A dog groomer has revealed how she regularly transforms her pooch into other animals using extreme makeover techniques.
Rachelle Lynn McGinnis, 33, from Missouri, spends hours painstakingly making her 12-year-old poodle, Bijou, look like everything from a horse to a bright green dragon and even a peacock. The creative lady who owns a dog grooming business called K-9 designs uses controversial methods such as dying and 'carving' fur to create inventive styles. And according to Rachelle, Bijou loves being transformed into different species no matter how long it takes.
Rachelle, from Missouri, US said: 'The wackier designs the better. Bijou has been everything from a horse, to a dragon to a polar bear. It's something I love doing and I feel like it shows off my creativity.''Bijou is colour-blind she's not bothered what she looks like as long as she's healthy, loved and happy.'The timing of Rachelle's unique designs can vary massively, and each is their own project with some taking almost a year of preparations.
Rachelle added: 'At the moment she looks like a polar bear, and this one requires lots of hairsprays. She's so fluffy that the main part of it is washing and brushing her. She continued: 'To actually style it, the final part only takes about 30 minutes, but to grow her fur to look like a polar bear took 11 months. When I first cut the fur into the right shapes it took a couple of hours but I always do it in stages.' Rachelle reassures that her dog doesn't need to be standing for hours and enjoys lots of doggy downtime.' My most complex design was turning her into a horse - she had a saddle and mane. It was such an intricate carving that in the end that it must have taken about eight hours to complete.'
Rachelle's designs have attracted a lot of attention for Bijou as she claims everyone stops to take a look. She adds: 'People always ask for pictures I've even had people get out of their car because they want to stroke her.' For Bijou, it's all about the attention it's not like she looks in the mirror, she just loves being groomed and stroked.' In order to get her image looking really realistic, I had to get the polar bear design perfectly.' I also had to make sure the photos were great so she had to be standing at a certain angle with her neck elongated and we were lucky we got some great shots of her in the snow.' Taken from a distance, she blends right in and it's easily believable that there's a mini polar bear lurking about.
'My plan is to make her a sheep next the polar bear is hard to maintain, but with a sheep, she can have a fluffy body, and then closely trimmed paws, dyed black like hooves.' Rachelle says she has received a great reaction on social media. She added: 'Someone wrote that they seriously thought they were looking at a picture of a polar bear.' It's amazing how realistic she looks in both the photos and real life. I am very proud of my creations so far.'