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.

Slow Days

Owning your own business means being ready for slow days. I have been having slow weeks since I quit my part time job. I guess I've been doing the same number of dogs or more but it just doesn't seem like much since I don't have the other income anymore. I am expecting to grow the business at the same rate that it has been growing but maybe I need to try harder to find new clients. With some warm weather and sunny days there are more dogs out on the streets and in the parks. I guess I will have to approach people with business cards and a few words. It takes nerve and it's hard for me. I don't know how many people I'll have to talk to before I'll find someone who will actually make an appointment. Usually people will take the card, maybe they will be polite, but I never know if they'll call and make an appointment. I have a few clients whom I met on the street. I don't know how many people I've spoken to on the street. One hundred? more? less? I think I will go outside with 50 business cards and not let myself go home until I've given them all out. OK, maybe I'll try 25 first. I'll keep you posted.

Tips for New Groomers

I thought I write a little about what to do if you're a new groomer, whether you are self-taught or coming out of dog grooming school.

A great source of information is the forums on petgroomer.com. Groomers from all over the country and beyond are contributing to the threads on this website. You can ask a question or try to answer one or just put in your own two-cents. You can find other groomers in your area and actually meet them. It's always nice to have a friend who is interested in talking about dogs so you don't bore your other friends and family members.

Dog Grooming Books that are great to own:

• Notes from the Grooming Table by Melissa Verplank

Excellent detailed drawings and instructions on how to groom many, many breeds. Instructions for show trims as well as pet trims. And in the back there are some sections on how to groom mixed-breeds, broken down by hair type.
Melissa recently published a pocket size version that is a little abbreviated but still very nice to have if you need something small to carry around.
The original is still my personal favorite.

• The All Breed Dog Grooming Guide by Sam Kohl

A basic book on how to groom most breeds. Not as detailed as the Melissa Verplank book but a little smaller and less expensive and still very good.

Trade Shows
Trade shows are a great place to meet other groomers are looking to improve and keep up on the latest trends and products. Trade shows are always held in conjunction with grooming competitions, demonstrations, presentations, seminars, and classes. Search the internet for dog grooming trade shows near you. In the northeast U.S. there is Intergroom in NJ in April and GroomExpo in Hershey, PA in September.

Intergroom is the largest international conference of its kind in the world. Over 2,000 dog and cat groomers from over 20 different countries attend Intergroom yearly.At the conference held in the United States each year, Intergroom always begins with an international grooming competition that leads to the title of "Intergroom International Groomer of the Year" - one of the most prestigious awards in the the world of grooming. The quality of grooming is extremely high and the competition is keen as top groomers from the United States, Canada, England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, compete for over $20,000.00 in cash, trophies, rosettes and prizes.

Groom Expo, the biggest educational seminar and trade show for the petcare professional in the world, is held yearly in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It is Barkleigh's flagship show. Groom Expo drew 170 exhibitors and nearly 3800 attendees in 2007. Eight educational seminars are in progress at all times during the weekend. Included is an IJA sanctioned grooming contest, Barkleigh Creative Styling Contest and much more. Barkleigh is the producer of many shows for groomers as well as other shows for other pet industry professionals. Barkleigh Productions Calendar of Events

Zoomin Groomin and Anivac

OK, so this guy calls looking to hire a groomer. He just bought a franchise call Zoomin Groomin. It's a mobile dog grooming van. He has a pet shop but knows nothing about how to groom a dog except what the franchise people told him. He's called me a bunch of times now, and we've discussed how he might find a groomer to hire. He's also told me about a waterless bathing system for dogs called Anivac.

Today I saw his mobile dog grooming van and this waterless bath for dogs called Anivac. You can also use it to wash floors, cages, horses, cows, etc, I couldn't believe that the van doesn't have a tub for washing dogs! Nope, just a dog grooming table, a hi-velocity dryer, and this Anivac system. It's like the system people use to clean upholstery and carpets. You put some water and solution in a tank and this device sprays this mixture onto the animal and vacuums it off just as quickly with one nozzle that you move over the surface of the dog. As the solution circulates through the dog's hair and over the skin it supposedly washes and sanitizes. I don't know how you wash the dog's face, butt, and feet but this guy seems to be sold on the idea. Well, actually, today I met his girlfriend and she's the one who's totally sold on all of this.

I have to admit I am a skeptic. I'm curious as to how it will work with long haired dogs, matted dogs, and poodles and bichons that need a blowout. Someone is going to be visiting this guy and demonstrating how to use Anivac on some dogs. Perhaps I'll see the demo and my opinion will change. I'll keep you posted.

Grooming Shedding Dogs

Most people want non-shedding dogs groomed. These are Yorkies, Shih-tsus, Malteses, Havaneses, Poodles, Bichons, Wheaten terriers, Lhasa Apsos, and others. But some people ask for shedding dogs to be groomed. These are King Charles Cavaliers, English Toy Spaniels, Pomeranians, Rat Terriers, Chihuahuas, Miniature Pinschers, Dachshunds.

The problem with grooming shedding dogs at home is that a lot of lose hair comes off the dog while bathing, drying, brushing, and combing. There isn't much that can be done about this except to limit it to a small room. Also, remove as many things as possible from the room so the hair can be cleaned up easily. I do it in the bathroom with the door closed, keeping the dog in the tub as much as possible. The easiest cleanup is rinsing the tub with water and removing a clump of wet hair from the drain trap. The hair that flies around, gets on walls and floors and in between things is the tricky part of the cleanup. Vacuum, sweep, and wipe down but hair floating in the air will take a day to settle. Most of these clients seem to prefer to bring their dogs to my home.

A rubber curry is used in a circular motion on dry short haired shedding dogs to remove lose hair. This is good for the skin too and it seems like dogs like the way it feels.

Longer haired shedding dogs, like a pomeranian, need a good brushing and combing, down to the skin, to remove all lose undercoat which can cause mats. Brushing in the opposite direction of the way it grows works best. I brush a small area at a time working methodically over the entire dog. Before brushing a new area, I comb the area with a greyhound comb. If someone asks for a haircut on one of these longer haired shedding dogs it can be messy due to the dense coat. Also not that the coat of a Pomeranian or Chow Chow may not grow back 100 percent if it is shaved short.

House Call Dog Groomer - What to Bring

Carrying all my tools in a backpack and my high velocity dryer in a totebag, I travel from apartment to apartment in New York City. Mainly servicing Manhattan, I occasionally travel to Queens and Brooklyn. I am walking, taking buses and subways. I meet lots of interesting people and great dogs, and I see all sorts of homes.

My backpack weighs about 14 lbs. The high velocity dryer weights another 5 lbs but it's worth carrying because it makes a dog's coat look so great. It lifts the hair from the roots and it even removes a lot of knots and tangles without any stress to the dog or any brushing or combing.

The tools in my backpack include 2 types of brushes (2 different slicker brushes and pin brush), 4 combs (greyhound, a shorter, wider greyhound, a flea comb, a small face comb), ear powder, liquid ear cleaner, cotton balls, 2 nail clippers (small and large), styptic powder, hemostat, 3 types of shampoo (oatmeal, bright white, coconut clean), detangling/conditioning spray, matt breaker, an electric clipper, clipper blades, snap-on combs, 2 straight shears, 1 curved shear, 2 thinners, a suction cup with metal ring, a short grooming loop, and bows. The suction cup with metal ring and the grooming loop are used to restrain a dog in the bath or during grooming. Sometimes I carry a rubber curry or hand stripping tools if the situation calls for it.

Private Pet Grooming Intro

Hi, my name is Maria Daddio and I am a dog groomer specializing in private pet grooming. That is, grooming in either the pet's home or my home. Grooming your dog at home can be much better than in a salon for many reasons.

1. Undivided attention. There are no other animals around, no ringing phones, no clients coming in, no interruptions. This means your dog gets undivided attention. There is no reason that your dog would be left unattended or put in a cage while the groomer attends to another dog.

2. Stressfree. There are no other dogs that might adversely affect your dog by just being there, barking, whining, or fighting. This means your dog is as relaxed as possible. Salon environments can be stressful on a dog.

3. Clean. Your home is clean and so is mine. We live there. A grooming salon is suspect. Many, many dogs come and go. Are any of them sick? You just don't know.