PHOTOS The World of Poodle Grooming, pictures by Ren Netherland

Here is a gallery of real life 3-d poodle doodles, winners of “creative grooming” shows from around the country where pet groomers are given two hours to transform canines into…well, just about anything.

Photographer Ren Netherland, 48, travels the countryside in a bus/portable photography studio capturing these living works of art. (No word if he has an assistant named Stimpy.) “I love my job. I get a really big kick out of it,” Ren says. “When these dogs come into the arena for a show or a competition you have absolutely no idea what they are going to be turned into. The groomers do colour them before they arrive but basically all you see at first is an extremely fluffy poodle that has weird colored patterns on it. The transformation they go through is simply spectacular. There’s no other word for it. It’s amazing what they can do in so little time.”

Netherland works for animalphotography.com and is the exclusive photographer for these events.

Here’s a collection of some of the “best of the best” winners, including a panda, camel, snail, chicken, horse, and even Jack Sparrow. “The one that shocked me the most was the horse. The way it looked when it arrived at the show you had no clue whatsoever what they were planning,” says Netherland.

Click to zoom in.

Photos: BARM/Fame Pictures

Publish date: August 25, 2009

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