There's a word we've always preferred over craft, and that word is trade. But trade is cold - cold like the inside of a pipe. And art almost goes too far in the other direction. So where does that leave us, and what are we actually doing when a finish lands and something in our chest says yes?

By 4pm the whole salon’s still trying to say ‘PBGV’… and nobody’s quite sure how to groom it.

Nowadays, most terriers are far more likely to be found under a cafe table than in a burrow, navigating chair legs, prams, and the occasional dropped croissant. Truly harrowing work. The coat, however, hasn't changed.

Field Spaniels have a combination coat that looks, to the uninitiated, like it wants to be clipped. It doesn't.

When Tiarne Perkiss moved out of home, the first thing she did was order a poodle. Her parents had never let her have one. She's been making up for lost time ever since.

The rolled coat is a completely different mindset to a sculpted wire coat. With a wire fox or a Lakeland, you're building toward a finished result. With a Norwich on a roll, you're maintaining a system.

One of the things we love about watching Alicia Fragiadakis work is how clearly you can follow her thinking. She's not just scissoring - she's narrating a decision-making process, and every decision traces back to the same question: what does this breed standard actually ask for, and how do I get this dog there?

It's a step a lot of groomers skip on clipped terriers. It's also a step that makes a meaningful difference to the dog's skin, the finish of the coat, and how the whole groom sits when it's done.