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Here in Maine it’s nearly time for flea and tick season again, and in many parts of the country it’s in full swing already. How do you handle pets with fleas in your salon?

As pet groomers, we are more familiar with dog poop than we probably wish to be. Getting groomed can make dogs a little anxious, which can cause them to defecate. Sometimes it can be entirely unexpected, like in the middle of a bubbly bath or while being dried. The groomer must swiftly deal with those " oops, " but what about the deposits made while the dog enters or exits the grooming facility?

There are means other than pesticides that some groomers prefer to use and recommend to get rid of fleas, rather than using pesticides. While these more natural remedies often take a bit longer and do not have as high a kill rate they are preferred by a lot of clients, so it’s well worth offering them as a retail option as well as using them in the salon. While the word natural does not necessarily equate with safe, most customers believe that more natural products will work and will do so with less risk than more traditional chemical remedies.

When a groomer I admire wrote something extolling the virtues of the Andis Deshedding tool, I paid attention and ordered one. Rarely does a work day go by that I am not grateful for that choice. Groomers often joke about wanting or needing a magic wand, and this tool is about as close as it gets.

Sometimes it’s a good thing to brush up on basics. Maybe a fundamental grooming skill that you were never taught or one you were taught but sort of forgot about. Sometimes it is something you know about, but it is so ingrained that you do it without thinking, so you can’t teach someone else about it. In this case, the topic is about letting the force of water and air help you create the look you desire when grooming pets.

This is the time of year the big shedding breeds come in. They’re often the ones that haven’t been groomed in FOREVER. You know the ones – Goldens…arctic-type breeds…Saint Bernards. They have that coat that totally trashes your salon. Call me crazy – but we just love the transformation in this type of job. Here are my tips for de-shedding:

We bend, lift and shift. We brush, scissor, detangle, and scrub. We spend much of the day on our feet. There is no arguing the fact that pet grooming is a physically demanding job. Even young, fit pet stylists report feeling aches and pains, and those of us who are older compare notes about our physical ailments at an astonishing pace. But help is available to keep our bodies working at their optimum capacity.

There are some moments when dealing with customers that teach us important lessons. Pass out the compliments; they don’t cost a thing. 

If you have been grooming pets for more than five minutes, chances are that you have had some unusual requests. Sometimes it is as simple as “Please don’t trim the eyelashes,” and you look to see the dog in question has lashes that are so long they hang halfway down his face and must make blinking a challenge.  Or it may be something a bit… more.

Have you ever had the experience of trimming the ears on a drop-eared dog only to find that you simply can’t manage to get them even? Either one ear is shorter than the other, or you keep finding straggly pieces that you missed on one or both ears. It can be frustrating and sometimes end up with the pet having far shorter ears than you had initially planned as you trim one, then the other, in an attempt to get things perfectly matching.