Tuesday's Tip #60: Cheap Mat Splitter

Hi Everyone!

It has been a very long month.

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who left the nice comments on my last post.

It is amazing how fast someones life can turn around.

My Father has gone from living in his own home and driving to a Hospital stay, then rehab, and now will be moving into Assisted Living with 24/7 care.

I am very thankful that I found him when I did.

I am also very grateful that he still knows who I am, even though everything else is so mixed up in his head.

I had hoped to bring my Father home to live with me, but unfortunately he will require around the clock care.

I am also very lucky that I found a beautiful, very caring place for him to live that is close to my home so that I can see and check on him often.

Once again, Thank You for all of your good wishes! 

On to Tuesday's Tip:

I know that a lot of groomers prefer to just cut or clips mats out of, or off of a dogs coat.

There are also groomers out there, like me, who like to save a coat, face, ears, or tails.

Many groomers have their own way that they like to demat a coat.

My tip today is for using a tool that will help split large mats into smaller mats so that they will be brushed out more easily.

There are many groomers that like to use mats rakes.

That's fine as long as groomers are very careful while using them.

Personally, I don't care for them.

Too many blades to worry about getting caught up with the skin that the mat is pulling.

I like the single blade mat splitter.

(Don't ask me why I have three of them. ??)

I feel like I have more control using just the one blade.

I also know exactly what and where that one blade is cutting at all times. 

 This single blade mat splitter only costs around $5, but there is one problem.

It is hard as heck to find replacement blades for it.

The blades are small, narrow razor blades that are sold in a cartridge (as shown are).

These blades have to be changed fairly often, because they tend to lose their sharpness quickly, but they are great when they are sharp.

The splitter goes through the mat like a hot knife through butter.

It is also a very dangerous tool, and must be used very slowly and carefully, preferably on a dog that does not jump around.

Also, the blades, when you can find them, are not cheap.

If you use the splitter a lot and want to keep it sharp, it can turn into and expensive tool.

There is a cheaper alternative....

A letter opener......yes, I said a letter opener.

Not just any old letter opener.

It has to look something like the one pictured here.

This one came from Wal Mart for a whooping .97 cents.

You want a letter opener where the blade is surrounded by plastic.

The orange line shows the part of the letter opener that will be between the dogs body and the mat.

The plastic point helps glide the blade through the mat.

 This dog has been bathed and blow dried.

Most of the mat easily brushed out while fluff drying, but there are still a few larger mats that need to be split into smaller mats so that they can be brushed out more gently.

 The pointy tip of the letter opener goes down behind the mat, between the mat and skin.

**Always make sure that the blade is facing out, away from the dogs body.

With the grooming mat splitter tool (shown in the above pictures), all you need to do is get behind the mat and pull the blade through.

With the letter opener it is a little different.

It is best to use a picking motion.

Down, up, down, up.

Push the blade down into the mat and than pull back up.

 Down, up, down, up.

**Always away from the dogs body. Never use sideways.

  Now the mats are smaller.....

...... and much easier to brush out.

 The mat is gone and there is no hole in the coat that would be left if it had been scissored or clipped out.

Here is a quick video of me using this inexpensive letter opener as a mat splitting tool:

I feel that the letter opener is a little safer than the Mat Splitter Tool, but it is still a razor blade and must always be used very carefully.

Always make sure that you are only cutting through mat and not pulling skin up into the blade.

Because this letter opener is so cheap...even if it dulls after using it on only one dog (big job)...you can easily charge the customer an extra dollar for the use of the demat tool.

Throw it away and grab a new letter opener for the next demat job.

Hope this tip helps someone. :)

Away For Awhile

I have been unable to blog this past week due to the fact that all of my free time is spent at the Hospital with my Father right now.

Hoping that he will recover soon. 

I will try to find time to answer questions in recent comments, so bare with me please.

Thank you. :)

Fickle Me

For months I have been letting the hair grow out on my toy Poodles face.

I wanted to put him in a Bedlington cut.

It was taking forever for the hair between his eyes and on the bridge of his nose to grow out.

His hair has finally grown out enough to do a decent Bedlington face on.

Sadly, his best friend, my Standard Poodle, has pulled out most of the tassel hair that he had on the end of his ears.

Since they both like to use each others ears as pull toys.

He was so overdue for a good hair cut.

But,  fickle me....

I have gotten tired of not being able to see his eyes.

So after waiting all this time for his facial hair to grow, I didn't do the Bedlington face on him after all.

Plus his ears no longer had tassels.

 So, I did something different.

I can see his eyes now!

 He is bathed every Saturday, and he was cute when he was long and fluffy, but it is so nice to have a nice hair cut on him now.

Keeping Faith....

...in your customers.

Sometimes it is hard to keep your faith in people when you work a customer service based job.

 After 30 years of grooming and dealing with pet owners, I have been surprised and hurt by the actions of some customers over the years, but for the most part, I have been able to keep my faith in my customers intact.

Yesterday that faith was tested.

 We had a pretty regular Self-Serve customer come in to bathe her dog.

 She bathed the dog, and I clipped the dogs nails.

 When it was time for her to leave, it seemed like all heck had broken loose.

 The Self-Serve customer was preparing to leave, another customer was in the lobby picking up a full groom dog, and our supply guy was also in the lobby with a delivery and waiting to get paid.

 I had to get back to the dog that I had been doing before I stopped to clip the SS nails, so my husband was taking care of everyone in the lobby.

After taking the full serve customer his dog, my husband came into the grooming room.

Husband: "Did the Self-Serve customer pay you after you cut the nails?"
Me: "No, why?"
Husband: "She left."
Me: "What do you mean she left?"
Husband: "She walked by everybody in the lobby and went out to her car"
Me: "She probably just took her dog to her car and will come back in and pay."
Groomer Daughter: "Mom! You are too trusting! We just lost a Self-Serve fee!"
Me: "No, I am sure she will come back in and pay."

My husband exits the grooming room to go pay the delivery man.

He returns a few minutes later.

Husband: "She's gone."
Me: "The Self-Serve customer?"
Groomer Daughter: "I told you!"
Husband: "Her car is gone."
Me: "She will be back, I know she will. She did not mean to leave without paying. She has been coming here too long."
Husband: "I don't know."
Grooming Daughter: "She is not coming back."
Bather Son: (shaking head at poor trusting delusional Mother)
Me: "She is a very nice lady. She will realize that she forgot to pay and come back.
Husband: "We'll see."
Groomer Daughter: "You're too trusting Mom. 
Bather Son: (still shaking head)

We do not keep customer records on Self-Serve customers.

So there was no way of contacting this customer.

Ten minutes later...

I see the Self-Serve customer walking up to the door.

A few minutes later my husband walks back into the grooming room.

Husband: "She said that she got half way home and something didn't feel right. Then she remembered that she didn't come back in and pay after she got the dog in the car."
Me: "I told you, you have to have faith in people to do the right thing."

Happy, Happy, Happy

Smooth Clipping

I had a blog reader ask a question about getting a smooth clip on a dog.

How to keep from having the blade leave lines in the coat.

I was going to answer her question in the comments, but then thought that showing pictures may help better.

First of all, if you are having trouble getting a smooth look on just a few dogs here and there, the problem could just be the coat type on that particular dog.

Every once in awhile I will come across a coat that is very frustrating to get a nice smooth look on.

Sometimes it is almost impossible to do with the clipper blade and I would have to follow up with scissors and thinning shears to smooth out the clip.

I know that some groomers out there like to use blades in reverse to get a nice smooth clip on a dog.

I am personally not crazy about reverse clipping.

I think it damages some coats.

I also think that there is more of a chance of clipper irritation when reverse clipping.

I feel that some dogs do not like the feel of the blade running backwards against the grain of their coat.

Reverse clipping, depending on the blade that you use, may also take the coat a lot shorter than the owner wanted.

As I stated, these are just my own opinions.

I am much more comfortable clipping with the grain on a dogs coat.

That being said....clipper lines....

If you are having problems with clipper lines on every dog that you clip, look at your equipment first.

Are your blades sharp?

Are your blades clean ?

Is the blade lever on your clipper new, or in good shape?

Is your clipper powerful enough for the blades that you are using?

I ask the last question, because I use a Andis 2 Speed Ultra Edge Clipper.

I don't particularly understand why this clipper is a two speed, because the first speed (lowest speed) s*cks.

I never use the lowest speed.

I would be there all day clipping just one dog.

If the answer is 'yes' to all of the questions above, and the equipment is in good working order, then there is a pretty good chance that the clipper line problems are because of the way the groomer is clipping.

If the is 'no to any or all of the above questions, that could be the cause of clipper line and stair-step problems.

~Clipper lines in a coat can also be caused by clipping to quickly.

~Using too much pressure while running the blade over the coat.

~Not clipping with the growth of the hair.

~Not keeping the skin taunt while running the blade over the coat.

When I was in grooming school, I was taught just one way of clipping.

Start at the back of the neck and run the blade down the back in one continuous sweep of the blade.

Continue making long sweeps with the blade until you have removed all of the hair.

Of course, in the grooming school that I went to, every dog was clipped with a #7 blade or shorter.

If you were getting lines you were told to press harder with the blade, stretch the skin really tight, or go to a shorter blade to smooth the dog out.

Makes me shiver to remember that.

Anyway, I feel that there is not just one way to use clippers on every coat and (dog) body type.

There are so many different coats.

Course, fine, thin, silky, thick, wavy, cottony, cowlicks, and a mixture of all those I just mentioned.

There are actually some nice thick, plushy coats that you can take nice long sweeps with the clipper  (with the growth on the hair) all over the dog and get a nice smooth cut.

Then there are others that you need to clip a little differently.

This coat is somewhat wavy, a mixture of soft and course hair.

It is not too thick or too thin.

This dog is getting a short summer cut with a #5F blade.

First let me say that I only clip clean, dry coats.

This dog has been bathed, HV dryed, brushed and fluffed up, then a comb run through the coat to make sure that all tangles are gone..

The better the coat is prepared before the clip, the nicer finish you will get.

To this day, I do still take that first swipe all of the way down the back to the base of the tail.

I determine, with this first swipe, just how quickly I can run the blade through this particular coat.

If I go too fast, will the blade catch, there will be stair-step marks in the coat, or the blade will just ride over the coat only clipping some of the hair?

The first sweep is where I adjust the speed of my clipping.

This coat clips pretty easily and I can clip it fairly quickly.

But, using long clipping strokes does not work on this coat.

In order to avoid clipper lines, I clip in short strokes, clipping with the growth of the hair.

I do not make any sudden turns with the blade.

If needed, I will place my other hand on the dog to hold (not stretch) the dogs skin still if I feel it moving under the hair with the blade.

When picking up the clipper to make another sweep, lower the blade back onto the dog gently and increase the pressure as you make your stroke, so that you do not dig the blade in each time you start to clip.

I  also like to overlap my strokes.

Don't worry if the cut looks a little choppy while you are clipping the first go over.

This happens with some coats.

If you have some lines, you can back-brush the hair and run the clipper over the coat a second time to smooth coat.

This coat is thick and wiry with a very cottony soft undercoat.

I have to run the blade slowly over this coat to keep from getting lines and stair-steps.

Some groomers may be saying, "clip slow? I have other dogs to groom, why would I want to clip slow?"

The way I look at it is this; I would rather spend a little extra time running the blade over the body slowly to a void the lines and stair-steps in the first place then spend possibly a whole lot of time trying to get the lines out of the coat once they have been clipped into it.

The owner of this Cocker likes a #15 blade used on the back.

I also use short, slow, overlapping strokes to get a nice smooth finish.

The other question was about scissor lines.

The best advice I can give about this is to train yourself to keep your hand as still and steady as you can as you scissors.

"Still!?"

"How the h*ll do you keep your hand still while you scissor!?"

"What in the world is she talking about?"

Hold on...I'll try to explain. :)

What I mean is, keep still and steady in the area that you are scissoring.

Ugh....that doesn't make sense.....

Hmmmmmm.

Okay, as you scissor, do not lift the scissors with each cut and then try to drop them back down to where you just cut.

Scissor... keeping the scissors in place... move it over slightly... take another cut.

This is what I mean by keeping the scissor still and steady.

Do not keep pulling the scissors away and putting them back to where you are scissoring.

Gliiiiiide your scissors over the coat while keeping them in place.

There....is that a better explanation?

Did that make sense?

I don't tell people how to hold scissors, because I have seen several groomers hold scissors in a way that is strange and painful looking to me, but their scissor work is beautiful.

Something that helped me with scissoring (I am left handed but scissor with my right hand...long story) was to press my hand to a table and then just move my thumb back and forth, keeping the rest of my fingers still, to strengthen my thumb.

After I could do that without my thumb getting tiered, I would then hold my hand in the air and do the same exercise, keeping my four fingers, hand and arm as still as I could while moving only my thumb back and forth.

This helped me to keep my hand still and steady while scissoring, hence no scissor lines.

I hope that this has helped a little. :)