Tuesday Tip #52.....Update on Baking Soda Rinse

I use a Baking Soda rinse on almost all of the dogs that I groom.

If you are new to my blog, I wrote a post on using Baking Soda Rinse a few years ago.

You can check out the link and see what I am talking about.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I had a dog in the tub that was large and full of shampoo, I wanted to cut down the rinse time so I poured the Baking Soda mix all over the dog (while the shampoo was still on) to cut through the shampoo and make rinsing faster.

I do this every once in awhile when I have a dog with a very thick coat that will take forever to rinse.

This time I did something a little different.

I usually just pour the baking soda rinse all over the dog and then start to rinse off the shampoo, this time I was rubbing the baking soda rinse into the soapy coat as I was pouring it all over the dog.

I instantly felt a difference in the shampoo and in the dogs coat.

It is a little hard to describe.

The baking soda was thinning out the shampoo, but at the same time the combination of the baking soda and shampoo was making the coat feel even cleaner and softer.

I wish that I could describe it better.

The coat rinsed out quickly and felt squeaky clean.

The best part was how the coat felt after I finished drying it.

Very light, fluffy, and super clean.

I thought that maybe it was just that dogs coat, but after using the baking soda rinse the same way on other dogs, I was pleased to see the same results.

Try it.

See what you think. :)

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂

Grooming In The News

Why is it that the only time we see anything about pet grooming in the news it is bad news.

In the last few days I have seen at least two bad grooming stories.

The first one is about a grooming shop that gave two pet owners the wrong dogs back after the grooming.

 Pawnation, groomer mix up.

Now, I have to say, in my opinion, in this particular story I blame both the owners and the grooming shop.

It always blows my mind how some owners don't even know their own dogs.

There have been many times when I have walked out into my lobby with a dog and there are a number of customers being waited on at the same time. 

I will come out of the grooming room with a dog and have at least one or two of those owners think that the dog I am holding is theirs.

I even had one customer actually get upset because I walked past her to hand another customer their dog.

That customer was so sure that I was handing her dog to someone else, she started getting angry until my daughter walked out with her dog.

Did the dogs look alike?

Well, the one I was holding was  just a little larger than hers, and had white, curly hair.

Her dog had light creme color hair that was straighter, and a longer nose.

I guess they looked a little alike....not.

Now, the owners in these stories were handed the dogs and the owners walked out of the shop and took those dogs home.

Really??!!

They could not tell that they didn't have the right dog right there in the lobby as soon as the groomer brought the dog out?

Sad to say, this actually happened at the grooming school that I went to.

I had graduated from the school and was working there as a groomer that groomed the dogs that the students could not get to, or finish.

This grooming school also did boarding on the side.

The receptionist and the kennel helper were responsible for the boarding dogs.

Each morning they would bring the boarding dogs that were going home that day in the grooming room to be groomed.

One day I started to groom a little black poodle.

I took the boarding name collar off of the dog and the dogs own collar off.

I was reading the dogs I.D. tags and noticed that the name on the dogs collar did not match the name on the boarding collar.

I called the receptionist back and we started to investigate.

I don't exactly recall how we determined that two of the dogs got mixed up, it was a long time ago.

I main problem was that one of the dogs, the one that was due to be picked up that day, had gone home the day before with the owner of the dog that was still at the shop.

Got that?

The wrong dog went home with the wrong owner.

I was freaking out.

The owner of the school was not in at the time.

I called her to tell her what happened and expected her to rush over and take care of the problem.

She told me to take care of it!!!

She told me to call the owner that picked up the other dog and tell her that she had the wrong dog, and that she needed to bring that dog back and get hers.

How would you have liked making that phone call?

It was not easy...in more ways than one.

I had to convince the pet owner that she had the wrong dog.

"Are you sure? He came right home and ate and drink out of his bowl, and he has been playing with his toys and bone in the back yard."

After I convinced her that she had the wrong black dog, (her dog was a long legged, charcoal color miniature Poodle, the one she took home was a shiny, coal black wavy coated, short legged Cock-a-poo) we had another problem.

She did not drive and no one was home to bring the dog back.

I didn't drive either at the time, nether did the kennel help, and the receptionists car was bring tuned up. (someone had dropped her off at work that morning)

No one had a car!

No one could go pick the dog up.

Did I mention that I was freaking out?

On top of being pissed as sh*t at the owner of the school for putting this mistake on my shoulders.

Thankfully the pet owner was able to get her grandson to bring the dog back over.

We switched the dogs and everybody was happy, but make no mistake, that episode has stuck with me all of these years.

I must say, I have not ever mixed up a dog.

Even on days that we have four or five Bichons in in one day, we still know who is who.

Every dog has a name tag on the kennel.

Every dog is assigned a kennel and they only go in that kennel.

No kennel hoping.

I will go out of my way to make sure that this does not ever happen in my shop.

Oh, one other thing about this story and the video.

Did you notice how the pet owner that walked in the grooming shop door just dumped the wrong dog that she had on the floor instead of handing it to its rightful owner?

The article also said that one of the owners noticed that the dog was not her dog immediately when she got home.

Immediately when she got home?!

How about when the dog was handed to her?

(shaking head)

The second story in the news is much more disturbing and sad.

PawNation Lost Dog.

How in the world do you lose a dog and not know how?

How can you possibly think you are not responsible when the pet was left in your care?

How do you not call the owner right away so that everyone can be out looking for that poor dog?

I work hard everyday to get my customers to respect me and the job that I do.

Our industry does not need stories like these.

Why can't the news show all the good things that dog groomers do.

Like the groomers who volunteer to groom shelter dogs to help them get new homes.

Or the groomers that pack up everything and go to places that have been hit by disasters and help pet owners with their dogs, and dogs that have lost their homes, or been separated from their owners.

Groomers are good people.

I just wish that we would see more good grooming stories.

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂

So Frustrated...

Well, I just finished posting my grooming happiness for the day, now I am going to rant.

Not that it is going to change anything, or do any good. :/

No shows!...late cancellations!...late reschedules!

That's it!

That is my rant.

It has gotten out of control.

The month of May was unbelievable.

I know that all groomers deal with this.

New customers don't surprise me that much when they no show, because unfortunately I book so far out, and these people make an appointment with me instead of saying never mind, then they keep calling around and get an appointment sooner someplace else.

I understand if they don't want to wait a month or two for an appointment, but if you plan on continuing to call around, then DON'T make an appointment!!

If they do call around and find something sooner, how hard is it to call back and cancel?

Grrrrrr.

What has bothered me more than anything lately is that it is my regulars that are no showing, or canceling when we call to see where they are, or call 10 minutes before their appointment to reschedule.

My regulars!

They know how we book up.

They know that we ask that they give 48 hours notice if they can't make an appointment.

I understand that things come up at the last minute.

Those are not the ones that I am complaining about.

It is the customer that knew they couldn't keep the appointment for a while.

"Oh, I am so sorry, I meant to call you last week."

"I tried to call you several times.".... When? I didn't see you on my caller ID. I am here from 8am to 4pm 5 days a week. When did you try to call, at 11pm?

To top it all off, I have a waiting list, and you would think 'okay just call someone off of the waiting list to cover that appointment.'

Every single time we called someone off that list, they could not come on such short notice (even though they are told it will be short notice if we call them off of the list), or this wasn't the day they were looking for, or "we already had him groomed."

I know that some groomers charge for missed appointments, but most of the groomers that I have asked if this works tell me that they rarely collect, and the customer just goes someplace else.

It is driving me crazy.

Especially when they call after missing an appointment, and get upset because we can't get them right back in.

You scr*wed me over and you are mad because I can't groom your dog tomorrow?.....Grrrrr.

Grooming is so personalized.

You get to know your customers, their dogs, their family.

It makes it very hard to give them a hard time about screwing up your day and your income.

You try to explain how important it is that they give you plenty of notice so that you can replace the appointment, but they just don't get it....or they don't want to get it.

I had a large dog cancel today because of a thunder storm.

We tried to get her to still bring the dog.

We told her that the dogs can't hear the thunder in our shop.

She was due in at 10am.

The storm blew through at 9am, was over by 9:30.

The skies were clear by 9:45am.

The second wave of storms didn't come through till 4pm.

She could have kept her appointment.

Her dog could have been in before the first storm, and would have been home well before the second storm.

I guarantee that this customer will call tomorrow wanting to know when we can get her dog back in. :/

I have been grooming this customers dogs for almost as long as I have been grooming.

Ugh......(banging head against the wall)

Rant over.

I am going to facebook now to read some happy stories to make myself feel better. :)

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂

Monday Makeover # 15 .....A Schnauzer

Last week was a busy week. 

I didn't get a chance to take pictures of a Makeover dog.

I spent my rainy day off, today, going through a lot of old pictures and came across some before and after pictures of a Schnauzer that I groomed around this time last year.

There were not many pictures of this dog, and a lot of the pictures that I had, the dog was moving and blurred in the picture.

That is most likely why I never posted this Schnauzer before.

I managed to find a few pictures that were pretty good, so I will just post some Before and Afters for today's makeover.

There is a Schnauzer in there somewhere.

I actually think that he is cute all shaggy.

What do you think?

Schnauzer face with a Mohawk?

I should have tried that, just to take a picture, then I could have clipped it off.

Oh well...I didn't think about it then.

The head After.

I used a #7F against the grain on the top and sides of the head.

I used a #15 blade on the ears.

I used the #7F blade on the body also. (with the grain)

The owner wanted the furnishings left long.

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂

This Was A First For Me

**WARNING: The pictures below are graphic and may be  disturbing to some people.

I have seen a lot during my almost 30 years of grooming.

Flesh falling off of a dog from sever matting, maggots, plugged up rears, fishhook in a dogs jaw, ears swollen shut from sever ear infections, abscess anals, abscess teeth, rioting teeth so bad that smelling the dogs breath could literally make you toss your cookies.

Those are just some of the things that I have seen.

Friday we saw something that we most likely will never see again.

Let me start from the beginning.

Friday we had a regular customer bring in her two Chihuahuas for a nail trimming.

My daughter clipped the first short haired Chihuahuas nails, then she started clipping the smaller, long hair Chihuahuas nails.

She got the two front feet clipped and then put her hand under the dog to turn her around to do her back nails.

She felt something wet between her legs and saw some blood on her tail.

So, she picked up the tail to check her out and clean her up.

The next second she was calling me over to her table to look at what she found.

This was protruding out of her vulva.

I had never seen anything like this before.

I have seen swollen vulva's when a female is in heat.

I have seen recessed vulva's.

 But, I had never seen something like this.

It crossed my mind that it looked like a small penis, but I quickly dismissed that thought, this is a female dog after all.

She didn't appear to be in any pain, and did not mind me checking her out.

My daughter finished the nails and I took her back up to her owner and showed her what we had found.

The owner knew nothing about it.

I suggested that she take her dog right to her Vet.

She did.

I also asked her to please call me back and let me know what the Vet said.

The owner was back at my shop about an hour and a half later.

She needed to tell me what the Vet found in person, her head was still spinning.

The Vet told her that her dog was a Hermaphrodog. (I think I got that right)

Her little, 10 year old  female Chihuahua has both male and female parts.

That thought that flashed through my mind (I found out later that the same thought went through my daughters head too, but she didn't say anything because she thought I would think she was nuts) was spot on.

Apparently the penis had been recessed up inside this female and for some reason was now making an appearance.

The owner said that her little dog created an uproar at the Vet.

The staff was excited to see her dog.

The Vet told her that they could do surgery to tuck and stitch  the penis back up into the dog, or the owner could leave it the way it was but she would have to keep the penis lubricated.

The owner was horrified at the thought of having to lubricate her dog.

I am not sure what the owner will decide to do, but from what I have found on the internet about it, she has one rare dog there.

 ✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂

My Comb

I don't know how other groomers feel, but my comb is like a part of my hand ever since I started grooming.

I have a lot of combs.

All of them different.

I do tend to use them all, because each one of them works differently on different coats, but one comb....one comb is special.

One of my combs I use every day, on every dog, for everything.

If I reach for my comb and don't pick up my everyday comb, I know it instantly.

I don't even have to look t it.

I knew it by feel.

By feel?

Yep, you betcha.

I know it by feel.

Every once in a while I will drop my comb, and it will bounce and disappear.

It is amazing how that can happen.

I drop it, or the dog kicks it off my table, and I look down for it and it is not there.

You would think that it should be right there on the floor at my feet, but no!

That sucker bounces across the room, or way back under my table, ooooor sometimes it just simply melts into the floor and goes to that invisible place that I can't see at all, or find it at all.

I can't leave my dog to look for the darn thing so I have to reach for one of my other combs.

The other comb feels so wrong, because I am supposed to be using the one that fell on the floor....my everyday comb.

I don't feel that way when I intentionally use a different comb.

Good grief......I am a mess. :)

These are just some of my combs.

There is nothing wrong with them.

They all comb the hair.

They are just not my everyday comb.

They don't feel as good in my hand as my everyday comb.

I know, I am nuts.

This is my everyday comb.

I have been using it for years.

It is my second favorite comb.

My first comb died.

Yes, I said died.

I had had my first comb for years and years and years.

Eventually some teeth feel out of it.

I had to replace it.

I didn't want to.

I loved that comb.

I had bought it at Hershey about 25 years earlier, from and elderly man that had a little booth and made the combs.

It was very light, and it just glided through the coat.

Did I say that I loved that comb?

I was so sad when the first tooth fell out.

I never saw that man at Hershey again.

I kept using that comb until it lost about three or four teeth.

The poor thing, it looked so pathetic.

But, that comb was an old friend.

It had been through a lot of dogs with me.

Yes, I know it is just a comb.

Don't ruin this for me.

I can cry over a comb if I want too.

Anyway, I finally let that comb go.

I replaced it with my current comb.

It was the only comb that I could find that was close to my other one.

It took a few days to get used to.

I know, I know, it only took a few days, whats the big deal?

If you are a groomer, I bet you understand.

Oh yes you do!!

I know that there are groomers out there that have a favorite comb, or brush, or clipper, or whatever tool.

I bet there are groomers out there with tools, or a tool that they just love and couldn't groom without, or would feel funny if they had to break in a new tool.

Right?!

OMG please tell me it is not just me!!!!!

Please tell me you know exactly what I am talking about.

Please!

Just me??

Oh well.....

It's been through a lot....my comb.

Grooming everyday.

Grooming competitions.

Matted coats.

Undercoat.

Some of the teeth are bent.

I bend them back, but they just bend again.

 It is tarnished in areas, but so far my good old comb still has all of its teeth.

I love this comb because it is very thin and light.

It has a side with teeth close together, and a side with wider teeth, and I use both sides regularly.

This comb has paid for itself many times over.

It has seen better days, but I am not ready to give it up yet.

Oh, by the way, every time my daughter grabs my comb to use it real fast for something....she hates it!

She hates my comb.

It is too thin for her.

She likes her comb, it's thicker......I hate her comb. 

And guess what....if we accidently mix up our nail clippers, she knows right away when it is not her nail clipper.

They are exactly the same brand clipper.

But she knows!!!

To each their own. :-)

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂

Dropped The Ball Today

SHAVED

I have come to hate that word.

"Shave my dog."

"Don't shave my dog."

I can use a 5/8 blade, #3/4F blade, or a #4F blade on a dog and a pet owner will think that I 'shaved' their dog bald.

Or

I can use a #7f, or #10 blade on a dog and the owner didn't think that I took the dog short enough. 

Grrr.

It is like playing the lottery.

You never know when your interpretation of an owners grooming instructions will be right. 

I came to the conclusion a long time ago that most customers don't really know what the word 'shaved' means to a groomer.

They don't realize just how short "shave him as short as you can" really is.

Oh, every once in awhile you will get a customer who does know how short 'shaved' really is, and they really do want their dog 'shaved', but that is not very often, at least not for me.

Most of the time when a customer says; "shave him as short as you can", and I tell them just how short I can shave their dog, they end up saying; "oh, I don't want him that short! Just take an inch off."

Today we had a customer come in who said he wanted his dog shaved short.

He knew the legs were in bad shape and matted.

It turned out that the legs were not in bad shape, and were very easily brushed out.

So, I am sure you are thinking; 'what's the problem?'

Yes, this owner said to 'shave' the dog, but the problem was, we had never 'shaved' this dog before.

This dog has always had a pattern and the legs have never been taken any shorter than a #5/8 cut.

I am usually pretty good at reading people and figuring out what they really mean when they say 'shave'.

Today I told my daughter to do the pattern as usual and to use a  #3/4F blade on the legs.

(We had never taken the legs that short before.) 

I had two reasons for this.

One, I already explained, we had never shaved the dog before.

The owner had always wanted a full pattern.

(yes, I know an owner could change their mind)

My second reason was, this dog is on the heavy side, and shaving this dog would have made it look awful.

Well, needless to say, the owner thought we left the legs too long.

We offered to take the dog back in and quickly 'shave' the legs shorter.

He declined.

He said that he could live with the cut.

I still strongly believe that if we had taken this dog as short on the legs as we do on the dogs back, this owner would not have liked that cut either.

Come to think of it, we rarely cut the dog exactly right.

There is always something that we didn't quite get right the last time.

There is a 50/50 chance that when he comes in the next time, he decided that he liked what we did this time....or, he will remind us about how badly we messed up this time.

Nothing like having someone get upset at you because you left too much hair on their dog. :/

Thankfully, most of the time I get it right.....not today.

I'll do better tomorrow. :)

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂