About Me:

I am a professional Pet Groomer. I have been grooming for 28 years. This Blog is a kind of diary of my work. I wish I had started years ago, writing some of the experiences I have had while grooming. Most days are fun, some can be sad, some can be just down right crazy. If you are a pet owner and come across this blog, I hope it helps you understand how your pet is groomed. If you are a Pet Groomer, I hope you can relate to some of the stories. Maybe even learn a grooming tip or can leave a friendly grooming tip for me. There is always something to learn, no matter how long you have been grooming.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

The Three Things That Drive Me Crazy

There are three things that drive me crazy when I groom.
They don't happen with every dog, or even everyday.

Well....may be one of  them happens at least once a day.

Now let me say, before I tell you what the three things are, I have spent a major amount of time trying to find ways of grooming so that these things that drive me crazy will stop driving me crazy.

I am also going to bet that a lot of other groomers out there have the same things happen to them.


Okay, here is the first thing....





Feet.

Pads to be exact.

I brush the hair down.









I brush the hair up.

I get all of the hair out from between the toes and ready to clip.







Then I clip between the pads.

With a #30 blade.

I skim all around the edges of the foot.









Then I use my fingers to pull up any of those stubborn long hairs between the toes.







**Be careful how much hair you pull up from between the middle toes.

If you pull too much and clip it off, it may effect how the top of the foot turns out.









Then I clip off the piece of hair that I pulled up.



Nice clean pads.

All ready to scissor the rest of the foot.

That is exactly what I do.

I scissor the feet and finish the rest of the groom.

Then, after I am all done grooming the dog, I go back and check the feet.

Most times everything looks good.

But sometimes........







Sometimes I find some more hair in the pads.

Or, sometimes I fine one single loooong tag of hair that I somehow missed.





 How I missed these hairs...I don't know.

I brushed.

I combed.

I pulled up hair with my fingers.

The feet looked good to me.

So once again I pick up the clipper and get those last few hairs.


The really sad thing is that sometimes even after double checking, I will be getting a dog out to take it up to its owner, look down, and there...there is another tag of hair.

It's enough to drive you crazy!!!


That was one.

This is the next thing that drives me crazy.







 Trimming heads.

Specifically over the eyes.

This little guy looks okay, right?

Wrong.






Look now, when I drop his head as if he were looking down.

See it?

I drives me crazy.






When I scissored those bangs, I scissored them nice and straight across.

Then I finished trimming the face.

Then the dog looked down.

Then I swear that that hair grow back that fast!

It had to have, right?


It was straight a minute ago...it was....I swear it was!!



So I scissor it again.

How much do you want to make a bet that I may have to scissor it again right before the dog goes home?

Thankfully this does not happen very often to me anymore.

I must be doing something right now.



Actually, I drop every dogs head (as though they were looking down) and scissor their bangs.

That little trick seems to work most of the time.



Now, I have to say that this third thing drives me crazy the most.
Every time I think that I have figured out a new way to stop it...it happens again.

I know that this happens to every groomer. 









Can you see it?

I know that you can see it.

It drives me insane!!!









 At least once a day!

Once a day I have that stupid little piece of ear hair that hangs down after I think that I have trimmed the ears evenly.

Sometimes it doesn't even show up when the dog is still on the table.

I walk by a kennel and look at the dog, AND THERE IT IS!

A long piece of hair hanging off the end of the ear(s).


I have tried several different tricks to stop this from happening.
On some dogs those tricks work great, but there almost always seems to be one....one dog....a day....that will have that darn long piece of hair hanging off the ear. 


One, two, three, four....calming breath,

 five, six, seven, eight....calming breath, nine tennnnnn.


Okay, rant over.

I am okay.
I just needed to get that off of my chest. :)

Happy Grooming, MFF



7 comments:

  1. I know exactly what you are talking about with the ears. I hate when that happens. I also hate when I groom a friend or family members dogs then I go to their house a few days later and I see all kinds of things that should not have been there anymore. I point it out to them and they don't care one bit but it drives me crazy the whole time I am there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Peggan,
      I know what you mean. I had a customer bring her dog back in a few days after I groomed him to have the ears shortened a little more. I could not believe the toughs of hair that I saw sticking out of a couple of the feet. I owner hadn't even noticed, BUT I DID! I was SURE that I had scissored up those feet really nice.
      That was when I first started to groom. It did make me pay better attention to the feet. :)
      Lisa, MFF

      Delete
  2. It's hard to win with feet. I never thought to brush up the hair between the pads, though, so thanks for the helpful tip on that!

    I always comb the crap out of dogs' heads/visors. Comb comb comb cut, comb comb comb cut, comb comb comb cut, and I do point the dog's nose down at least one of those times. I rarely have problems with visors anymore.

    And the ears! Ugh. My favorite thing is when I'm taking pictures and I don't see the hair on the dog until I look at the picture. Hooray for digital pics on camera phones! That's the best part about taking pics, is when it helps me catch something I wouldn't otherwise see.

    Changing topics entirely, have you ever seen a Labradoodle that looked like a Golden/Duck Toller (I'm glad I proofread, I had written Troller, lol) cross? I'm pretty sure my customer was insane or bamboozled, but I'm sure, since you've been grooming some 20 years longer than me, you have seen more Doodles than I have.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jennifer,
      I do the same with the visors, and thankfully don't have too many problems anymore either. :)

      I can't tell you how many times I have seen a long tough of hair on an ears AFTER I took a picture. I go back, scissor it off, then take another picture. lol

      Golden/Duck Toller....nope I haven't seen that one yet, although the Duck Tolling Retriever doesn't look that much different from a Golden. :)
      Lisa, MFF

      Delete
  3. hi im wrote a minute ago don't think it went through. ill try again.
    I was saying that grooming is an art and nothing is perfect in art. we strive to get as close as we can to perfect but its really not possible there will always be some imperfections. you are closer to perfect than most and your developed eye can see more critical than most. if someone did not have your developed eye would never see. if someone does see those you should tell them they should try being a groomer they would be good at it.
    also can you email me shell0855@gmail.com, or the aol if you can give me a time to try the camera thing?? I emailed you did you get it with a picture attached I wanted to put the pic here but it didn't let me. I had a question. also can you please put more timelapsed grooming videos on you tube if you can. or more clips. I just cant get enough of watching them trying so hard to learn. Thanks so much!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Shelley,
      Thank you for the compliment. :)

      I am working on the camera thing. My Go-Pro has been misplaced the last time we cleaned up the house for my sons birthday party, and no one remembers where it was put, or who put it somewhere. Grrrr. It is driving me crazy looking for it. When I find it I will be doing more videos. :)

      I did see your e-mail late one night then I forgot to go back to it. My bad...I am sorry. I will go back to it.
      Lisa, MFF

      Delete