Are You Still Grooming In the DARK AGES?
Do you have new and updated equipment or are you still using the same old stuff you started with...how many years ago?
The pet grooming industry has had some new innovations over the last twenty years or so. New terns like "ERGONOMICS" is taking our industry by storm. Everything from slicker brushes, clippers, shears to the tables we use, everything is ERGONOMIC.
Wow, that's a big word, so what does it mean? "Ergonomic" means to work with your body in a way that is safe and fluid of use. Form fitting as it were.
Better shape handles on brushes, shears that come in so many styles with better shape handles like off-set, three fingeres, swivel thumb, bent shank, short shank, crane shank and a host of others, not to mention the latest craze is the titanium coatings, you know that rainbow look.
Our tables have evolved from the folded leg to adjustable folded leg then went totally wild with hydraulic and finally electric, you know, no more pumping that dog up, now it's push a button for up and down! Tables that have wheels so you can just roll that huge hard to lift dog to the edge of the tub and he walks in, what a concept.
Even the grooming arm with a loop has begun to evolve from the simple metal 90 degree post thingy it used to be, into complicated telescoping parts that give a wide range of adjustable measures to which many groomers can have use for a variety of pets of many sizes. Now it's not uncommon to see two arms on a table connected with an overhead bar, with eyebolts in a myrid of places along the length and top of the bars. The simple grooming loop has also evolved with locking snaps and one hand break away safety rings and into varing sizes of hip holders, t-straps, hammocks to only mention a few. Gadgets to go along with and help the grooming arm to become more of a safety item for both the groomer and the pet.
Bathing a pet the old fashioned way with a hose in the back yard has taken the fast track to inside with hot water! Tubs have been designed with the groomer in mind, being elevated to bring the pet up to a proper height so as to eleminate back pain for the bather. Now we have Shampoo delivery systems that deliver diluted shampoo directly on the pet saturating the coat to the skin and Bathing systems that actually do the work for you [think dish washer or clothes washer], rather than you getting down and hand scrubbing the the heck out of the skin and hair of a pet.
Drying a clean wet dog has evolved from toweling off or wrapping it up, to how many cubic feet a minute can your force dryer produce to actually force the water off the coat. Even towels have evolved from a good old 'terry-cloth" to the Moisture Magnet style or rubbery shammie that littlerly sucks the water off the dog. Even paper towels are used to dry sensitive facial areas faster and safer than air blowing. Warm air dryers on elevated stands are were a one time must have in a grooming salon, but gave way to the High Velocity Force dryers for speed but are making a come back for the quality of the end result for some of the fluffy breeds, a touch of heat to set straight hair from curly.
Oh my gosh, how clippers have evolved from the hand clipper of the 1800's to the high speed high toruque beauties we use today! WOW! Think of it! Maybe 30 to 40 strokes per minutes of a hand held to the 1000 strokes per minute work horse clipper of the early 1950's that we actually had to screw on the blade. No quick changes for sure on that one. New terms like "stroke per minute" are now common place. Groomers can now choose a variety of clippers from 1200 to 10,000 strokes per minute. Clippers now come in a variaty of shapes, colors and sizes it just boggles the mind to look at a display of them. Some clippers have hollow bodies that hair can be vacuumed up with suction. The innovations are unlimited in today's grooming industry with new ideas and technologies on the increase.
Grooming with suction was a big step and one the industry applauded for it's safety innovations both for the clipper & blade combo in that a blade running at a high speed causes friction and will heat up but cold air being sucked over the blade keeps it cool and since the fine particles of hair are sucked off and away rather than left floating in the air for you and the pet to breath.
Even the sterotype of the grooming environment has evolved past the back room at a vet clinic or boarding kennel to "Spa's and Salons" where we play soft mood music, think in terms of aromatherapy and all the other things we do to create ambiance in our salons be it a multi roomed facility or a single room cottage. And to top it off, we have Mobile grooming where the groomer goes to the pet in a state of the art, hi-tech rolling unit, fully equiped to do everything a salon could do!
Yep, we have "come a long way baby" from our early beginnings on the banks of a river near Paris, France where on a Sunday afternoon we might lather up a pet for a fee, perhaps immerse it in a tub of sulpher water(to kill parasites), then send the pet out to fetch a stick from the river, after which we would dry and sculpt the pet with out limited equipment to the pet owners desire.
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