After A Long Day....

....of grooming, you deserve a good laugh.

That is just what I got yesterday when I saw a cartoon that a friend of mine posted on Facebook.

I almost fell off of my chair laughing at this cartoon, so I thought that I would share it with my fellow groomers, and pet owners.

I really hope that it does not offend anyone.

You never know now-a-days. lol

Well, I thought it was hysterical.

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂

Monday Makeover #9....A Simple Smoothy

This little lady came in for a simple smoothy.

In other words a nice short cut all over.

I chose to use a #5F blade on this dogs body and legs.

It would give a nice short cut without taking the hair too close to the skin.

I  personally don't care to use a #7F on a white dog if I don't have to.

I was pretty sure that the #5F would be short enough.

 As always, I clip all of my dogs after the bath.

I have found that a Jack Russel's coat tends to hold the water in the thick, plushy coat, under the wiry topcoat.

It is important to make sure that you have the coat completely dry, down to the skin.

If the coat is still a little damp when you go to clip, the clip will not be smooth.

 I clipped her body, legs, and tail with the #5F blade.

I would go over a section of her body once....

....then I would back brush that section that I clipped.

 I would back brush to left up the hair to clip again.

This would help get the clip as smooth as possible.

The owner wanted the head and face very short also, but I did not want to use a blade on the face.

I opted to do a modified Schnauzer head.

 

I clipped the top of the head with the #5F blade in reverse.

I clipped the top and sides of the head.

I left the eyebrows and beard to scissor.

 I scissored the eyebrow very short and close to the eye, only leaving a hint of the brow.

I still wanted her personality to show when she moved her eyes, if that makes any sense.

I scissored beard short and up to her lip line.

Then I scissored the sides of the beard to round it off and give it a softer appearance.

I also scissored all the the stray, wiry hairs off of the ears.

Just that little hint of eyebrow still gives her personality while still taking the face very short like the owner wanted.

She is now a short haired Jack Russel.

Is it just me, or doesn't she look younger now?

And happy.

I think she likes her cut too? :)

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂

I Have Wanted To Do This For So Long

Every groomer has them.

There those dogs that you groom the way the owner wants, but you so badly want to do something different on the dog.

Sometimes it is something very simple that would make a big difference.

Well, at least I think that it would make a big difference.

I have been grooming this little lady since she was a puppy.

From the very beginning her owners did not want me to trim her ears.

They are slow growing and have taken about 8 years to get this long.

I have to force myself not to trim those ears every time she comes in.

It drives me crazy.

They are so stringy and fuzzy looking to me.

But she is not my dog, so I do what the owner wants.

I am not even going to talk about all the Bichons that I groom that have the same kind of ears that the owners like left long, but that I think would look so much better short.

Well, the other day the owner of this dog walked in, and the first thing she said to me was, "Take her ears short! They are getting into everything."

What?!

Really?!

I even double checked with her just to make sure that I heard her right.

Yep!

She wanted them short.

This dog is owned by two sisters.

For a fleeting moment the thought past through my to head to ask; "Does your sister want the ears short too?"

No, I didn't ask that.

That was between her and her sister.

I couldn't wait to shorten those ears.

I didn't want to take the chance that she would change her mind.

I have wanted to shorten those ears for so long.

Now, you would think that the very first thing I did after the bath was to pick up those scissors and trim those ears.

 Nope.

I wanted to savor the moment.

I did her entire clip and saved the ears for last.

She is pretty with the long ears.

The problem is that those ears don't stay looking pretty when they are so long.

By the end of the day they will be hanging in stringy clumps, and wet from floating in the water bowl as she drinks.

Or, they will be wet and clumpy from being stuck in her mouth.

First I scissored one ear.....

.....then I scissored the other.

Look how nice the hair on her ears looks now.

 

And look!

She is happy too.

It is amazing how just trimming a dogs ears can make your day.

Only for a groomer!!

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂

Hi........

 .......my name is Radar.

I live at My Furry Friends.

My previous caregiver put me in a cage one day and sat me outside of My Furry Friends...and left me there.

I have been living here ever since.

I spend a lot of my time in the employee room bugging my new owners son while he is trying to do his school work.

Or, I play with Jessica's dog Copper.

Lately I have been spending my days wondering around the shop.

I like to sit at the front door and watch the birds in the parking lot.

Sometimes I jump up on the table in the lobby to munch on the bamboo plant, but someone always seems to catch me doing that.

I really like to jump up onto the counter when I hear the door bell ring.

My owners think that I do it because I like people and want them to pet me, but I really do it because I like to see some of the people jump backwards when I startle them. bahahahaha!!

I also like sticking my head in purses that customers sit on the counter.

Oh, and guess what?

Some of those dogs that come into the shop are scared of me!!

bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!

A dog scared of a cat!!

Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!!! 

My owners are really no fun at all, because every darn time a dog is scared of me, someone comes and picks me up and puts me in another room.

That's okay, there are always other dogs coming in. :)

Sometimes I like to go in the grooming room and get in the front window.

I can sit there forever watching people, and the birds that live in the sign above the shop.

Every once in a while I really get a treat when one of those silly squirrels come over to the shop from across the street.

Today I was sitting in the front window for a while, but it got boring because there were no birds and no people to watch.

So, I sat behind my owners backboard for a while watching the dogs in the kennels, but they were boring too.

What to do......what to do?

Hmmmmmm, Mom is working on a dog.

 Whatcha doing Mom?

Can I play with this dog?

That goofy dog wouldn't even look at me.

She wasn't even scared of me.

She actually turned her face away and showed me her butt!!!

Can you believe that!!

Well, I'll get her attention!

NOTHING!!

Not a single reaction!!

Darn you Mom for clipping my nails.

How is a cat supposed to get a dogs attention when you clip my beautiful, sharp pointy nails off?

Well, this has turned out to be no fun either.

  I am outa here.

I think that I will go bother Ben, or play with Copper, or eat some Bamboo, or startle a customer, or......

 

 I'll let Riley chew on me for a while.

Bye.

Oh, I forgot......
Happy Grooming, Radar

I am Back!!......I Think

Boy, it feels like I have been gone forever.

I think that I will have numbers spinning in my head for awhile yet.

Anyway, my daughter and I just got back from Intergroom.

Other than getting stuck in accident traffic on the way there, (our 3 hour drive turned into a 4 hour and 20 minute ride) and the 20 minute ride we took around Secaucus New Jersey because I missed the first exit on the way back home, we had a really nice time.

Jessica and I didn't compete in any grooming contests, but we did attend some of the educational classes.

I always say that if I walk out of the class having learned at least one thing, it was worth the money.

I was scheduled to go to 6 classes, but skipped two of them.

I skipped one class on Sunday to meet up with one of my blog readers.

Hi Shelley!

Shelley and I had a nice talk while we sat watching the Poodle grooming competition.

She gave me an idea for helping other people with their grooming.

I will be looking into that.

Monday I got caught up in watching and photographing the Creative Grooming contest, so I missed another class.

Wow!

There were a lot of really great entries.

I have tons of pictures that I will be working on and making into a few collages.

Hopefully I will post them sometime this week.

The other four classes I had mixed feelings about.

The first class was very informative, only I already knew everything that the speaker talked about, but the class was very beneficial for a lot of other groomers.

There was one little thing that the speaker talked about that I had not thought of before, so the class was not a waste for me.

The speaker was a very experienced groomer, but after talking a little about herself......good grief, how do I put this without sounding bad?

Let's see........

The way she grooms now in her career is not how the everyday pet groomer grooms.

The prices that she charges are not realistic with what the average, everyday groomer is able to charge.

I am not knocking her.....more power to her if she can get that kind of money for her grooms, and find the customers that will pay it.

Most groomers are worth more than the amount that they are able to charge for their grooms, but the area (economy) that they live in, or shop owner that they work for will not allow them to charge for all of the hard, physical, skilled work that it takes to groom dogs.

I would love to charge the hourly rate that the speaker gets, but I know that there is NO way that most of my customers could handle that kind of charge every four to six weeks.

So, I find it a little hard to sit and listen to the speaker tell the class to 'just do it'.

Okay, I am getting off of my soapbox.

The above comments are just my personal opinion. :/

The next class was a little disappointing also.

Mainly for how unorganized it was.

Two speakers were giving this class.

One speaker was late...very late.

They had to go find her.

On top of that, they didn't even have a dog there for the demo.

The speaker was also very hard to hear.

Anyway, the class finally got started, without the other speaker. (she did show up a little later)

The fact that I did learn something in this class made up for the disorganization.

I did not mention the names of the speakers, or the names of the classes on purpose.

I will name the name of the speaker of the next two classes that I went to, because she is a great speaker that I enjoyed listening to very much.

Daryl Conner

If you ever go to a Grooming Expo, and Ms. Conner is speaking, please take her class.

I have heard her speak at both Groom Expo Hershey and Intergroom. 

She is a very experienced, down to earth Professional Pet Groomer. 

She has a ton of advice and her classes are not boring in any way.

The first class was about the 'day in the life' of a groomer.

Ms. Conner made the class fun and interactive.

Every groomer in that room could relate to everything she was talking about.

The class was very informative and helpful.

I did not really learn anything new in her class, (we have both been grooming for about the same amount of time) but that didn't matter, I enjoyed it very much.

I did find out that she is a Certified Cat Groomer, and I would love to see her give a class on tips for handling cats. :)

Her next class was about 'Check them out---when they arrive'.

It was very informative and fun also.

I did learn something in this class.

Well, I learned to look at something a little differently then the way I had been doing it. :-)

Don't forget...if you get a chance to listen to Daryl Conner speak, it will be well worth your time. :)

So, over all we had a really nice time at Intergroom.

I'll have those Creative Grooming photos up as soon as I can.

I also have almost 50 comments waiting for me. :/

I will get to them as soon as I can also.

Glad to be back blogging. :)

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂