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.

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.

Finding new clients

My marketing efforts are no cost or low cost. What I mention here includes what I've done over the last 2 years.

To start with, I posted craigslist ads (free), printed flyers (paper and ink costs something but I already owned both so I considered it free), designed, printed and distributed business cards to pet supply stores, vet offices, and dog owners on the streets and in dog runs (graphics design - free from a friend, Avery business card stock - $20 for 250 cards, printed at home). Subsequently I have bought business cards using Vistaprint. I had to redesign them to include website URL and new email addresss and I thought it would be easier to order them than print them at home all the time. Vistaprint also offers lots of things for free. I recommend it.

Mostly I get new clients in response to my craigslist ads which also refer to my home dog grooming website. I have posted ads on other websites that offer free or low cost ads (under $10) but none of them have resulted in any clients, as far as I know. But it's good to post ads anywhere you can and have a link to your website so that your website ranks higher in the search engine indexes.

In addition I get new clients from referrals by my existing clients - the old "word of mouth". People seem very willing to help grow my business by telling others about my services whenever prompted by another dog owner. "Word of Mouth" is great but doesn't grow my business as fast as is needed.

With the search engine optimization (SEO) I have done for my website, people find me using Google and most other search engines easily. I am still trying to figure out how to come up in the search results of Bing. For some reason the Bing search engine eludes me.

Most recently one of my clients posted a note about me on "Building Link" - a website for her condo building and this resulted in 2 new clients within a month's time. I am now asking other clients if their residences have similar websites and if they would post a recommendation of my services.

One client mentioned a newsletter for her building and said she will put a recommendation of my services in the newsletter.

Getting new clients in buildings that I already work in is something I've been thinking about for months. I was looking into bulk mailings but everything to do with mailings always end up being expensive. I was also thinking of just standing in front of the building at key walking times and talking to the dog owners about my services. The down side of this is that some dogs don't go outside and others are walked by dog-walkers. Also, standing in front of buildings in time consuming. (I have put up flyers on bulletin boards in the past and have gotten no clients in response to that effort.)

I have put many business cards in vet offices and pet supply stores and from all that effort I've gotten 2 clients. If I owned a dog I'm sure I could have a better relationship with a vet and a pet supply store. I think I need to borrow a dog for the pet supply store at least.

And of course, I have spoken to many, many people on the streets and at dog runs. This has resulted in clients but I can't say how many people I spoke to and I can only recall 2 clients that resulted from this effort. The nerve it takes for me to bother people on the street is more than I'd like but I will talk to people on the street again when the weather is nice because it gives me the best odds of finding clients in my neighborhood.

Merchant Circle is a website that a client told me about. She has her own hair extensions business called VIP Lifestyle Hair. I created a page on Merchant Circle for free and am now creating a network of neighboring businesses. I don't know how much this website is used by New Yorkers to find services in Manhattan but it can only help to have more presence on the internet. I will try to take more advantage of Merchant Circle in the near future.

Rotator Cuff Injury

Pain in my shoulders. Rotator cuff injury. Loss of strength, inability to raise arm. Maybe from repetitive motion maybe from carrying the backpack. Maybe from using the PC. I had this problem a couple of years ago. I thought it was from holding my arm at shoulder height while grooming. While brushing , combing, dematting, clipping. I tried to keep my arm lower and use my left arm as much as my right arm. I also went to a doctor and went to physical therapy for weeks.
My shoulders were OK when I was going to Long Island twice a week to do mobile grooming. I stopped doing that 4 weeks ago. I guess I need to go back to doctor and get Rx for PT. Or maybe try acupuncture. It's both shoulders this time, the left is worse than the right.
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