Online Appointment Booking

I have been researching online appointment booking software, websites, services, etc.

I thought I might use StorVantage.com because it's 19.99/month. But the data entry I mananged to do was a painful and there is no report to show me what I entered.
Also, the reporting feature as a whole is really lame and over the last year they haven't really improved it. I think I want the reporting more than anything. One other problem is that the feature to schedule via a smart phone is still in the testing phase.

I have recently found AppointmentsPlus but the pricing is much higher - 49.99/month or 79.99/month. Also, the feature to schedule by smart phone is still in the testing phase.

Since I make house calls, allowing clients to make their own appointments online is kind of risky too. I would have to limit the clients to certain days or times based on the neighborhoods they live in.

I think what I really need is the reporting. I want to see if I can download my appointments from my gmail calendar to an excel spreadsheet and then report off or it or use some macros to see what I need to see. Basically, I want a quick list of which dogs need to be groomed. So a list of clients based on the last date I groomed their dog and the amount of time the client usually waits between grooms.

About the Website Again

A long time has passed again but I've got a new found interest in the blog world.

The latest status on the website is that I got everything sorted out with transferring the domain to the new web hosting service, and I got a second domain name - maltesegroomingnyc.com ( breed specific ) in addition to my original gooddoggroomer.com

Currently they are the same website but I thought maybe I'd get more traffic with the two domain names.

I haven't changed the website much - a few changes here and there. A hand stripping page, some more photos and testimonials, a before and after page, a change in service area.

I've been thinking about a major overhaul but the site has been working for me, as is, for a long time now.

Website Hosting Issues

Well, it's been a long time since I've blogged. I have to admit it. I have been busy growing the dog grooming business. I have come a long way in a year and I have had some problems along the way.

For one thing, I tried to barter dog grooming services in exchange for website redesign. However, it didn't work out. It was a learning experience to say the least. I know the the person I was bartering with was just as frustrated as I was.

Recently I also had a problem with the free web hosting that I was getting from a friend. The server was hacked into and then my website and email was down for a couple of weeks. I finally chose to move my web hosting to a paid service and let my friend sort out whether he wants to keep hosting websites or not. He has gotten into an e-commerce business and is not really in the website design and hosting business anymore.

While I was looking for a hosting service I decided to purchase some additional domain names in an attempt to get more qualified web traffic. I specialize in grooming small dogs under 20 pounds so I'm thinking of having a domain name specific to small dog grooming. Also I'd like to get domain names that are specific to grooming maltese, shih-tsu, yorkie, toy poodle breeds. I also would like to have more local clients so I may purchase some domains that are more specific to neighborhoods.

I have had some trouble with transferring my original domain name registration from one service to another. I guess I can't follow instructions well. I started the transfer but I had Private Registration and that caused a problem. I cancelled Private Registration and then the contact information was causing errors. I changed the contact information and reinitiated the transfer but it failed because of the change in the contact information. Supposedly this prevents transfer. The email message I got said, "The express written objection may be the result of a pending or recently completed Change of Registered Name Holder. This is an opt-in process during which the new Registered Name Holder agrees not to transfer for 60-days." Now I won't be able to transfer it until September!

Adopting/buying a dog

OK, so this week has been stressful. Staying up late to de-clutter, clean, tie up wires... and getting emails from the puppies' owner. This post is a bit of a saga but worth reading if you're thinking of adopting from a breeder or just someone whose dog happen to have puppies.

When we visited last week, the owner told us she liked the black male puppy best but also that she can't keep a puppy because that would mean having 3 dogs and that's too many.

We started getting emails about the puppies. It seemed like the owner wasn't really sure we should be adopting the puppies. (Or should I say buying them. She asked for $375 each! She didn't mention this at all when we said we wanted to adopt 2 of them but we were thinking we'd offer $200 each anyway. We negotiated down to $325 each. They are mutts so this still seems steep to me but we went along with it because we thought we know what kind of home they are coming from and we know they are not inbred or sick.)

The owner's emails said various things about the black male puppy - he's deaf, he's anxious, scared of everything, doesn't like visitors, gets sick when nervous, cries a lot. She questioned us about our jobs and free time to take care of the puppies (I guess it's natural). She said the female puppy chews everything - no biggy, I mean she's a puppy, teething, right?

Another email said she couldn't bring the puppies on Saturday (when she was coming with Max and Izzy for their grooming) because Izzy, the mom dog, would get really upset if she left the puppies with us. I offered to pick them up Sunday morning but she said no. We wanted to get the puppies on Saturday or early Sunday so we could spend time with them before having to go to work on Monday.

By Thursday, we were concerned about the daily email. I called but only got voicemail and then another email. I spoke to her on the phone Friday night to see what was going on. She sounded fine and we were going to see her, Max, and Izzy for their grooming appointment on Saturday and she finally agreed to a Sunday morning pickup of the puppies. Saturday she seemed fine too and spent the grooming time talking to my girlfriend about everything.

Sunday morning we went to pick up the puppies. The owner looked awful, having been crying all night about giving up the black male puppy. She said we couldn't have him. We thought about it and decided not to take any puppies. We thought we'd adopt 2 dogs somewhere else, no bad feelings. We stayed about an hour and played with the parent dogs and the 3 puppies that were still there. When we got up to leave without any puppies the owner said she'd changed her mind and we could buy the 2 puppies!

We were so happy! We called the owner about an hour later to say the puppies were doing well. No problems at all. They were happy, eating, drinking, pooping and peeing. We had 6 different neighbors meet the puppies that day. Then around 4pm the owner's boyfriend called to say that the owner had been crying all day and that he had to come take the black male dog back. We didn't know what to make of this. We thought it was the nice thing to do to give the dog back to her but at the same time it wasn't fair to us. We'd paid for the dogs! If anyone reading this ever pays for a dog I recommend getting a receipt and a document that transfers ownership of the dog! Get all the veterinary records too!

We wanted 2 dogs. We thought about whether we wanted to return both dogs or just the one. Our instinct was that we didn't want to deal with these people anymore and wanted to look elsewhere for 2 dogs. But a neighbor told us the female puppy was just so great that we HAD to keep her and should ask for our money back too. This was tough. I mean we HAD spent $500 on supplies for 2 dogs and couldn't return half of it but I didn't know how to ask for my money back and keep the female puppy too. I tried to make the boyfriend understand our predicament and about the money we'd spent.

When he came for the boy puppy we had decided to return both but HE even wanted us to take the girl puppy. We told him we were concerned that they had other friends or relatives they wanted to give her to but he said no, that they had no one to give her to. He offered to sell her for only $200 this time saying we could put the other $125 towards getting another puppy. So that's what we did. We kept her. She is so cute and has such a great personality. We are really happy with her. We think we'll get another dog but maybe in 6 months or a year.

Looking at puppies

Well the puppies are ready to be adopted so we went to meet them. We weren't sure we were ready to do it but we decided to adopt the only girl puppy - a little beige beauty - and a mostly black little boy puppy.

The mix of Shih Tsu, Miniature Poodle, and American Eskimo Dog ensures small, hypo-allergenic dogs. The black male puppy has curly hair and the beige female puppy has straight but puffy hair.

The parents, Max and Izzy, are due for a grooming and are going to be coming to my home in a week for that appointment. We asked the owner to bring the puppies on the same day!

We have a week to clean the apartment, get rid of clutter, and tie up all wires and cables so that it's safe for puppies...

Bathing a dog

First, if your dog has many knots or mats and can't be brushed or combed easily, I recommend that you take your dog to a professional groomer instead of bathing it yourself. Baths tend to make knots tighter and mats worse.

For all dogs who can be brushed and combed, here's Bathing a Dog 101...

To give a dog a bath there are a few things I do to make it a good clean bath and to control a dog who really doesn't want to be in the bath.

1. If the dog is big enough to get in the tub on its own, ask the dog to get in the tub.
If that doesn't work, lead him to the tub on a leash and ask him to get in the tub.
If that doesn't work, just help him into the tub.
If your dog wants to get out of the tub then you'll exhaust yourself trying to bathe him/her and also trying to prevent him/her from getting out of the tub or away from you within in the tub.
Here's a tip, buy a suction cup with a metal ring on it and attach a groomer's loop to it and put it around the dog's neck.
You can get the suction cup at petedge.com, if you can't find it anywhere else. It costs about $2. Attach a groomer's loop to the suction cup. You can get this at petedge.com too. I recommend a nylon web groomer's loop with a quick release but any will do.

2. Now that the dog is in the tub and either staying on his own or tethered to the tub, you can get him wet. I recommend a spray nozzle. If you have a hand held shower head you're set. A sprayer is important because it's important to rinse out the shampoo. Leftover shampoo on a dog can be itchy and that leads to scratching which can lead to unhappy dogs and worse, it could lead to infection.

If you don't have a hand held shower head, I recommend Rinse Ace sprayers. They are reasonably priced and work rather well. Another nice thing about the Rinse Ace sprayers is that they have a button that you press when you want the spray, otherwise the water doesn't come out. This is good when you want to put the hose down and just scrub your dog clean. You don't have to worry about getting water everywhere or about reaching the water controls and turning the water off after you've already got the temperature right. And Rinse Ace also makes custom sprayers with different length hose if you request it. There are 3 models.
- The Indoor/Outdoor Pet Sprayer attaches to the sink faucet and then I use it in the tub. This also works well if you want to bathe your dog in the kitchen sink and need a sprayer there. As described, it can also be attached to an outdoor hose spigot.
- The Pet Shower Deluxe comes with a piece that you install between your shower head and the pipe coming out of the wall. I can do it in 2 minutes in anyone's home, usually without any tools. This piece allows you to attach and detach the sprayer anytime you want.
- The Pet Shower Deluxe Plus offers 2 more features - you turn the sprayface to switch between gentle spray, pulsating spray, and concentrated spray. And there is also a lever for controlling the flow of water from less to more.

3. Shampoo. Use dog shampoo because their PH is different than ours. There is a huge selection out there. If your dog has any skin issues or allergies look for something that might help or ask a vet for special shampoo. If you're afraid of getting water in your dog's ears, put cotton balls in them.
Drizzle shampoo all over the dog to get some on all parts of the body, butt, belly, chest, legs, paws, ears, and tail. Lather up the whole dog and pay special attention to the feet, toes, butt, privates, inner thighs, armpits because these are the dirtiest parts. Lather the top of the dog's head and pull lather forward to face or use a wash clothe to wash face and keep shampoo out of eyes. (I use Nature's Specialties Coconut Clean for a really dirty dog. It cleans well, leaves a nice smelling dog, and it also conditions the coat.)
If you dog has folds be sure to wash, rinse, and dry in the folds.
If your dog has eye gook you can use either a flea comb, a small face comb, or a toothbrush to gently comb the gook out of the dog's hair. Be careful not to scratch an eye with a comb or brush.

4. Dry the dog with towel. Wrap dog tightly in a towel and let sit a bit to soak up water. Use a force air dryer or a blow dryer with a warm setting. If you don't have either one and your dryer just has hot air be careful not to burn the dog's skin. Petedge sells a dryer with a blow dryere for pets with cold, warm, and hot settings. Alternatively, the smallest force air dryer is the Metro Air Force Quick Draw and it sells for about $100.
Brush and comb your dog's coat while drying it. (Nature's Specialties Quicker Slicker is a great detangling spray, if you need it.) If you're not sure what kind of brush you should be using, see another blog entry about Brushing Your Dog.

5. If you put cotton balls in the ears, remove the cotton balls. If you have the type of dog that grows hair in the ear canals, lightly sprinkle on an ear powder like R-7 Step 1 Ear Powder to easily grip the hairs and pluck them out. Clean dog's ears with cotton balls and an ear cleaner like R-7 Step 2 Ear Cleaner. If your dog's ears are beautifully light pink in color and don't smell you don't have to clean them with ear cleaner at all. If dogs ears are filled with dark brown or blackish discharge, they need a vet's attention. If the skin is swollen or cracked, they need a vet's attention. If there is lots of yellowish discharge, they need a vet's attention. If the ears smell, they need a vet's attention.

Thinking of getting a dog

We are thinking of getting a puppy. Or maybe rescuing an adult dog.

One of my grooming clients has 2 dogs and one of them got pregnant by the other. They are still puppies themselves but these things happen. The female dog got pneumonia so the spaying was postponed and the neutering of the male was also postponed. The owner wanted the two dogs to be operated on at the same time so that they'd both have to recover with e-collars on at the same time. Izzy, the female, is a mix of Poodle and American Eskimo Dog. Max, the male, is a mix of Poodle and Shih Tsu. They had a litter of 5 puppies. We're thinking about it.

Meanwhile we look at petfinder.com and think of rescuing a French Bull Dog. They are so cute! Why do so many say "no cats" and "no children"? I am wondering about this. We love cats and may have to bring two cats home if an elderly relative needs to move to assisted living.

I am also looking at the applications for the rescuing a dog. Very detailed. Also, many times the website says we have to pick up the dog. Some of these dogs are 1000's of miles away. Even if we don't have to pick it up we'd have to pay transportation by plane to have it sent to us. I guess it will be expensive one way or another. Pure bred and even mix breeds can require a $300 or $400 fee. Along with French Bull Dogs I see Frenchtons - French Bull Dog/Boston Terrier mixes.