About Me:

I am a professional Pet Groomer. I have been grooming for 28 years. This Blog is a kind of diary of my work. I wish I had started years ago, writing some of the experiences I have had while grooming. Most days are fun, some can be sad, some can be just down right crazy. If you are a pet owner and come across this blog, I hope it helps you understand how your pet is groomed. If you are a Pet Groomer, I hope you can relate to some of the stories. Maybe even learn a grooming tip or can leave a friendly grooming tip for me. There is always something to learn, no matter how long you have been grooming.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

About Time

It has taken me forever to put these pictures together of the Rescue Round-up at Hershey last month.
There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day lately.

Anyway, there were three Rescue Round-up competitions this year.
The main competition on Sunday morning was an 'invitational', meaning that groomers who had already placed in previous Rescue Round-up competitions were invited back to compete.
A competition of winners.

There were openings for this competition, so Groom Expo had two smaller Rescue Round-up competitions leading up to the 'Invitational'.
The winners from those two smaller competitions would also compete in the 'Invitational'.

Got that??

Well, it doesn't matter.

Just have fun looking at the pictures.

I made a collage of each groomer.
They are before pictures and pictures all during the competition.
Unfortunately I don't have pictures of each finished dog, just close to finished.

Why not any finished pictures?

I asked my son the same thing, because he was the one in charge of taking pictures since both Jess and I were competing. 
He said that he did not get any finished pictures because it got too crowded up close to the stage, and they were asking for pictures to be taken after the Judging.

Even though he did not get finished pictures, I think that you will be able to see the beautiful work that these groomers did to help these dogs find new forever homes.

The competition starts with all of the groomers picking numbers and the matching those numbers up with a rescue dog.





This was the little lady whose number that I picked.

She was very filthy and matted.

She was also very sweet.






This was the little guy that my daughter got to groom.

He was a very young dog, but acted like a very old man.

His skin was in awful shape, and he was also filthy and full of fleas.




I was one of the first three groomers to get the dog in the tub.

Normally I would have soaped and rinsed this dog at least three times to get her as squeaky clean as I could, but we had a 10 minute time limit, because other groomers needed to get to the tubs.

I scrubbed her the best I could with one bath.

I mixed a whitening shampoo and a medicated shampoo that I had brought just for the competition.



 She wasn't what I would consider bad for the bath, but she was all over that tub.

Pacing back and forth, back and forth.

The dryer scared her a little at first, but she took to it pretty fast.

I was able to blow a lot of the matting out of her legs, but her body was very tightly matted.

I got the mat far enough away from her body to get a #4F under the mat.







Jessica said that her dog was very good in the tub.

I think that he was so happy to get those fleas off of him.







She also said that her dog was a little scared of the drier.

Sadly, it was the only time that he showed any emotion other than sadness.







After being bathed and dried, we were back up on stage with our dogs.

Now I had to decide exactly what I was going to do with this little lady.







Jessica's dog had so many different lengths going on with his coat.

He had ripped so much of his hair out from chewing and scratching that he even had several bald spots.





I was able to brush out the small amount of mats that were still left in my little girls legs, but the hair on her body had to be clipped off with a #4F blade.

Her face had already been shaved by someone else, but it needed to be shaped up and neatened.






 Jessica didn't even bother plugging her clippers in.

She decided to completely hand scissor her dog to try and even up all of the different lengths.

Someone had also shaved her dogs face before the competition.










This is my dogs before and (almost) after.  :)










This is Jessica's dog before and (almost) after.








Now on to the other great groomers.








Professional Groomer Sue Watson











Professional Groomer Taryn Beattie









Professional Groomer
 Eric Chassey











Professional Groomer
 Megan Arend









Professional Groomer 
Hyuk Hwan Kwon











 Professional Groomer Kaitlynn Gove










Professional Groomer 
Nicole Kallish











Professional Groomer
 Lisa Leady










Professional Groomer 
Yoshiko Winner











Professional Groomer
 Angela Menard








Third place winner 

Professional Groomer
 Jeannie Traviss









 Second place winner

Professional Groomer 
Stephanie Stempfer










First place winner

Professional Groomer
 Anne Francis









All of the groomers did beautiful work.

Now on to getting the Creative grooming picture together.
Hopefully I will have them ready before the next Groom Expo. lol



18 comments:

  1. Well, personally, I think you were robbed of at least second place!

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  2. Thank you for your incredible blog. I am a pet-owner and ex-husband of a professional groomer.
    I have now read all entries, and am impressed by your openness regarding ways to groom, materials, best practice and dealing with customers and pets.
    By the way that you write, I can completely picture how you are talking to the pets to get them to relax and enjoy ( or at least accept) their grooming
    Though I can understand that sometimes a customer could be upset by finding a description of him/her or his/her pet in here, my opinion is that, in general, it points to their own inaptitude of caring for their own pet and/or lack of respect for other people, that got them there in the first place.

    I hope that you can care for a lot more animals (and their owners) in the future, and continue to do "Happy Grooming" and let us know about it through your blog.

    Hans, Ireland

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  3. What a wonderful event! Great work, Lisa!

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  4. İnteresting article, I loved pictures

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  5. Hope all is well. I miss reading your posts!

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  6. You've not posted for a month now - I hope all is well.

    S xxx

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  7. Thank you for your blog! I started shaving/grooming my own dog and my brother in laws dog and your tips have proved to be very helpful for me.

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  8. Hi! I have a question for you
    I just had my pomeranian groomed with 1 inch left all over. Will that damage the undercoat? My groomer said that's the longest she could do

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  9. I just finished reading all of your blog and it was wonderful. Now I have a greater appreciation for the profession and what to look for in a groomer.

    A side note to your daughter...
    You are so talented, please don't let your customers drive you away from the business. And your hair is gorgeous, by the way. :)

    Much love from Amber, in Missouri

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  10. Hi Lisa,
    I hope you are still watching this feed. I just wanted to tell you about a dog from last Saturday at the Humane Society where I volunteer. I was walking to his kennel to take him for a groom. One of the managers stopped me and told he that "Rocky" would probably have to be put under to be groomed because his mats were so painful no one could handle him. Obviously, I'm intriuged.
    Rocky was maybe a shih tzu/terrier mix. When I picked him up he whined. I brougt him to the groom room. There was no way to bath him first. Using a 10 blade I started on his face. The gunk below his eys was so massive he could only barely see above it. He was a champ and let me shave it right off.
    Then I started on his bum. It was putrid! This sweet boy stood like a statue. I chipped away at the mass to find an area about 2 inchx2 inches of red, raw very angry flesh.
    I slowly and calmly worked with the 10 blade around his body. His tummy had sores where the fur had pulled and irritated it.
    His legs were completely encased. At the end I washed and dried him.
    Anyway, I just wanted to credit you with making that groom possible. In addition to all the awesome groom tips. I was also able to walk into the groom without expecting to "fight" the dog.
    Thank you so much for your help!
    -elizabeth, UT.

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  11. As a new mommy of a Pomapoo puppy, I have spent countless hours online looking for information about grooming and all things high maintenance dogs. I will be taking puppy to her second grooming session tomorrow. Your blog is amazing because of your honesty and wealth of information and pictures you share. Just wanted you to know this dog owner is thirsty for your knowledge and insight. Thank you. Because of your experience, I hope puppy and I will become awesome clients for our groomer. Thank you again for your blog.

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  12. Hi Lisa,
    I just wanted you to know that I really miss your blog entries. I'm just starting out as a new grommer and there is still so much information here for me though. You're a really great teacher!
    I hope all is well for you and your family. Thank you so very much for all the information here.

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  13. aww that's too sweet, i am so fantastic just loving it. Lost and found

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  14. Your daughter's pic when facing sideways (profile shot) reminds me a lot of Sarah Silverman.

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  15. I found your blog when I was looking for a different sort of information but now I am very glad to read through your blog. The information available here is great and awesome that is related to dog grooming. Thanks for sharing..

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  16. Are you not doing your blog anymore, I'm missing it :-(

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  17. Looking at these pictures is like watching Extreme Makeover for dogs! I am so glad all of these little guys got to be cleaned up and pampered. I love the look and smell of a freshly groomed dog, especially if it usually has long or tangled fur otherwise. All the groomers did a very good job! http://www.tampapuppypalace.com/Grooming.html

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  18. I hope all is well. I miss your posts and I'm sure others do too. Could you let us know if your ending the blog?

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