Schnauzers exist in three variants: giant, standard and miniature. As regards coloring the giants and medium ones may be salt-pepper colored (that is black and white colored, changing hair-by-hair, providing it a tabby appearance) and black, while the miniature variants may be – in addition to the above two color versions – black silver and white colored. The hairs of the Schnauzers are hard, which may be only trimmed because shaving would make them soft. The frequency of trimming depends on whether they take the dog to shows or not. If the dog is not taken to any shows trimming annually twice by a cosmetician is sufficient, but ideally trimming should be done quarterly once. Show dogs have to be trimmed far more often. When trimming the head, attention has to be paid to the characteristic beard and eyebrows, since these are the keys to the typical appearance of this species. The hairs of the eyebrows are cut to shape while being combed forward, the same way as the mustache and the beard. When grooming the body, first the undercoat has to be stripped. A practical special tool that may be used is the Fur Perfection device. This is followed by the trimming of the neck, the back, the chest, the first edge of the tail and the sides of the thighs. At the bottom of the tail, the hairs are cut short with scissors, the same way as at the backside edge of the thighs. The trimmed and shaved parts have to be always matched. The legs are made to column shape, while the paws have a rounded form. At the bottom line and along the first half of the thighs there are “flags”, which have to be adjusted in a way that matches the proportions of the dog.