I Got a Call....

 Phone rings...

~MFF: "My Furry Friends, can I help you?"

Customer: "Yes, I was wondering if you have a groomer there that knows how to do a 'correct' groom on a Goldendoodle?"

Now, I am not going to go into how this conversation went, because I have a question of my own?

Are dogs born with a grooming handbook that I don't know about?

What is a 'correct' groom for any breed.

I being serious.

I really want to know.

Is there some proof out there that Poodles must have shaved feet, or a shaved face?

Must Cockers have long ears with the top third of the ear shaved, and long skirts and legs that most owners are not able to keep up with?

Must Bichons have big poofy heads that make them look like they are going to topple all of the way over if they put their head down to sniff something?

Must Westies have heads groomed to look like they stuck their paw in a light socket?

Must Schnauzers and Scotties have eyebrows that grow to the tip of their nose? 

Just who came up with these 'correct' grooms?

 

What is the 'correct' cut for a Cockapoo?

A Shihapoo?

A Maltipoo?

A Schnoodle?

A Doxiechon?

A Pekeapoo?

A Labradoodle?

.......

I could do this all night.

 

I want to meet the person who decides what a 'correct' groom is.

I am very sure that there are groomers, breeders, handlers out there that would love to debate me on this subject.

I not trying to start something.

I would just like to know who is this person is/was that has this almighty power to look a dog and say 'cut this and that, leave that and this'......that is the 'correct way'!

It is really not that big of a deal.

When I have a customer that comes in with a pure breed dog, and they ask me "what is the 'correct' way to groom my dog?" I tell them that there is no 'correct' way, there is a recommended way, but you can groom your dog anyway that you would like it to look.

It also amazes me how many pet owners think that they have to groom their dog the 'correct' (recommended) way.

They are so surprised when I tell them that they can have their dogs groomed any way thety want, and in a way that is good for their lifestyle, and something that they can easily take care of.

The funny thing is, that even owners who want their pure breeds groomed in the 'correct' (recommended) groom, almost always tweak the groom a little.

"Do the Cocker pattern, but I don't want a lot of hair on the legs", or "I don't want the skirt".

A lot of times, by the time they are finished 'tweaking', the groom doesn't look anything like the 'correct' (recommended) groom. :)

Now, what can I even say about the 'correct' groom on the designer breeds?

I know what I can say.....

THERE IS NO SUCH THING!

THERE IS NO 'CORRECT' GROOMING FOR A MIXED BREED!

Oh, sorry.

I didn't mean to yell.

It is just that if one more person tells me that I am not a professional groomer because I don't know the 'correct' grooming for a designer breed, I am going to choke them.

Not really, but I am going to want to. :/

Hmmmmmm

I know what.

How about if I sit down and come up with a 'correct' groom, pattern, style for all of the designer breeds out there?

Well, maybe not all of them, since there seems to be new ones popping up all of the time.

Let's see....a Schnoodle.....how about eyebrows with a clean face, tasseled ears, and boots on the feet.

A Maltipoo......how about a foo-man-chew mustache with a small topknot,  shaved button ears, and a lamb pattern body with bell shaped legs.

Can you picture it?

It is like a blank canvas.

Why couldn't I do the same thing that the person who thought up the Poodle Continental, the Westie Style, and the Portuguese Water Dog style did?

Someone, somewhere sat down and thought up these grooming cuts, right?

Or, as I said before, were these pure breeds born with grooming handbooks that I don't know about?

I think that I am finally losing it.

I have inhaled too much hair over the years.

I think that I must have a large hair ball in my brain.

Don't mind me....I am in a strange mood tonight. :)

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂

Changing My Services

As of tomorrow I will be changing some of the grooming services that I offer at my shop.

Well, changing probably is not the right word to use.

Lets see...I will be changing how I offer some of my grooming services.

There, that sounds better.

How am I changing things?

I am glad that you asked.

 

Over the last few years I have run into conflicts with owners over plucking ears and expressing anal glands. I have always included these extra grooming services in my full grooms. Many, many times Veterinarians have sent dogs with infected ears and full anal glands to me and told the owner to make sure that 'the groomer' plucks the ears and empties the anals.

Times are a changing.....

In recent years, Veterinarians have seemed to have a change of heart about plucking ears and expressing anal glands. There are now different beliefs out in the Veterinarian world.

The only problem with this?

All Veterinarians do not agree. They are split. They are saying and telling owners different things.

They are putting groomers in the middle.

They are making my life miserable.

They are driving me crazy!!!!!!

To pluck, or nor to pluck.

To squeeze, or not to squeeze.

I ran into both sides of this debate last week.

I had one customer come back with her dog (3 weeks later) because she did not think that we plucked her dogs ears. Her Vet is adamant that the ears be plucked whistle clean with each grooming. (If a dog only has a very small amount of hair in the ears, and the ears are nice, clean and healthy, we usually don't pluck them at that grooming session,(we do still clean them) but they may need to be plucked at the next grooming session.) This was the case with this particular dog. The ears were now due for a good plucking. The dog was due back in another week.

A day later I had a new customer in. Her dogs ears were packed with hair. They looked like they had two little cotton balls living in them. The hair came out really easy and the ears looked nice, clean and healthy.

When I told the owner about the amount of hair that I got out of the ears she freaked.

"My Vet said not to pluck the ears," she told me. "He said that the hair is a filter that keeps dirt and bacteria out of the ears canals," she informed me. 

Hmmmmmm, let me think about this a minute, because this is a new one for me. I haven't heard this excuse for not plucking ears before. So, if all of that hair in the ears acts as a filter, what happens to all of those dogs out there that don't ever have any hair in their ears?

Think...

Think.....

Think......

Okay, I have thought about it.......bullsh*t!!!

I am so tired of defending why I do and don't do something.

I am tired of worrying about whether I should, or shouldn't do something.

Something that I have been doing for years.

So, I have made a decision.

My shop will no longer be plucking ears, expressing anal glands, or filing nails unless specifically requested by the owner.

I have made a sign for my lobby counter.

I made a sign in Printshop®.

I also bought a standup sign holder at the local office supply store so that I could place the sign on my counter, right at eye view for all of my customers to see. 

Because I know from experience, that many people do not take the time to read signs, I have also written up a handout to give my customers, that goes into more detail then the short, to the point counter sign does.

So, between my counter sign and handout, I am hoping that this change in my grooming services will go smoothly.

I think that the biggest problem that we will have, is being careful to not automatically preform these services without checking to make sure that the owner wants them.

It is so second nature to empty anal glands while bathing, and to pluck ears that are packed with hair.

This is what my handout says:

A Notice To Our Customers

     For over 25 years, plucking ears and expressing anal glands have been included (at no extra charge) in all of our full service groomings. We had not ever had any problems offering this service until recently.
     We have come to discover in the last few years that the Veterinary Community is now split on their views about these services. Some Veterinarians now feel that ears should no longer be plucked, and anal glands should be left alone. Still other Veterinarians feel  strongly that a dogs ears should be plucked clean of all hair, and anal glands should be expressed with every grooming, or by Veterinary visit.
     These clashing views have left groomers in a tough, and confusing  position. Do we continue to pluck ears and express anal glands, or do we stop offering this service all together?
      We here at My Furry Friends have decided to do something in the middle. We will continue to offer these services, but only at the express request of the pet owner at the time of the grooming.
     We also reserve the right to make the decision (in the best interest of your pet) as to whether the ears need to be plucked, and the anal glands need to, or can be expressed.
     These services will also only be provided (upon request)  if your dog allows it. If we are unable to provide these services for you, and they do need to be done, we will recommend that you take your dog to see their Veterinarian.

I hope that this will end the debate over ears and anals.

I am leaving it totally up to the owner.

Some groomers may be wondering, and I am sure that I am going to be asked this question by some of my customers; 'will the grooming be cheaper if their dog does not get these services?'

My answer; 'no' the price is the same.

Why?

My full groom prices are not broken up into individual prices.

Nails, Anal Glands, and Ear Cleaning have always been included in a full groom at no extra cost.

If I totaled up a charge for each thing that I do during a full groom, my prices would be much, much higher.

Lets just use a Bichon for examples sake, and give a price if we were charging for each individual part of the grooming....(these are only example prices)

~Combing/Brushing/Demat: $10 an hour
~Bath/Blow dry: $30  to 35
~Sanitary trim: $10
~Full body hair cut: with clippers $20, with scissors $30
~Plucking and Cleaning Ears: $10
~Expressing Anal Glands: $10
~Clipping and filing Nails: $10

Total price of a groom on a Bichon if every part of the groom was individually priced... Bath and trim $70↑ , Full haircut $105↑.

This is why I do not give a price break if an owner asks not to do the nails, ears, or anals.

They are already getting a great deal.

I already do the nails, ears and anals at no extra cost when a customer is getting a full groom.

We will see how this goes.

I am sure that 90% of my customers will continue to want me to preform all of these services.

My goal is to protect myself from having owners get angry with me for doing something that I have always done as part of a regular grooming, just because their Vet  is telling them something different.

 ✂Happy Grooming, MFF ✂

Monday Makeover....Kind Of....

This past week was very mentally draining.

I hate weeks like that.

One thing after another.

All small.

Nothing earth shattering.

Just mentally draining. :/

There are some changes coming to my shop.

I will talk more about that in tomorrows post....

On to Mondays Makeover.

I mentioned in my post title that this was 'kind of' a makeover.

This dog was a very hard groom in more ways then one.

This was a new customer.

A one year old Bichon/Poo/Maltese mix.

It has only been professionally groomed once before....6 months ago.

The owner was asked not to bring him back to Petsmart.

So, she waited 6 months to find another groomer.

Now to be fair to the owner, this is her first dog.

She is very protective of him, and she knows that she spoils him to death.

She has also been attempting to groom him herself.

For being a first time dog owner, with a dog that has a high maintenance coat, she didn't do all that bad.

Needless to say, he was very overgrown.

He had some matting, but his owner had been cutting out any mats that she found.

I forgot to take a picture before the bath.

This is him after the bath and HV dry.

I had not fluffed him up yet.

He was very friendly, and had so far been very good for the bath and blow dry.

As you can see, he had many, many lengths all over him.

His owner did not want a lot of hair off of him.

She wanted to keep him long.

She did not want me to make him look even all over, because I would have had to clip him to the shortest length that he had on body.

Some of the areas that the owner had cut out mats were as short as a #4 or #5 blade.

I did warn the owner that if I only took an inch or so off of her dog, the cut would look very choppy because of all the different lengths and deep cutouts.

She understood and said that that was okay has long as he was not too short.

This turned out to be much harder to do then I thought it would be.

At first I just kind of stood there, staring at the dog thinking; "where do I start?"

Do I use a comb attachment?

Do I hand scissor the entire coat?

I decided to hand scissor the entire body and legs.

That also turned out to be very difficult for me.

Why?

It was all I could do to scissor to a long length and not try to match up the really short spots.

It was driving me crazy.

It also turned out that my little furry friend here tended to have temper tantrums.

I don't know how else to describe it.

If he thought that I was working on his back leg too long, he had no problem swing around and going after my hand.

If you told him 'no' he just got more pissed off at you.

I found that the best thing to do with him was ignore the behavior.

Yes, I ignored his bad behavior.

Mainly, because trying to correct him only pissed him off more, and it made me stop what I was doing.

Stopping what I was doing, even for a second to say 'no', or 'excuse me' was exactly what he wanted me to do...stop working.

So every time he swung around, I would take one hand and push his face (and teeth) away and continue combing, brushing, or scissoring.

He was more noise and show than anything else.

By this time I knew that, even though his owner had been grooming him at home, she was most likely stopping every time he didn't like something that she was doing.

So, naturally he expected me to stop also.

His owner admitted that that was what she would do.

I know that this owner could be really good at keeping her dog in good shape between grooms, if she learned not to let him get away with the bad behavior.

I am also pretty sure that this dog could be a really good groom if he was on a regular schedule so that he could learn how to accept the grooming.

When he didn't mind what you were doing, he was an angle and stood on the table like a pro.

Sadly, he was so unpredictable, that it made the groom very draining.

But...I got him done....if you want to call it that.

 I did take more than an inch off of some areas that were really long.

It was so hard to leave him uneven.

Even though his owner said that she understood that he would be uneven, I was afraid she would not be happy when she saw his coat looking like Swiss cheese.

It is one thing to try to describe to an owner how a cut will look, it is another thing once they actually see it.

The owner wanted the beard, ears, and tail left long.

She also wanted me to leave the top of the head long enough so that it would  have nice long curls when the hair got wet.

The owner was very happy.

Thankfully, she understood and did not mind the uneven coat.

The owner made another appointment for 6 weeks, and we are going to get this little guy on a regular schedule so that he can learn to tolerate being professionally groomed, without having a temper tantrum.

I know that he can do it.

He was so good when he wanted to be. :)

I still can't stand that he went out the door with such an uneven cut. :/

I'll get over it...

When he comes in the next time and goes out with a better cut. :)

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂

I Never Bothered to Read The Directions

Shhhhhhhh.....

Don't tell my husband, or my kids for that matter.

I am always telling them to read the directions on things.

Now, I guess that I could use the excuse that I never bothered to read the directions, because someone showed me how to use the stuff.

What 'stuff' am I talking about?

This stuff.

KwikStop®.

Something that I have been using for almost 29 years.

Wait....let me start at the beginning.

About a month ago I was looking at some grooming videos on YouTube.

I like to sort through them sometimes to see what is out there.

I came across a video done by a Vet, on how to bathe your dog.

I like her video.

She seemed really nice and was very clear in her directions.

 Even though I did not agree with everything that see was saying.

Especially the part about washing the dogs face with a wash rag.

But I digress....

 

Anyway, at one point in the video she was talking about clipping a dogs nails, and she talked about using KwikStop® if a nails is bled.

The thing that caught my attention was the fact that she told you to apply the KwikStop® with a wet/damp Q Tip.

A wet/damp Q Tip?

Why would you do that?

I am always making sure that the lid is on my KwikStop® tight so that the bottle does not get any moisture in it.

Why would I want to use it wet?

So, when I got into work the next day, I looked at my bottle of KwikStop®.

DIRECTIONS: Apply with moistened cotton applicator to the nail.

This was not how I was taught to apply KwikStop®.

I have always applied the KwikStop® dry to the bleeding nail.

Always.

Needless to say, I had never bothered to read the directions on the KwikStop®.

So, of course I had to try it the right way, right?

Thankfully I don't bleed nails often, so I had to wait a couple of weeks before I needed to use the KwikStop®.

I really did not see the point of moistening the KwikStop® when it gets moistened from the blood, but maybe the KwikStop® would work better, or quicker if it was moistened first.

First, I dipped a Q Tip in water.

Then I dipped the damp Q Tip into the KwikStop®.

Then I applied the KwikStop® to the bleeding nail and pressed.....

....and pressed.

I was not impressed. :(

 This picture shows how the KwikStop® was too moist to stop the bleeding quickly.

The nail was still bleeding.

Too many steps.

Took way too long to stop the bleeding.

It is much faster for me to just pop the lid, pour some KwikStop® into the lid, either grab a pinch, or dip the nail right into the lid and press the dry KwikStop® into the nail.

Press and hold for a few seconds and done, bleeding stopped.

 

I did not give up after just one try.

I tried it again with the Q Tip only a little damp.

I was still not impressed. 

I have put the water and Q Tips away and will continue to use the KwikStop® the way that I have always used it for 29 years.

So much for reading the directions.

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂

Tuesdays Tip #49.....Name Plates

We use Vari Kennels to hold our furry friends.

I like them because they are easy to clean, roomy, and have plenty of ventilation.

They are also very durable.

We have had the same kennels since I opened in 1987.

I have had to replace a couple of doors, and door latches.

I have also had to repaint the kennel doors a couple of times. (they are due again this spring)

They have held up to dogs digging and chewing on them.

 The one thing that I have never been crazy about is the name holders that came with the kennels.

We have always used index cards to write the dogs name and grooming information.

When the dogs are done we turn the card upside down.

I should have bought stock in index cards years ago.

I have always been on the look out for some other kind of name card holder, or something.

I think that I found it. :)

  For a long time I have thought that it would be nice to have some kind of dry erase board so that we could use it over and over again, but all of the boards that I would find were always too big to use on a kennel, until last week.

I was in JoAnn Fabrics and found these.

Small, locker size dry erase boards.

They were only $2.99 each.

I bought all that they had.

I still need three more.

I also bought a couple of packs of cheap wire shower curtain hooks.

I drilled two holes, one in each corner of the dry erase board.

Just big enough for the shower curtain hook to go through.

Then I fed a hook through each hole.

I decided to use the dry erase boards sideways.

I still wanted to be able to see into the kennels easily.

I also didn't want the name boards to block the dogs view.

The shower curtain hooks open and close kind of like baby pins.

So they are safe to hang on the kennel doors.

We tried the boards on the top and the bottom of the kennel doors, and settled on the top of the door.

Since the dogs lay down most of the time, it still gives us a nice clear view of the inside if the kennel.

There is more than enough room on these boards to write all the information that we need.

 When a dog is finished, but still in the kennel we put a large X across the name so that everyone knows that that dog is ready to go home at a glance.

We can mark the board with a red C (and the time) to let us know that the owner was called to pick-up.

When the dog goes home we wipe off the board.

So, now with just a quick glance, we can tell who has come in, how many dogs still need to be groomed, who is done, and how many are gone at the end of the day.

AND, I can stop buying index cards!!

I know that not every shop uses name cards on their kennel doors, but if you do, this could be an option for you. :)

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂