Grooming Smarter

How Whitening Shampoos Work

There are several different types of whitening shampoos available for dogs these days. When I first started grooming about 15 years ago we basically had bluing shampoos and that is it. Bluing shampoos have their place as we will discuss, but there are other types that work just as well or better, depending on what you are trying to achieve.

Currently there are several different types of whitening shampoos on the market.

·        Bluing

·        Clarifying

·        Enzymatic

·        Bleaching

·        Dyeing

Bluing shampoos do not actually remove stains in most cases even though they do tend to be great cleansing shampoos. The reason they work is simple. Blue or purple colors add optical enhancers to the coat that the human eye perceives as white, making a dull coat appear more vibrant. The blue color also tends to hide mild yellowing that can occur from urine or licking stains, as well as from sun damage. Bluing shampoos, because of the sparkling color enhancers they contain, also make black coats shine and enhance many different colors.

For coats that are not stained heavily but need some enhancement to appear more vibrant, bluing shampoos are the best choice.

Some exhibitors use a bluing laundry additive. Mrs. Stuart’s bluing will make all white coats pop with intensity not possible by most blue shampoos. It is a very intense blue that actually penetrates the hair shaft. You have to be extremely careful using this product. You must bathe and condition the dog prior to its use, and try not to use it on damaged hair. If you do not have the dog completely wet before the application of the bluing the coat can have a blue color to it for a long time, as it will have to ear out or be bleached out. That is why I suggest bathing and conditioning first. You may have to condition again, but to prevent a dog from turning blue it I worth the extra work. This product used to be available in the laundry sections of stores but lately it has been available only online in my area.

Clarifying shampoos remove stains really well but again, they are harsh. The clarifying shampoos I have tested all registered at a PH of 9-10 which is high. The active ingredient in most clarifiers is Acetic Acid, which also helps strip out product buildup fast. A good clarifying shampoo should be used when staining is present or when a lot of hairspray or other styling aids are used routinely. The reason the PH is high is that it facilitates the opening of the hair cuticle and as a result the staining pigments can be removed easier and faster.

This makes perfect sense if you think about how hair colors work. If you have ever colored your hair, then you know you are not supposed to use a clarifying shampoo because it will remove the hair dye fast making the color last a much shorter time. If the color is too dark however your stylist may suggest you use a clarifier to remove some of the excess dye.

Since stains are essentially an unwanted dye job, clarifiers may be the best way to go for removing most stains. In my shop we use clarifiers to remove red clay, black dirt and other types of organic stains. We just make sure we condition the coats well after using the harsher shampoos.

Enzymatic shampoos, such as Ezy-Groom’s Crystal White use enzymes designed to "eat", or dissolve, proteins and this remove or diminish urine, blood, tear and saliva stains. They work best when heated to the hottest temperature you and the dog can handle. Then you apply the shampoo undiluted to the stained area and allow it to sit for several minutes, later and rinse.  I have used these shampoos with some success, mostly with urine stains. Multiple applications are needed in most cases to remove the stains, but it is a highly effective class of shampoos for removing the stains they target.

Bleaching shampoos are a bit more uncommon but they include the #1 All Systems White Lightening shampoo and the Whitening Gel by All Systems as well. The ingredients are not listed on the shampoo or the gel that I have, but they do have a warning that they can remove color on dark coats, so I am theorizing, that peroxide, in some level, is present in this product. On that note, it DOES WORK to remove stains and whiten whites. It is a harsh type of shampoo or gel and you absolutely MUST condition the coat with a deep conditioner after use. I do not have any of this shampoo on hand to check the PH, but based on how it works, by bleaching, I am confident that the PH would be in the 8-10 range. Again, to facilitate opening the follicle to permit the color molecules that are in the cortex of the hair to be removed, making the hair white again.

You can actually make your own bleaching shampoo for really stubborn stains or imbedded stains that nothing else works on. To do this you will need

• Wellite on scalp lightener (available at most beauty supply houses)
• 20 lift Lightener to add to the Wellite (I use a cream lightener because it will make it thicker and allow it to stay on the coat better without running into areas we do not want bleached)
• Diluted bluing shampoo sufficient to apply thouroughly to the coat

 Add the mixture (mixed as directed in equal parts of lightener and Wellite powder) to a diluted bluing shampoo in a plastic applicator bottle. I usually mix up 2 ounces each of the two ingredients added to 8 ounces of shampoo for a small dog, so slightly more for a larger one or thicker hair. Lather into the white portions of the DRY coat ONLY, and allow it to sit for 10 minutes or so. Avoid all colored areas of the coat because this mixture will turn black hair orange and red coat brassy or bleached out altogether. Rinse well then condition to prevent damage. Never store the unused portion of shampoo. Discard it when you are finished with it. It will be ineffective within 30 minutes and can burst if left closed.

This magic mixture will do much the same thing that Wellite does alone but in a much more gentle way. The shampoo makes the mixture a little less harsh and easier on the skin. This mixture is great for mild staining or white dogs that just need to sparkle. For more sever staining use the Wellite mixture directly onto the coat. To minimize damage to your skin always wear gloves when bleaching or dying or even using bluing, otherwise you may end up looking like a Smurf.

  

Then, we have shampoos that cover up stains by dyeing the hair shaft with a blue dye, which we discussed earlier, makes the eye THINK the coat is whiter than it is.

Shimmer Lights is a deep purple shampoo made for white or gray hair in humans, which “takes out the yellow” that can happen with chlorine and shampoo buildup and damage from environmental pollution we come into contact with everyday, including cigarette smoke. One reason it does this is that it has a high PH rating so it is actually opening the cuticle, removing the particles causing the discoloration and then, the bluing is deposited into the cortex, to make the white or silver more vibrant, due to the optical enhancers.  This shampoo works great on dog hair as well, and does a fairly nice job of removing urine and licking stains as well as clay and grass due to its high PH. It is harsh however and if you use this shampoo you need to follow up with a deep conditioner. I recommend not using it very often, but rather only when you are in need of serious yellow or stain removal. Before using this shampoo, I also suggest that you wash the dog thoroughly in your favorite shampoo because I do not find it cleans very well.

Chris Christensen has White on White Shampoo which works very similarly to Shimmer Lights. If you take a small amount of the W.O.W. and put a drop on a paper towel, you can see the dye in it actually spread throughout the towel. Again, if you use this shampoo, use a good cleansing shampoo first, then apply this one, and then, use a deep conditioner to protect your dog’s coat.

As with all products with heavy bluing, these shampoos can leave your dog blue or purple so use with caution and make sure that you apply it to a thoroughly wet coat and rinse well. Otherwise you may be dealing with bleaching out the coat anyway.

 

On a final note. ALL shampoos, especially those with dyes, enzymes or bleaches are hard on the eyes. Avoid the eye area at all cost. When I am bleaching out dogs I use eye salve in the eyes and am still incredibly careful. Never leave a dog alone that is being whitened in any way to avoid them shaking or rubbing the mixtures into their eyes. I usually take a book or paperwork with me while timing the treatements and set a timer to ensure enough contact time.

 

Happy whitening guys!

How to Spray up Yorkie heads in the grooming shop

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Download Spraying Up Heads in the Grooming Shop Powerpoint

Download PDF Yorkie Presentation

 

I did this presentation for Daryl Conner to show her how I do my yorkie heads. I get consistent, fast results with this techniuqe that make the clients happy and ME happy because the heads always look the same.

It is easier to do this type of head with product and yet a lot of groomers do not know how to use it correctly. This will assist you with this.

Remember as well that you can leave the heads longer than I left Kipper's or even go shorter. His daddy likes it on the short side. I began grooming Kipper about 8 years ago andhis dad actually told me that he was happy with me because Kipper always looks exactly the same.

Clients love that. Consistency is the key to happy clients.

Toto, in the above pictures is the white Maltese Yorkie mix. In the first two head shots he was being groomed by Debbie Slocum, the one in the ring of the front is Toto groomed by Cheryl Percell.

Bob, the black and tan Maltese Yorkie mix was groomed by me.

As you can see from those photos, which were all similar yet different based on the dog's conformation. This type of head can be duplicated on Yorkies, mixes thereof and Westies. I mean, come on! Toto looks more like a Westie than most Westies we see and its because of the product.

What are Stains?

What are stains?

Certain things that come into contact with dog hair easily turn it colors. Things like grass, mud, clay, Kool-aid, tears, urine and saliva all stain hair for different reasons but in the same way.

To understand how most stains occur you have to understand how hair dyes work, because basically, stains are dyes, but we call them stains because they are both unwanted and unintended changes in the color of the hair, whereas dyes would indicate a deliberate application of a substance to change the original color. If you think of stains in this way they are actually much easier to understand and to remove, but you must have a basic knowledge of hair dyes and their application and removal to apply this thought process.

Most cultures have had hair dying practices for thousands of years. In fact, clays and muds have been used for millennium to change the color of hair for reasons as vast as the cultures which used them. War paint, beautification practices, royalty, vanity and even punishments have all been reasons given for the use of hair dyes.

Hair dyes work by opening up the cuticles on the hair shaft and allowing larger molecules of colored pigment into the cortex. When the cuticle closes again the molecules are trapped and that color shows as the color of the hair instead of the original color.  

Opening of the hair cuticle by modern dyes is done with strong chemicals like ammonia or peroxide. Natural dyes, like Henna, clay, mud and other dyes made from plants or other items found in nature will take longer to enter the hair shaft because they rely on the natural properties of these materials to open the shaft so color can be deposited.

The penetration of pigment through the cuticle can be achieved in several different ways.

·        Heat is said to open the cuticle

·        Higher PH will open the cuticle

·        Damaged coat accepts color faster due to the open cuticle

·        Long term contact with a substance that contains color pigment

·        Contact with protein based liquids, like saliva and urine

When we are talking about stains versus dyes, the cuticle does not actually have to open fully, as continued contact with the material in question allows only a small amount of pigment from the offending material to enter in the cuticle. Also, some things, like clay or urine, have small molecules that can penetrate the cuticle easier. The smaller the color molecule, the easier it is to remove. The larger molecules tend to get “stuck” in the cortex, and have to be removed with strong chemicals that open the cuticles further and a strong cleaner to remove the particles of color once the cuticle is opened.

The “prolonged contact” concept is one reason why show dogs are washed so frequently. We want to make sure that they do not stain and by removing the offending substance before it can sit long enough to cause a stain, we can minimize the damage done and reduce the amount of bleaching products we will need to use.

Damaged hair has rough cuticles to begin with and as a result the stains will enter the shaft faster and then they are harder to get out. To minimize this problem it is crucial to keep hair in as good a condition as possible and to seal the cuticle after each bath. Sealing the cuticle will result in a smoother coat with less staining.

There are many products available to seal the hair shaft. Both leave in and rinse out conditioners provide protection of the hair and will help reduce staining, however it is important to note that a heavier conditioner with lanolin or other oily, waxy substances can trap dirt, so it is extremely important to wash the dog more frequently to remove buildup and prevent further damage. Most Leave-in products contain cosmetic grade silicones, which when used properly, seal the hair, block stains and repel dirt. There was a time when silicones were considered bad for hair and resulted in a lot of damage to hair, but the products available for us today are made out of better, safer ingredients and actually prevent damage rather than causing it. I have discovered that the silicones of today do such a great job that I rarely have to bleach out white dogs any more.

Tear and urine stains are totally different problems which have different solutions. These stains are caused by the proteins in the fluids staying in contact with the hair for long periods of time. Urine causes yellowing and tear stains cause brown staining to occur. Licking at the hair or skin can also lead to stained hair, because the saliva contains the same proteins and when deposited onto the coat they can turn the coat brown or yellow or red, depending on the dog’s chemistry and PH level.

There are natural ways to combat those stains as well, but keeping the dog clean is critical. If you have a dog that licks a lot, a more frequent bathing schedule will result in less staining. Tear stains can be minimized by cleaning the area daily with warm water on a cotton ball and urine which comes into contact with the hair must be cleaned off as often as practical.

Tear Stains

Tear stains are ugly, but in some cases they can cause severe discomfort to the pet. The area stays wet an as a result sores can develop under the eyes making the pet uncomfortable. Many pets with this problem have very sore faces or eyes and itchiness is present. It is not simply a cosmetic issue for most dogs. It is an actual medical condition requiring treatment to make the dog more comfortable and healthy.

As with any staining, keeping the area clean is terribly important. A plain cotton ball wet with hot water used twice a day will help reduce the staining and keep the face cleaner. Do not waster your money buying eye cleaners or pads, because water works great.

To reduce tear stains, it is important to know that there are numerous reasons for it to occur.

·        Ph level

·        Tear duct or eye infection

·        Tear Duct blockage

·        Allergies to corn, pollen and many more things

·        Entropian eyelashes or lids

·        Ear infection

·        Tooth decay or gum disease

·        Excessive minerals in the drinking water

Of course you want your vet to clear the pet of any medical condition, but many times the stains stay and unless you ask questions and push for answers the vet many times will just tell you it is normal for white dogs to have them.

While I agree that most white dogs do stain to a degree there is always a reason for it and once found and corrected the problem goes away as well.

If the dog has a blocked tear duct, an infection or entropian lids or lashes, it is imperative to treat the problem. Your vet can assist you in that treatment, and it is vital to your pet’s health as well as the appearance to get these problems solved. Ear infections and mouth problems are also treatable and important, yet a lot of people do not realize they can lead to eye drainage and staining.

Allergies are not always so easy to solve, but always begin by removing corn and wheat from your pet’s diet. In many cases, a switch to a grain free food will eliminate the drainage and stains will disappear.

Many people swear by distilled water for removing the stains. Others say to add a bit of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to their water to reduce the staining. In many cases these work, but not in all.

Some dogs have an issue with yeast growing on the skin in the moist area around the mouth and eyes. As it gets worse the staining gets worse and the itching gets more intense, so the eyes drain more. You get the picture. The yeast is there feeding off of bacteria that lives in the moist area around the eye. Because it is called red yeast the waste products of this yeast cause the area to stain. There are several products designed to kill the bacteria and therefore kill the yeast, eliminating the staining. Angel’s Eyes, Angel’s Glow, the active ingredient in them Tylan powder, and even tetracycline have been proven effective in eliminating the problem of stains. There are a lot of differing opinions on how safe these medications are for long term use. The thing to remember is that they have been used for years and so far there is no clinical data to support the theory that low dose antibiotic therapy is a problem. The amount and type of antibiotics used in these products to treat this condition is minute. Prophylactic use of antibiotics in low doses is common in medicine. It is important however to tell your doctor your pet is taking one of these drugs and how much you are giving them in the event your pet becomes ill and needs antibiotic therapy. A different medication may be needed and dosage levels may need to be adjusted.

Urine stains

Urine stains can be hard to remove and even harder to prevent. Keeping a dog in coat clean is extremely hard but is critical to reducing the problems that urine can cause on a coat.

If the urine is too high in PH it will cause strong staining to occur. To minimize that problem it is suggested that 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar per bowl of water be given daily. Because it reduces the urine PH it will also reduce the staining.

Many people think that a shaved sanitary area will also keep urine off the coat, but on the contrary, when there is no hair on the sanitary area there is nowhere for the urine to go except onto the hair. A sanitary left untrimmed will result in the hair working like a wick or a guide to direct urine ONLY onto a small amount of hair, minimizing the staining.

On females you will find staining between and down the legs and on the back feet. On adult males who hike their legs, you will find that some dogs get it all over their front legs, while others get it all over the leg that is not hiked. Also, the belly and the back feet are prone to getting covered in urine and as a result staining. Urine staining is worse if the dogs use the bathroom on concrete rather than grass, as the urine will roll forward onto the front feet and in long haired dogs the skirt hair, but even on grass staining can occur. This is why many show dogs with long coats are kept in wire crates with wire bottoms. This prevents them from standing in the fluids and then the hair becoming dirtier and more stained.

As you might expect the more frequent the dog is bathed the less likely the dog is to be stained. A dog left with urine on their coat will also suffer from possible coat breakage due to the dirt getting trapped in the urine, skin burns and smelly hair.

If the staining problem is really severe it may be necessary to bleach the hair to get out the yellow stains. I will discuss how to do that later.

Getting Whites White (and keeping them that way)

As pet stylists we are often asked to get out stains of all types. Tear stains, beard stains, grass stains, clay stains, urine stains, Kool-Aid and any number of other things that our canine buddies can get into.  Our clients want us to be able to perform miracles and get their precious pups back to the glistening white they think they should be and like they see in dog shows. They don’t realize what many of us already know, and these show dogs do not usually touch the grass or get dirty often, and they get bathed every day many times. The typical client cannot do that. They just want us to fix it!

When I was doing my research I decided that there was much I did not know or fully understand and set out to get the answers. I mean, we all know that dog hair gets stained and it is hard to get stains out, but do we know what stains are or how they can be removed, or even how whitening shampoos work? For most of us the answer is simply NO we do not.

Before you can begin to remove stains from hair, there are certain things you need to know. You must know:

·        How hair is made

·        How stains occur

·        How whitening shampoos work

·        How PH facilitates stain removal

·        How to bleach out coats (and when to do it)

·        How to prevent stains from occurring in the first place

·        What makes the different whitening shampoos work

I have done a great deal of research for this topic, and decided there was too much information for one article, and created a series of articles instead.

How Hair Is Made

Hair is made up of several different parts.

Click on this link to get a drawing of hair structure : http://kidshealth.org/misc/movie/bodybasics/bb_skin-hair.html

 

And here for how the hair shaft is made and how hair coloring (also known as stains) work.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/hair-coloring1.htm

 

The outer part of the hair shaft is made of cuticles which lay like scales to cover the Cortex, protecting the interior of the hair shaft. When hair is healthy, the cuticles lay flat and smooth making hair healthy looking and shiny, feeling smoother as well as reducing tangling and staining. Damaged coat has cuticles that lay unevenly and roughly, resulting in tangled, mat prone hair that will also stain faster and deeper.

Now that you know a bit more about how hair is made and how coloring works, we can go on to how to remove the stains.

June Pet of the Month

 

Bob is a Morkie (Maltese, yorkie mix) and he is my puppy. I simply adore this dog.

I have been studying the Japanese and other Asian countries grooming styles for several years and I found a photo of a Westie done by a Japanese handler that I fell in love with. I have utilized that style, modified to a shorter trim, on many yorkies in my salon, but on Bob the style, even in full length, is perfect for his body type and suits his lifestyle as well.

In this groom, preparation of the coat is extremely important. The legs and “skirt” get dried down, not fluffed and the back gets dried the same way. You want those parts of the coat to lay flat. The head on the other hand is fluffed UP with mousse or hairspray or gel (your choice) worked into the coat while drying. I use Freeze It hairspray, applied to the roots while drying with heat to help stand the head up. Of course, on pets in the shop the legs (if cut shorter) would get fluffed. I would probably put product into the legs as well to help them stand up better. I use product in the pets in my shop, just as I would for my competition dogs because it helps me get a better groom on their pet that holds up better in the long term.

His back work is done with thinning shears shaped into a very angulated Westie pattern with more of a schnauzer back leg. I like the shoulders really tight and in a V shape, similar to the way I groom a cocker spaniel. The skirt is angled pretty severely in this groom, but in the shop you can soften it up quite a bit and still keep the basic groom intact. I also cut in the legs at the back of the front legs and the front of the back legs using my thinning shears to separate them from the skirt. That separation is what keeps the Asian flair in this groom.

On the throat, and shoulders, I use thinning shears to take it almost to the skin, blending into the shoulders. This is also similar to a cocker spaniel groom. On pets I use the Speed Feed set on a 9 in most cases. The chest is also tight and typical of a cocker front, with a VV groomed into the front, with the outside points making the point of shoulder.

His legs are full length, almost to the floor with feet that bevel like cocker legs. In the shop I would be more likely to scissor the legs into columns, shorter to make the care at home easier for the owner.

His ears tip, they do not stand, so I do not shave the tips. I scissor them in the shape of the ear, slightly rounded and blended into the head hair. On dogs, like Toto (pictured below), where the ears stand up, I tip the ears with a ten blade on the inside and then scissor the edges crisp to make a sharp point. You can also trim the ears inside and out with the blade of your choice if you like. When tipping the ear, I tend to do one finger width from the tip. Hold your finger sideways against the ear and trim to that point. If you tip too much off it will make it harder to round the head.

 

I thinning shear the corners of his eyes, but not to the skin. I leave the hair there about ¼ of an inch to mimic the head of a Westie. The rest of the hair is shaped into a circle and sprayed to assist it in standing. I also tease sections of it to make it look more like a Westie would appear. I do not tease pets in the shop, but I do tease Bob in the ring, after scissoring the head. I set the heads with a final spray of Freeze It to lock in the shape.

I like to open the eyes up, so I take a short pair of curved shears curved into the eye and go really short. That opens up his eyes and makes it easier for him to see longer. I use a pair of curves with double finger rests so I can flip them around to do the opposite side of his face easily. This opening of the eyes is critical to making the expression appear the way it does.

His tail is also thinning sheared short. I would love to leave a carrot tail but he doesn’t have the hair to do that. His tail actually curls over his back and if you leave the hair it tends to flag, which is not what I want it to do.

In the shop environment when time is of the essence, I use a short snap-on comb, usually with my Speed Feed (can you tell how much I love that clipper?) and the 3mm is my choice most of the time. You can use a 7F to a 4F if needed.

This cut is really adorable on Yorkies and mixes with a similar shape, curly coats, flat coats and pretty much any dog you can think of.

Hematomas

Hematomas

Many groomers will never see this occur, but the vast majority of us will see it at some point and time. Since it is “summer shavedown season” and this problem is going to be seen more often during this time, I thought it was important to bring this to everyone’s attention.

There are two types of hematomas we will typically see on ears.

There is the ear that is full of blood, like a balloon, several things can cause that type of Hematoma.

• Ear infections causing scratching or head shaking
• Snoods left on too long
• Rubber bands left around the ear leather not in the hair
• Injuries to the ear

This type of hematoma, depending on the reason for the injury, can require surgery or may respond to simple massage.

Hematomas related to injury or infection will usually be the result of a broken blood vessel in the ear which prevents the blood from going where it is supposed to go and instead pooling in between the layers of tissue in the middle part of the ear. The tissue there is thick and can trap the blood in a pocket, making the ear fat, warm and tender.

Drainage of the blood from the area is required in most cases and usually a drain can be left in place to keep the blood from pooling again. In some cases this is sufficient to stop the hematoma and allow the ear to heal, but in most cases it is not. Surgery is generally required to cauterize the bleeder and prevent the ear from shriveling into what is often referred to as a cauliflower ear. This is not just an ugly even but it is uncomfortable for the pet as well.

Hematomas caused by restricted blood flow can usually be corrected rather quickly with massage. No further treatment is needed in most cases. What you do is remove the offending item and then hold the ear up, applying firm, steady pressure in a circular motion from the bottom of the hematoma towards the top, going slow and steady. The idea is to move the pooled blood back into the blood stream and out of the ear. It will take, depending on the type of dog and the size of the hematoma, between a half hour and an hour to move the pooled blood out of the ear. Steady pressure will slow help reduce the pooling, but the circular massage is the best technique.

I need to stress that ear hematomas that are caused by trauma, not by restricted blood flow, do not respond to massage! They need vet treatment. If you notice a problem during grooming, stop what you are doing and call the owner, strongly suggesting they take the dog to the vet as soon as possible.

 

There is a second type of hematoma that we are more apt to see in the grooming salon. That is the type that affects the ends of the ear leather and causes seeping or dripping blood and sometimes splitting of the ear tips.

 

There are several reasons we see this occur. Severe matting is the main cause of this occurring, but it can happen when no matting is present. Plucking of extremely hair ears, ear infections and clipper irritation are some of the other reasons.

 

 

 

 

Matting restricts blood flow to the area of the body that it covers. In ears it is especially dangerous because the ear can become encased in mats causing all types of problems. When the ear hangs down the mats get wet in the water bowl and get food in them as well. They stay dirty.

 

Dirty, wet hair that is tight to the skin is a recipe for disaster. Moisture as well as lack of blood flow weakens skin causing it to be thinner and more likely to tear or bleed. Removing mats quickly can cause a quick rush of blood into vessels surrounded by weakened tissue which then causes “bleeding out”. All it takes for this to happen is to shave an ear and have a dog shake its head one time.

In some cases where there is no matting and the ear is healthy, shaving the ear feels funny to the dog and he shakes his head a few times, causing the ears to hit each other or the head and the shaking causes the same kind of injury. You have to be aware that whenever you have a dog shaking his head, you run the risk of this happening.

There are things you can do to avoid this problem.

When the ears are matted severely, shave them down a little at a time, removing small amounts of hair in layers from both sides of the ear. After each section removed, go to another part of the dog. Then come back to the ear. If possible, split the matting with your shears or razor splitter and allow the ear to sit for a few minutes. This allows blood to return to the ear slowly, not all at once and the incidence of problems will be reduced.

Shave the ears while they are wet. It will help stop some of the irritation that can occur when removing tightly matted hair.

Don't pluck ear hair on ears that are traumatized or that you fear will be damaged. It is better to leave the hair and come back to it later or send the dog to the vet clinic to have the hair removed. If the ear is already prone to hematoma damage, then plucking will just make it more likely.

 

After shaving the ear, secure the ears to the head with a Happy Hoodie or vet wrap or even a sock cut to act like a head wrap if you are concerned this might happen or if it has already begun to happen. They must lay tight, so a snood is probably not enough to help very much. Monitor the dog to ensure the wrap stays in place and the ears are not bleeding out. Remove the wrap after a half hour and look at the ears. If you see no bleeding you are probably OK.

If you see bleeding or are really concerned it will happen, you can ice the ears as well. That will help restrict the blood vessels and slow the blood flow back into the area. As the ear will warm back up slowly from the ice being present it will help prevent the bleeding that can occur.

In the event you see bleeding or are concerned that it may happen call the owner and have them take the dog to their vet. Here in this area vets treat this type of injury with a steroid shot and generally antibiotics.

You have to be aware that this can happen and understand that it is neither your fault nor directly anything you did to cause it. The shaving of the ear did cause the problem to a degree but in the case of matted ears it was the matting that caused the problem. In the case of non matted ears you can, in most cases, find a secondary reason like infection, clipper irritation or shaking,  so it is not the clipping that does it but something else the clipping aggravates that actually causes it.

When we are aware that something can occur and prepared to deal with it, the clients and dogs are better off. Feel free to print this out and show it to clients and staff. This is an important lesson for every groomer to learn from.

May Pet Of The Month

Well, imagine that! It's still May and I am already posting the May Pet! I have been lax in posting timely pictures lately, but I am trying to get better.

This month  is a bit different for me because I am doing two different dogs at once. They all have really different heads for their types and I wanted to share that with you.

Here is "Jonah" Countryman:

 

He is a Peke-poo and has a wonderfully plush coat. His dad brought him in this morning and asked that we just take a tiny bit off the body. He had a rather typical round head like most of use tend to do on a Shih-tzu or similarly shaped dog. He didn't like that style and asked that we cut the top of the head flat. With a little further discussion we decided to leave eyebrows and I decided to leave a bit of a beard rather than a full face on him.

I did the body with the Speed Feed clipper (it its truly my favorite clipper of all times) with the 9mm snap on comb on his body and the 12mm in his legs, blending well with shears. This took off just a small amount of hair, mostly what was out of line with the main length already on the puppy. The body is pretty much a standard clip for my salon. We do a lot of those Teddy Bear type trims here. What made this groom special was the head. I LOVE this head!

I used a 3mm snap on with the Speed for his throat and cheeks, clipping in reverse. I made my lines similar to a schnauzer. The lines are very similar. The main difference was that I shaved the ears with the 3mm also instead of taking it down with a ten like I would on a schnauzer. In other words, I left them slightly fuzzy.

I also took the 3mm down his throat floating off into the chest. Most dogs of this type are blessed with cowlicks on their chests leaving nice bald spots when clipped too close. By using the Speed with the 12mm  comb, and skimming over that area I can avoid showing those. I use my thinners to shape that area after clipping it with the Speed.

This is "Scooter" Truman, a Pom-Shih-tzu mix.

 

When this photo was taken we left the fringe on his ears untouched. We use thinners down his nose all the way and shape it into the muzzle. The head is treated as if it was a seperate piece from the ears. It is done with curved shears, making it round. Because he has such a soft coat I have a hard time getting him smooth, but using the Speed snapons makes it easier than it was when I was trying to use a blade. I follow up with thinners to smooth it out.  Here hs is from the side and again with his ears trimmed. I like him better with long ears and so does his daddy. (I did see the fringe on his ears was not even and fixed it but had already taken the photos. )

 

I  hope that these heads and tips help you make your pets look cute and make it easier for you to acheive a groom that your clients love and that fits their pets personality.

The Easter Bunny drops in!

The tip jar gets some interesting use. Some people put trash in it every once in a while, while others use it as intended. At Christmas we had gift cards dropped in it as well which we appreciated and split up amongst everyone.

 

My tip jar on my counter has gotten a lot of use lately. It has increased our tips drastically and that is wonderful since we use the tips to buy sodas and food for the staff.

 

Last week I looked up during a very busy day and found this laying on top of the tip money:

 

I guess someone thought we could use a little levity in our day. Either that or they knew how much I love choclate! Whatever the reason,it made us all smile. He looked so cute laying there! We all laughed. I wish I knew who had put it in the jar in the first place so I could tell them they made my day, but we have no clue who it was.

 

I hope this made you smile as much as it did us. Remember to check your tip jar out frequently! You never know what may be lying there waiting for you!

Care and feeding of the Prima Bathing system

 

 

I have had my Prima system for a long time. I think about 6 years actually and would not want to work without it. It is a pressurized shampoo application system, totally contained. It holds 14 gallons of diluted shampoo and has a hose for an auxiliary tank which allows you to use it to apply medicated shampoos or conditioners other than your regular base shampoo. It is a huge time saver and money saver since the shampoo is not wasted, but is rather applied directly to the dog with no spillage at all.

 

The only thing I do not like about it is that it is hard to clean, and I have never really been happy with how clean it got doing it only occasionally, so we developed a regimen a few years ago on how to do it easily and it has worked wonderfully! It is actually very simple. When the tank is empty at the end of the day, or very close to it, we empty the tank using the drain hole in the bottom and rinse it with warm water, allowing it to dry out overnight. This happens usually twice a week and ALWAYS on Saturday since we will be closed on Monday. Once a month or so I put a gallon of white vinegar in the tank and swish it around really well, add hot water to the top and allow it to sit over the weekend (again, done on a Saturday after the dogs are done). This has kept the system clean and working great for years.

 

Well, apparently I failed to teach my newest member of the bathing staff how to do this. I thought that the long time staff had taught her. The girl the usually cleans the tank thought the new bather was cleaning it, the new bather did not know it needed doing and generally speaking we dropped the ball. It didn’t get cleaned.

 

 

 I found out on Monday when I came up here to bathe my dog, Toto. The shampoo smelled rotten for lack of a better way to put it. I turn the AC off in the shop over the weekend unless we have dogs boarding, and even then I turn it UP because it doesn’t need to be 70 in here when we aren’t working.

 

I decided I better clean it out, thinking it was just soured from the weekend, so I put it in the tub, drained it and rinsed it. Then I figured the vinegar bath would be good, poured in the vinegar and let is sit, added water, ran it a bit on mix and slimey gunk was beginning to show up on the top of the water.

 

 I drained it and LOTS of thick, white, pastey looking material came out. I was concerned and then took a brush to the inside of the tank, and used high pressure spray from the nozzle to dislodge more “gunk”. I ended up with over 16 ounces of "stuff" coming out of the tank that should not have been there.

 

 

 

 I was horrified at what was coming out of my tank. I collected it and put it in a measuring cup to show my staff. They couldn’t believe it either, but I had the proof. There was soap scum, some of which was mildewed all over the top and sides of the tank. Somehow there was hair in the tank that had collected more scum and I found two paper lids off of shampoo gallon sin the tank as well. I was amazed to say the least.

 

I was also very concerned that we had been using shampoo from this tank for who know how long. I mean, it might be contaminated with bacteria, viruses or who knows what. It could be making a dog sick!

 

I am determined that it will never happen again.

 

We now have everyone double checking at the end of the day to insure the tank is sitting open in the tub after being drained and rinsed. I do not want to have to go through this again nor do I want to worry about client dogs or my own dogs getting ill from the residue.  

 

I could have chosen to not publish this since it is possible this will emabarrass me or make people wonder if my shop is clean enough to be safe. I chose to publish it because I am not perfect. I trusted that it was being cleaned and I was mistaken. I also wanted others to know that this is a possibility if you are not careful and diligent about keeping the tank cleaned. If one person learns from my mistake it is worth the public embarrassment I have subjected myself to.

April's Pet of the Month

This is Rusty Harrell. He is a Lhasa/Poodle mix according to his mom and dad.

He has soft hair that is rather difficult to cut, and they like him rather fluffy, which is a nice change in this area. We tend to see a lot of short, short clips on dogs like this.

We start out by bathing him and fluff drying him. We use Stazko shampoo and spray for coats of this type because it leaves them with enough texture to stand well and yet has some properties which prevent matting in between grooming and dematting abilities while drying is taking place.

I used my Speed Feed trimmer by Laube on this dogs body and legs, follwed by scissoring the legs into the shape I wanted. On the body I used the 6mm comb and on the legs I used the 12mm comb, not quite touching the leg the entire way down, more skimming in the front of the legs from the knee to the foot to make the legs more columnar. On the rear of the back legs, in the area of the muscle on the thigh, I used the 6 MM to shape in angulation, scooping out an area shorter than the rest of the leg. it just looks better to me and makes angulation easy and fast. You can see in the image below how it was done.

His head is a squared off chin with a rounder head, similar to a bell shaped Bichon style head. THey like him squared off because, as his mother says, it makes him look "manly". The rounder head made him look like a girl to her.

This entire groom took about 30 minutes using those snap on combs. If he was hand scissored it would have taken closer to an hour.

THe head is not as flat as it appears in this photo, it had been squished (love that technical term, don't you?) when we were trying to get him to stand still for me. I apologize for the glowing eyes. My grooming room requires flashes and dog eyes don't like flashes.