If you want to stir up some arguments among a group of groomers, bring up the topic of offering “shedless treatments” as an add-on service. The three most significant points that groomers argue about when it comes to this discussion are:
Jodi is a blond cocker/poodle mix that has graced my table every three weeks for many years. She gets a full groom on one session, a bath, fluff, and brush on the next. She's a good and pretty girl, and her signature look involves long, flowing ears.
Each year, the AKC releases its list of top 10 most popular breeds. Many of the breeds don’t have a lot of coat. How does a grooming business proactively maintain its volume when haircut dogs are less popular? You build your bath and brush business!
Have you checked on the condition of the walls in your grooming space lately? Chances are, they have some grime that needs attention. The walls in our grooming areas get blasted with moisture regularly, especially near the bathing and drying areas. Moisture captures dust, hair, and dander (so much dander), and it all sticks as the walls dry out again.
If you take a moment to look at pet grooming from the dog's viewpoint, it becomes clear that some of the things we do during a typical grooming session are things that no one else ever does to them and that the dog very probably does not enjoy. We get them wet, use loud, sometimes buzzy tools, and touch every part of their body. We lift them, turn them, and mess with their sensitive faces, feet, and everything in between.
Successful groomers will tell you the basis of a great groom is in the “prep work.” This means that no matter how beautifully you clip, scissor, and sculpt, the dog you groom will not look its best if the coat is improperly prepared.
Pet hair is insidious. In the grooming environment, it gets everywhere, along with its companion, dander. The dastardly combination of the two can get into spaces you never imagined and clog up motors on the tools we use. This can make them work harder than necessary, overheat, and even burn out
One guaranteed way to put a smile on my face is to walk into my grooming studio and say, “It smells good in here.” Pet-related businesses have many reasons to smell unpleasant, and most of those reasons have four feet. Dogs come to us needing the bath we are about to provide, so they often have an unpleasant odor. And they sometimes urinate or defecate, causing a whole new level of bad scents.
Some people buy shoes. Some people buy jewelry. Me? I buy grooming tools. I am a total sucker for any new whiz-bang gadget that might make my job better, easier, or even more fun. But here is the truth: day in and day out, there are specific core tools that I reach for over and over on almost every pet. No matter your workspace, I bet you have limited space to keep your hand tools. From where you sit or stand to work, there is most likely a relatively small radius of available surfaces for you to keep your combs, brushes, clippers, trimmers, and scissors.
Picture the following scenario. You have just washed, dried, and brushed the long-coated poodle mix on your table. You have thirty minutes to finish up the groom when suddenly the dog releases its anal sacs. A few moments ago, the pet on the table smelled like a rose, but now it smells very different. In an ideal world, you’d pop that pup back in the tub for a wash, but there is certainly no time for that. What can you do?
