New Grooming Tables!....Finally!

I have to say that I have groomed on a number of different grooming tables over the years.

The grooming school that I went to had several different tables.

 The ones that I remembered the most were the homemade ones.

I liked them, because they were smaller and higher than the others.

None of the tables had grooming poles for grooming loops.

After grooming school, I groomed at a Vet/Kennel.

Compared to the grooming school that I went to, that place was state of the art.

There was a stainless steel tub. (that was way to deep)

Stainless steel cages that came with stainless steal cage crates that I hated, because at least one dog, everyday, got a toe caught in them.

And, real (fold up) grooming tables that came with grooming arms and loops that kennel owner insisted that we use with every dog.

Then I helped a friend open a grooming salon.

He had the folding grooming tables also, but he also bought something that I thought was the greatest thing a the time.

Leg extenders, made especially for fold up grooming tables.

You took the little black cups off of the end of the table legs and put on the leg extenders.

You could raise the height of your table at least six more inches.

You had to manually raise and lower each leg, and eyeball it to balance your table, but I loved those things.

They really helped my back. 

My next grooming job, I went back to another homemade wooden table covered with a mat.

How I missed those leg extenders.

All of the fold up grooming tables only stood about 30 to 32 inches high.

I spent so much of my early grooming career bending over a table.

When hydraulic grooming tables first came on the seen, there was no way that I could afford to get one of them, much less replace the 4 grooming tables that I had in my shop at the time.

When I worked out of my grooming van, it was the first time that I used a hydraulic table.

I got spoiled very fast.

When I opened my shop again, I wanted a hydraulic table, but still could not afford one.

I was having another baby and could not afford a new table.

About a year later I got the big orange monster.

A hydraulic table cart from Harbor Freight Tools.

I bought a table cart instead of a real hydraulic grooming table for one simple reason.

It was under $200 twelve years ago.

It gave me 12 years of great service.

The orange monster till works, but she has been acting up lately.

Not only that, but last year at Hershey, when I competed in creative, I was given an electric grooming table to use on stage.

I feel in love.

One of the drawbacks of my hydraulic table cart was that when I would pump it up, some of the dogs would get scared of the jerky movement.

Also, if I lowered the table while a dog was on it, it would sometimes go down too fast and scare the dog.

I wanted an electric grooming table.

My daughter wanted a new table.

She was still working on my old grooming table (from the 1800's) with the leg extenders, and she hated manually adjusting the height when she went from grooming a small/medium dog to a large dog.

We spent some time at Groom Expo looking at grooming tables.

Some were way out of our price range.

The ones that we settled on were not the cheapest, but were on show special and we got two shipped for the price of one.

I could have gotten hydraulic tables for less, but I really wanted the electric.

The tables came about a week after Groom Expo.

The delivery guy could not get the pallet through our door so he dropped them outside.

My son and husband took the wrapper off and carried the boxes into the shop.

I was a little surprised to see so many boxes.

There were 8 boxes.

You have to put everything together nowadays. 

 It was very easy, all I had to do was put on the wheels and the table top.

I did not put on the grooming arm.

It is deeper than my orange monster, but I will be using my backboard on it so I don't have to reach across the table to dogs that like to hug the wall.

One problem that I had with my other table was that I was always cleaning hair out of the hydraulics.

I wanted to keep all of the mechanics of this table as hair free as I can.

You might think that I am crazy, but I went out and bought a shower curtain.

Some industrial strength Velcro.

I took the large pieces.....

....and cut them into smaller pieces.

 I put the Velcro around the frame, under the table top.

I made sure that the curtain was up tight against the underneath of the table top.

I cut the curtain almost to the floor.

I did the same with Jessica's table.

Now, I know that this will not stop all hair from getting into the mechanics, because we all know that dog hair goes EVERYWHERE, but I have been very happy so far.

The shower curtain is keeping most of the hair away.

It took Jess about a day to remember that she could now easily move her table up and down whenever she wanted.

Me....I still catch myself reaching over to the side of my table trying to turn the knob that lowered the orange monster....and lifting my foot to pump my table up.

We really like our new tables.

It's about time we got some.

By this time next year I should have them paid off. :)

Happy Grooming, MFF