Back in March 2017, I was fortunate enough to meet Harold at Muttville. I met with Eric, the person in charge of donations. My condo building planned a social to benefit two animal shelters. As I was on the committee, i suggested Muttville.

I chose this wonderful organization because I want to promote the adoption of older or senior dogs. Why ? Because they are usually the last to be adopted. Also, many people are not aware that having a puppy is like having a baby. Not everyone wants potty training and potty breaks every two hours, accidents, and, an endless supply of energy.

Harold is an older miniature pinscher with cushing's disease. It saddened me to hear that due to the cost of his medications, he had been at the shelter for a long time. Given my affinity to min-pins, Sophie dog and I decided to donate one-thousand dollars towards his medication to help make Harold more attractive to potential adopters.

I am happy to report that about three months later, I received a text letting me know that Harold was adopted and has finally found his forever home.

Meet Brando. He is a Norwich Terrier. He has a double coat which consists of the top guard hair and the soft undercoat. 

A simple de-shedding is the only thing that's really called for. The amount of undercoat that I have here is after 15mins of brushing just his left side.

I wish that I took a before shot because he looked rotund compared to his svelte after picture ! 

I think Brando looks cute the way he is above, but I was asked to clean him up, so this picture is after I've trimmed his face, chest etc. 

I like to leave them still looking natural and not "groomed", so there are no definite grooming cut lines on the face.  

So I thought I would take this opportunity to write about sensitive dog skin and clipper rash. I will write about clipper burns on a separate post as this is not something that occurs when using a machines similar to my  Clipper Vac .

If after a groom your pup starts to show discomfort by licking an area, scooting and/or show a visible rash, it is important to sooth the area with vaseline or neosporin. This will help keep your dog from further scratching, scooting and biting the area and prevent further irritation. Also let me or your groomer know about this so the event is noted in grooming notes. This allows the groomer to make adjustments specifically for your pet. 

I use a Clipper Vac which significantly reduces the incidence of clipper rash. With the vacuum action of pulling the hair away from the skin, the constantly air cooled blade rarely touches the skin. As with all, things are never 100%. There are some pups with very sensitive skin where irritation and rash can still occur. 

Sometimes irritation does not show up until a little later after the pup has left the shop. Again, if this happens, sooth the area and prevent your pup from irritating the spot further and call the groomer. 

Dog owners always want the back sanitary clip to be very short for long lasting easy cleaning. An industry standard blade length is what I use on all dogs. Clipper blade rash and burn is a common occurrence in grooming shops as many do not invest in a  Clipper Vac or similar machine. With out this machine, blades run hot from friction and busy groomers sometimes forget to rotate to a cool blade.

There are times when matts cause irritation in sensitive & non-sensitive  areas such as behind the ears, underbelly, hygienic and tail areas. Removing the matts may actually cause uncomfortableness. Matts pull on dog skin and this uncomfortable, irritated feeling becomes an everyday normal feeling. Once the matt is removed, the area no longer feels “normal”. Thus the dog may lick, scratch or scoot causing more irritation to the skin. 

I was trying to do some paper work while Emily & Poke (not pictured) waited for their parents, but Emily had other ideas. She wanted more head rubs ! 

Look how happy Sophie (right) is about having to share the couch and me.

It was requested that I groom Hero the Shih Tzu according to a drawing that was given to me. Hero's dad is artistic and at times designs his haircuts. This day, a Lion Cut was requested. 

It was easy, but the difficulty was just making sure that the mohawk is centered. You can't tell because the drawing is cut off, but the drawing also asks for leg fringes. I LOVE IT ! 

The owner wanted Molly to look Bichon, so together we came up with a long term plan. For this visit, the plan was to remove the mats. So  I pushed the mats out as far away from the skin as possible. I then shaved the mats off. Surprisingly, I was able to keep 1/2" of hair. (it's usually 1/4 - 1/8" that can be saved) Regarding Molly's muzzle, there was nothing I can do but to wait until it  grew out.  

So when Diego made an appointment for Frosty, he included the information that "Frosty is a bit scared of the blow dryer so if you guys can use the cone as it makes it easier on him please do, thanks." 

Luckily, I always put a "muffler" around my puppy client's hears so that any noise from the blow dryer is muffled. On top of that, I purchased a blow dryer designed to be so much quieter than the other high velocity dryers available for the industry. I also used a small towel to keep the other parts of his body from getting hit by the air. I figure that I wouldn't want other parts to get hit with air causing him to get cold.

Frosty did really well when I was drying is body. When it was time for the face, I decided to use my own ionic hair dryer on the lowest setting. I first combed and did a flash dry and combed again followed with a flash dry until Frosty seemed okay with the hold thing. I guess the secret to the whole blow drying thing is to avoid getting air inside of their ear and also in their eyes and nose. Oh and being gentle helps tremendously too ! 

I was reading some less than favorable reviews of some of our local groomers and was surprised at how easily solvable and preventable some of the problems were. 

Coming from a Marketing & Sales background and having consulted on it, I know how important Customer Service is. I also know how difficult it can be to offer it if it is not part of a business culture.

My theory on customer service is that it has to come from within and it has to naturally be a part of a person/business. The ability to provide excellent customer service is an innate characteristic of a person  to want to please and help others. It is this, coupled with the ability to empathize that puts the word "excellent" before the words "customer service." In a business, this characteristic must come from the owner or leader. 

I pride myself in being able to offer excellent customer service and I hope that it's palpable to my current and future customers.