Sammi's fur between her pads gets so long she can't walk on the Pergo floor. I am comfortable trimming that with salon scissors, very carefully. She lets me do it. She pretty much lets me do anything to her. I trim her nails myself. She has white nails so it's easy to see where to cut. My ex-husband's dog has black nails and he asked me if I would do hers and I said "no way". Besides, she's hyper spaz so I could see her pulling away. The local groomer will do hers for $12 so I introduced him to them. Sammi has a hard time getting into the car now because her hips are getting arthritic so I don't take her out for grooming like I used to. Things like the rake work ok when she's not blowing her coat, but when she's blowing her coat, the tufts of undercoat pop up and it's easiest to just take them out with your fingers. I can fill up a couple grocery bags a day for 3 weeks when she's blowing her winter coat. That's just life with a Mal
It's worth it though!