure I could brush him regularly. Well, that didn't last long. Here he is, just over 2 years old, and leaving massive amounts of long white hair all over our house. He has the most wonderful personality, but the hair, I was vacuuming the house three times a week and still not keeping on top of it. The thought of him living another 12+ years and dealing with his hair all this time was too much. We came to a cross roads, something had to be done. Even though you aren't supposed to, we decided to shave him down. I've read that because his breed has two layers of fur growing in, shaving it down can mess up those layers so it never looks good again. Well, we can just keep him shaved down so we won't have to worry about how it grows back.

J ordered a dog grooming kit, and this weekend we sat down to shave Quinn. I held Quinn, J used the shaver. I have to say, Quinn behaved better than I thought he would. The shaver on the other hand, did not work as well as we thought. It may be because Quinn's fur was so long, it's so fine, and it wouldn't stay in the guard to be cut.

Here is Quinn before:



Quinn with Shadow before (just like black alpacas, black dogs are very hard to photograph), our two house dogs:



Here is Quinn after:



We have no plans to open up a dog grooming salon. But I am excited to think about less dog hair floating around my house.