Tis The Season to Stay Calm

Christmas time can be stressful at the best of times.

Christmas can be very stressful for groomers.

Next to summer time, it is the busiest, and most demanding time of the year for groomers.
Where as summer grooming is spread out over three to four months, groomers are expected to get all of their regular customers (plus some) groomed within 3 to 4 weeks.
Most of those customers want the week before Christmas.

As of May of 2014 I will have been grooming for 30 years.
I no longer look forward to the Christmas Holidays.
I blame that on grooming.
Well, maybe not entirely grooming.

I can actually remember when I first became disillusioned with the Christmas/grooming combination. 
I opened my shop in October of 1987.
I was so excited about the first Christmas in my new shop.
My first location had a fairly large lobby.
I stayed after work one night and decorated the heck out of that lobby.
I worked well into the night making it look like a winter wonderland.
I had cute little Christmas stockings with dog treats for every furry customer coming in for grooming in the weeks before Christmas.

I had been averaging between 8 to 10 dogs a day since I had opened.
I hired two more groomers to help out with the Christmas rush that I knew would be coming.
I was still too new at grooming to realize that every groomer didn't take pride in their grooms, or tell the truth about their abilities..
I was about to learn the hard way.

About two and a half weeks before Christmas the phones started ringing off the hook.
Let the stress begin.

I don't recall anymore exactly how many dogs I was grooming a day, but I do remember spending a ton of time running around fixing the other two groomers grooms, or doing things that those groomers didn't want to do, or were afraid to do, on top of grooming my dogs.
I also found myself spending a lot of time teaching one of the groomers how to groom correctly.
I also found myself with extra dogs to groom, because both groomers, who had told me that they could groom 6 to 7 dogs a day, in reality could only groom 3 to 4.
Not that 3 to 4 dogs was bad, I had already booked them for the 6 to 7 they told me they could groom.
That was just my hired help stress.

Then came the customer stress.
Everyone wanted their dogs groomed the few days right before Christmas.
They did not mind showing their 'Christmas Spirit' by arguing and fussing if they could not get the day and time that they wanted.
 And,Fielding the angry calls from customers who thought that their dogs were at the shop too long.

I used to book so many clips a day and so many bathes.
If I was booked for clipping appointments, I would offer customers to come in just for a bath and trim to make their dog look nice for the Holidays, then we could do a full clip after the Holidays.
Of course the customer would forget that we talked about a bath and trim on the phone.
They got their appointment, now they conveniently forgot about me saying that I had no clipping appointments opened, they wanted their dog clipped for Christmas!

On top of dealing with new employees, extra dogs, fussy, demanding customers,  extra long days with no breaks and no lunch, no one seemed to notice how nice the lobby looked.
Out of all the customers going in and out of my lobby everyday, a grand total of two customers complimented me on how nice the lobby looked.
Why that bothered me so much at the time, I could not really tell you.
I had decorated the the lobby as much for myself as I had for my customers.
I guess that I wanted them to be as excited about the Holiday as I was....they just wanted their dogs groomed.

That was my first Christmas as a shop owner.
I felt like I had to get every customer who called groomed before Christmas.
I worked from 8am to 7:30pm on Christmas Eve that year.
Christmas Day all I wanted to do was sleep.
I was done with the Holiday.

I still decorate every year, but never like I did that first year.
I still like to give my customers some kind of Christmas thank you gift.
One thing that I no longer do is, feel like I need to get every dog groomed before Christmas.
Christmas appointments are for our long time regular customers.
They know that they must book a year in advance for a Christmas appointment.
We do take in extra dogs between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but we try not to kill ourselves.  

I know that there are a lot of groomers out there that have no control over the amount of dogs that their bosses book for them at this time of year.
Some groomers are pressured by  non-groomer bosses to groom more dogs than they are comfortable with.
Some groomers take on as many dogs as they can, because the grooming slows down drastically for them after the Holidays.
Some groomers just want to make as much money as they can while they can.

No matter how you groom during the Holidays, it can be very stressful.
Try to make to your grooming days a little less stressful by pacing yourself. 
Look over your day, if it looks like it may be a rough one, be up front with your customers. 
When your customers are dropping off their dogs, tell them first thing that you have a really busy, tough day ahead and it may cause you to run behind.
Tell them that you  will not keep their dog any longer than you have to, but they may be staying with you a little longer today. 
Most customers understand.

You will get one or two that will have no sympathy at all for you. 
Get their dogs out first and forget about them.
Don't let them ruin your day.

Don't forget to take a break once in a while, even if it is just to walk out side for a minute and get a breath of fresh air.

If you get too stressed out, you will pass it on to the dogs, they will start acting up and the day goes down hill.
If you feel yourself getting stressed, give yourself a pep talk. 
You know that you can do this.
Think about being finished for the day.
Think about getting home and soaking in the tub for a while, or having a drink, or hugging your kids, or your own dogs.
Try not to let the stress get to you.
Try to keep your Holiday Spirit.

Don't rush yourself.
Accidents happen when you stress and rush.
Then what.....
Then you have to deal with an injured dog and an upset customer, and you lose any extra time you made from rushing.

So, try to take it as easy as you can this Holiday season.
Try to enjoy the grooming and making all of those dogs feel and look good for the Holidays.
Make your days easier by letting your customer know just how crazy your grooming days can be during the Holidays.
Most customer just want to know what is going on.
They just want to know that they haven't been forgotten, and that their dog(s) are being taken care of while in your care.

Try to stay calm and stress free.
You can do it!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

What Would You DO? Labradoodle

 This was the second time that I groomed this Labradoodle.

The first time that I groomed her, she was a bath and neaten up all over.

The previous groomer had shaved her very close and she was still growing out.

That was about 6 to 8 weeks ago.

My instructions for this grooming were; (Husband) "I don't think she needs a hair cut, but my wife wants some hair off."

"Some hair."  Hmmmmm.

What would you do????

The picture above is after the bath and blow dry and before any cutting.

I noticed one of two things was going on with her coat.

Either her body grows out faster than her legs, or the last groomer had clipped her legs shorter than her body.

 

 She has one of the best coats that I have seen on a Labradoodle in a long time.

Other than a few small natty mats here and there, she was in very good shape.

She also had a really nice plushy coat hiding under the courser top coat.

The hair on her back was almost an inch longer than the hair on her legs.

 Remember, the owners did not want too much off.

So, I decided to take length off her body only, and match it up with the length on her legs.

That would leave about two inches of hair all over.

The owner also wanted the top of her head and over her eyes short.

 I clipped her back with the Wahl  (A) Lavender clip comb.

It took off just the amount I was looking for.

I skimmed off at the top of the hip and the top of the front leg.

The clip comb took off about an inch.

All I needed to do was comb the hair up and scissor to neaten up the body.

All that was needed to be done to the legs was to neaten them up with the scissors and blend in to the body.

I would say that I only took a little less than  a 1/4 of an inch off the legs.

  I think that the clip comb was a good look for him.

And, now his owners can see her face!

What a cute face it is. :)

Tuesdays Tip #57...Christmas Extras Chart

For those groomers who spend a lot of time and money to make Christmas extras for your customers, like bows, bandanas, bow ties, ect.

Or, for the groomers who spend a lot of hard earned money buying already made extras for their customers dogs.

I don't know about other groomers out there, but it really bothers me when I put these little extras on a pet, and a customer either yanks them out of the dogs ears and throws them in the trash right in front of me, or I find them out in the parking lot where the owner yanked them off of the dog and just tossed them away.

I understand that not everyone likes the extras, and that is fine.

So, this year I have made a little chart to put on my counter, showing the extra Christmas Bling that I have to offer.

Starting after Thanksgiving, we will ask each customer if they would like a complimentary Christmas Extra.

They may choose one, per dog, of the extras pictured.

We will let them choose so that the customer will be able to tell us ahead of time if they do not want any extras on their dog.

The chart also helps, at this time of year, when you are not quite sure of your customers religious beliefs.

The last thing I want to do is to unintentionally offend someone.

It has always surprised me how some customers get almost offended by any bows being put in their dogs ears....any time of year.

This chart would actually be helpful all year round.

I will just take pictures of the extras offered for other Holidays and the summer time.

You could just take pictures of the actual extras, or of the extras on the dog.

I choose to take pictures of the extras on the dog, so that customers could see what each extra looked like on a dog.

Hope this helps. :)

The Ultimate Let Down

The disappointment!

The 'REALLY!!!?????'

The Nothing!

The 'it sticks with you for the rest of the day....sometimes the next day too....AND if you really have issues, it could stick with you forever!

What in the world am I talking about?

Okay....I am pretty sure that most every groomer can relate to this.....and if it hasn't happened to you, IT WILL!

It has happened to me a number of times over the years, usually with a new customer.

It happened to me Saturday, and the feeling from it never changes.

Okay, okay, I am finally going to explain.

My last dog of the day Saturday was a new customer with a Maltese.

The grooming instructions where 'do a puppy cut', which after more questions, turned out to be 'short but not shaved'.

The owner said that she was not picky about the groom, so do what I thought would make the dog look nice.

The hair on the body was a little over 4 inches long, with a tiny bit of matting on the hips and around where the harness touched the dog.

The head was pretty over grown, as if the head had been left much fuller than the body for the last grooming.

The ears were a little matted, but not bad.

As the owner tentatively handed me her dog, she kept repeating to the dog; "be nice, be nice, be nice."

She most definitely made me feel that her dog might be a problem.

I asked if another groomer had ever told her that her dog was hard to groom, or if her dog had ever bitten another groomer.

Her answer was that she didn't think so, but the dog had come home from a couple of groomings acting upset.

The groom was very simple.

I chose to use a #3¾ blade on the body, with a lighter touch and scissor on the legs.

The #3¾ blade  on the top of the head, blending over the ears and down the sides of the head, and scissor the face nice and round, and in proportion with the rest of the body.

I dematted the ears then took about ½ an inch off of the ears.

As I said, it was a very simple, easy groom.

The dog turned out to be very good, although I don't think anyone had ever used a HV drier on him before.

I had to talk him through that, but he learned fast that it was not hurting him.

The only thing that he protested about were having the nails clipped, and that was only a tiny protest.

I don't know why, but for some reason I was very proud of this groom.

I thought that, compared to the way the dog looked when he came in, he really looked cute.

Because he had come in with the long, overgrown, old man looking beard, I thought that the shorter round face really made him look more puppyish.

(Sorry I don't have pictures to show. I have become a little gun shy about showing pictures when I am telling a story about a particular customer. Without the pictures, I could be talking about anyone in the world. :/  )

Anyway, when the customer came to pick up, I took the dog up to the owner.

I came out of the grooming room to the lobby.

Mother and daughter were standing at the counter.

I walked over to the daughter (she was closest to me) and stopped.

And stood there....

And stood there.....

And stood there.....

Nothing!

No greeting to the dog.

No squeals of happiness to see the dog.

No oohs and awes.

They didn't even reach for the dog.

I had to eventually just put him down on the floor and hand the daughter the leash.

Nothing!

I don't know if I felt more sorry for the dog, or hurt that my cute groom was not even noticed.

Don't get me wrong.

I am not looking for praise...well, maybe a tiny bit.

I certainly want the owners to be happy with my work and the groom.

But, come on.....at least a smile, or a smile at the dog.

At least tell the dog he looks good.

I have no idea whether they liked the groom or not.

I walked back into the grooming room feeling down and defeated.

I was hoping that the owners would like the groom.

I was hoping that they would think that his face looked really cute.

I was looking forward to their reaction.

It's funny.....it seems that whenever I do expect (or hope for) a good reaction from a customer....I get nothing.

Everytime it brings me down.

But, on the other hand...I can almost ALWAYS rely on the very simple, short hair bath owners to tell me that I did an absolutely wonderful job grooming their dog. ;)

It is one of the crazy things about pet grooming.

At least I knew that that Maltese went home looking really cute. :)

So, if this happens to you once in a while, try not to get down, or upset about it.

Just remember that you did the best job that you could, and you made that dog feel good.

What Would You Do?...First Groom

I think that one of the most challenging parts of a grooming career, no mater whether you are a new groomer, or a seasoned groomer, is understanding an owners instructions for how they want their dog to be groomed.

Some owners know exactly how they want their dogs groomed, and have no problem describing what they want.

Other dog owners like to leave it up to the groomer to groom their dog any way the groomer wishes as long as the dog is clean and cut short. lol

Some other dog owners you have to ask a million questions, and drag the answers out of them, to find out how they want their dog to look.

Then there are the dog owners that I had in the other day.

The owners that confuse the heck out of you.

Whenever I have an owner come in, especially with  a new puppy, I listen to what they want done, or think that they want done, and then I describe to them exactly how I am going to groom their dog, giving them the opportunity to change something if they want.

This has always worked for me.

Till the other day.....

This 8 month old pup came for her first grooming.

Oh my gosh, isn't she darling?

She turned out to be the sweetest thing.

Great for the bath, the dryer, and the grooming.

Your dream puppy. :)

I listened to her owners instructions.

They seemed pretty clear.

She did not really want any length off of the body, but she did not like all of the messy hair on the pups legs, feet, and chest.

She also wanted the face cleaned up so that she could see her dogs eyes.

Seemed simple, right?

Until I described back to the owner exactly what I was going to do.

I told the owner that I would leave the hair on the dogs back, neaten up the hair on the underbelly and chest, shorten the hair on the legs and feet, and shape up the face.

I thought that I more or less repeated what she had just said to me.

I could tell right away that she didn't seem to like what I described.

I got the impression that the owner did not think what I described would make the dog look any different than it looked at the moment.

Some of the things she was saying made me feel like I had misunderstood her when she told me that she like the length on the pups body as it was.

The more we talked, the more I went back and forth feeling confused, to feeling like I was sure she would like what I described once she saw her dog done.

So, I ended up doing exactly what I described to the owner, with one added difference.

Even though I heard the owner say that she liked the length of hair on the body as it was, I also got the impression that she wanted some of it off, or neatened.

Soooo, after scissoring and neatening the entire outline of the dog, I also used my thinning shears on some of the fly away hair on the sides of the legs and the pups body.

That way the dog looked nice and neat without taking length off of the body.

I scissored the face up into proportion with the rest of the body, and neatened the ears.

There was only one problem.

I hated the way the ears looked.

If this pup were mine, I would handstrip, or shave the ears. (she has cute ears)

The hair on them was so thin and stringy, that they looked messy.

I decided to scissor the top 1/4 of the ear to the leather, leaving the long hair hanging down the middle of the ears. (almost like tassels)

 I thought that it made her ears look neater without taking away the length that the owner wanted.

I would keep this little lady in a second.

What pleasure she was to groom.

I guess that I made the right decision.

The owner was happy.

This little pup is now on a 6 week schedule. :)

Product Review...Scissor Comb

As I have stated before, my reviews of products that I try are my opinions.

I try to talk about the pros and the cons that I found when using the product.

Hopefully my review will help another groomers decided whether or not they would like to try the product.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a link that another groomer had posted on one of the grooming forums.

She was curious about a product that she found on-line.

It was for Scissor Combs.

I clicked on the website, because I was also very curious about this product.

Because of the low price (at least I thought that it was low compared to so many other expensive grooming tools) I decided to try it out.

It took about a week and a half, but the Scissor comb arrived a couple of days ago.

The Scissor Comb came with instructions on how to put it on your scissors.

Before taking off the adhesive cover, I placed the comb against my scissors to see if I would need to cut the Scissor Comb to fit.

Yes, it can be cut to fit any size scissor.

After following the instructions, I stuck the comb to my scissors.

The comb is very light weight.

The adhesive also sticks immediately to the scissors.

So, you must make sure you have it lined up before you press the comb to your scissors.

I tried them out with my first dog of the day.

I have to admit it was a little awkward at first.

That could partly be because I am ambidextrous.

Meaning, I groom with both hands.

I am naturally left handed, but I scissor with my right hand.

Because of this, I usually use my left hand to comb while I am scissoring.

It makes a very nice flow when I scissor.

Comb, scissor, comb, scissor, without having to put my scissors down.

I though that the Scissor Comb could come in handy for those times when I have to hold a dog still with my left hand and can not comb, without putting my scissors down.

I have a feeling that a right handed groomer may benefit from the Scissor Comb more than me.

Mainly because I don't comb with my right hand.

That is why I found it very awkward to comb with the Scissor Comb in my right hand.

 At one point, I even tried switching the Scissor Comb to the other side of my scissors to see if it would not be as awkward to comb.

There was no problem combing, but the comb did get in the way with scissoring when placed on the wrong blade.

I had no problem removing the comb and trying it on the other side of the scissors.

The adhesive did leave a little residue. (I think that the longer the comb is on the scissors, the harder the comb may be to remove, and more adhesive may be left behind.)

I am pretty sure that a tiny bit of Goo-be-Gone would easily take care of that without harming your scissors.

Surprisingly, the Scissor Comb did not get in the way while scissoring the legs and body. (when placed on the scissors correctly)

The comb was so light weight that it did not add any weight to my scissors.

The comb was really nice when combing up the hair on the inside of the legs.

I wasn't that crazy about the comb when combing the body.

The comb did not glide through the hair as nicely as my medal comb does.

I found that it tended to get caught up in the hair when you tried to comb all of the way down to the skin.

As I said before, the comb did not get in the way when scissoring the body.

I lost count of how many times I reached for my medal comb.

Mainly because I kept forgetting to use the comb on my scissors.

Old habits die hard. :)

Most of the problems came when scissoring the topknot.

I tried using the Scissor Comb to comb up the topknot before scissoring.

I was able to comb the topknot, but the comb would get caught up in the  long hair. (there were no knots)

I was not able to comb the topknot out the way I like it before I start to scissor, so I did use my medal comb before I scissored anything.

Scissoring the top and sides of the topknot where no problem....

...but I was unable to hold and scissor the front of the topknot the way I normally would.

The Scissor Comb was in the way.

I needed to flip the scissors and twist my wrist in a way that I normally do not scissor.

Oh correction, I had no problem scissoring the right side of the topknot, but the Scissor comb did get in the way when scissoring my line over the top of the left ear.

Once again I needed to flip my scissors and wrist to get the comb out of the way.

I used  only the Scissor Comb to comb out the topknot while scissoring.

Again, it was a little awkward for me, but I guess with time I could get used to using the Scissor Comb.

I personally could not see using the Scissor Comb on a Standard Poodles topknot.

The teeth on the Scissor Comb are just too short to comb long hair.

After I finished the topknot with the Scissor Comb, I went over the topknot with my medal comb.

As you can see, The Scissor Comb didn't do a bad job, but the medal comb did bring up more hair that still needed some more scissoring.

I kept the Scissor Comb on my scissors all day.

I wanted to try it out on different coats.

It worked the best on a Goldendoodle Coat that I was scissoring.

The Scissor Comb seems to work best on thin, medium length coats.

As you can see, the teeth are not very long.

If you have to comb deep in the coat, the comb tends to get caught up and pulls the hair a little.

I will say that I am impressed that the comb rarely gets in the way while scissoring.

I have used it for two days now.

I find that, even though the comb is attached to my scissors at all times, I tend to forget to use it.

I naturally reach for my medal comb.

I also found today, that the comb also got in the way when I was trying to scissor the edges of a dogs ears leather close.

I didn't like that at all, it was dangerous to me.

                The Pros:                                                     The Cons:

~Lightweight                                                   ~Comb teeth too pointy and short

~Fits scissors well                                           ~Comb does not always glide

~Strong hold adhesive                                       smoothly through hair.

~Low cost                                                       ~Comb may tend to get in the

~For the most part, comb does not                     when scissoring around eyes

   get in the way of scissoring                              and ears.

~Do not have to put scissors down                  ~The comb is well made

   to comb hair.

As with any grooming tools, you either love them, or you don't.

I have several tools that I have bought over the years that are sitting in a cabinet not being used.

Not because they didn't work as intended, but because I didn't feel comfortable, or like using them.

Some groomers may find that they love using the Scissor Comb, others may not like it at all.

I have mixed feelings.

I like the idea of it, but as I said at the top of this post, because I don't normally comb with my right hand, it feels very awkward to me when I try to comb with the Scissor Comb.

Well, I guess when it comes right down to it, this reviews stinks.

I  have been no help at all.

Sorry about that. :/

The link for the Scissor Comb is at the top of this post.

Go to the website and check it out if you would like.

There is a video demonstrating the Scissor Comb for you to watch and decide for yourself.

I think that the price is reasonable.

I am not sorry that I bought one to try it out. :)