I started grooming about 16 years ago. I was in my early 30's in fact. It was not uncommon for me to groom 4 or 5 large full body clips on farm dogs (read into that chows, Shepards or golden retrievers most never bathed before let alone groomed!) in a day with ten small dogs thrown in for good measure. Most days I had no bathing help, and I was working at vet clinics primarily with poor working conditions and shoddy equipment. HECK one day I did 13 full body clips in one day!
This was pre-Frontline and Advantage. They were coming out in the next year or two but then, every dog it seemed was infested with fleas and we had to dip and dip some more! That meant dogs had to drip dry to let the dip stay on as long as possible.
In the last few years however I have decided to specialize in small dogs. Fluffy dogs. Well kept, well mannered dogs. I have bathers and dryers on staff and the best equipment money can buy.
Unfortunately, there are still a few holdovers from the "old days" of large, matted, not well cared for dogs with fleas.
Today was a day from the past and I know now why I do not miss it!
Molly and Jack are chows. Old chows with health problems. Fleas. Mats. Good temperaments, and owners whom I adore but are financially challenged. See he co-owns a used car lot and she sells furniture for a living. The economy may not be affecting my business in the slightest, but it has almost cost him his totally and her jobs keep disappearing and she has to find new work.As a result the dogs do not get groomed as often as they used to. See they used to come every few months and were kept full coated and brushed out. Now if they get done once a year they are lucky.
This time it had been 15 months since they were last in.
Molly is 15. It took me over an hour to shave her down, and YES I did it before the bath! GASP!I don;t do that, but in her case I did. A ten blade wasn't quite low enough so I switched to a Speed Feed blade and it came right off like a hot knife through butter, but it still took that long. Then she had a flea bath, blow out and finish in a cage dryer because she could not stand up long at all.
Halfway through I was saying "I am too old for this!" I took a short break myself, did a couple of small dog FFTT's and then moved on to Jack.
He is 13. He is big and he has twice the coat that Molly has. I again started with a ten, and had to split the hair down the middle with shears to find a place to start. I quickly switched to the Speed and even then there were several places, like his legs and under his neck, were still too dirty and thick to get out. One hour and a half later he was in the tub getting a flea bath. I did have to take a fifteen minute break in the middle of it, more for me than him, but he did appreciate the outside time. He stood for drying so he was dried by hand and undercoat removed from the areas I had to leave.
It took less than 15 minutes each to finish each of them. I was exhausted, mentally and physically. I was worn out. I remembered them from years past when they were younger and I was sad. I remembered them in such wonderful shape and I was hurt that they cannot be that way any more. It is not that the owners do not care, because they do. The life they had went away in the last three years. They struggle on doing what they can.
I was looking at my assistant groomer who is 22 and petite thinking, I wonder if she can do this. I know it would have taken her forever. My other apprentice is a young man 23 years old. He could have done them, but again, how long would it take him? In my shop it is my job to do the hard stuff. The bad dogs, the badly matted dogs. The old dogs that are special to me. That is the way I do things.
They have been taught to work on clean, brushed out hair. They would have been lost. I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. Maybe it is though.
I have decided though that I want to do small dogs. Fluffy dogs. Well cared for dogs. With a bather and a dryer. Prefereably a receptionist too. I don't know how I ever groomed in vet clinics with no heat, no air conditioning, flea infested dogs at every turn, no bathers, half my current knowledge, puny dryers and grooming on the floor.
I do however know I am too old for this s#$%.
Tomorrow, I have three standard poodles.....so what happened? I hate my boss sometimes.
I am in my 30's and I'M too old for this!
Posted by: Dayna | June 19, 2011 at 03:49 PM