JillFlorio

Love your dog, or have a pet-crazy friend? Here’s a list of 10 ideas from 50 Simple Ways to Pamper Your Dog. Test-run by me:

1.Keep a toy chest for all your dog’s playthings. This is a good one, since my dogs have so many toys that people think I must have children in the house. I leave out three toys at a time, maximum, and rotate the toys as the dogs get bored. Each time a new toy comes out of rotation, they think it’s brand-new.

2. Give your dog a nickname. You know he’s already got one anyway. It may as well be official. Frodo responds equally well to Frody, Little Dude, Freakface and Goober.

3. Once a week, put your dog’s bowls in the dishwasher. Excellent advice. I don’t want want bacteria building up in those bowls any more than in mine.

4. Make a doggy scrapbook. Well, I have not gone so far as to make a plaster cast of Frodo’s little puppy paws, or include hair from his first grooming, but he does have a framed print placed prominently in the livingroom. And, of course, a picture in my wallet.

5. Brush his teeth. My dogs love their toothbrushing sessions. I use a toothpaste for dogs (tastes like chicken), with their own special dog toothbrushes (made for their softer enamel). Once I am done brushing, I let them gnaw on their brushes a bit. Hey, I’ve also got tartar-control dog biscuits and flossy-thread rope toys. No one should have to deal with bad dog breath.

6. Don’t forget the Christmas stocking. The dog stockings are shaped like bones and full of yummy dog treats and squeaky toys.

7. Buy doggy booties. I have some all-terrain dog Muttluks for seriously rocky hiking trips. My dogs walk funny in them at first, then shrug and get used to it. When I remove the boots, I look at the leather bottoms. All those scratches would have been on my dog’s tender pads. Booties are also nice for keeping pads off hot asphalt, and fleecies are great against winter’s ice and salt.

8. Take him swimming. A nice activity that I’m going to have the canines do when they start aging. Dogs are very prone to arthritis, and swimming is a no-stress sport. I have little dog life vests, so they can exercise their limbs even in their golden years.

9. Pray with your dog. One of the book’s nicest suggestions is saying grace with your dog at mealtimes, offering thanks for his loving presence during a cuddle, or allowing some quiet space to be reflective together each day. I once heard a psychic say dogs are very spiritual. It’s probably true.

10. Buckle up. PetsMart and other pet companies design seat-belt attachments that clip right onto your dog’s harness. In an accident, you don’t want your favorite ball of fur to come flying at your head or against the windscreen. It also keeps dogs from climbing into the driver’s lap or all over your passengers. (The book mentions that some new vehicle models from Saab, Audi and Subaru even come with their own dog-restraint systems. How’s THAT for cool?)

There are 40 other unique ideas, and the author also published an edition made for cat-lovers. Anyway, it’s a cute book, and at under ten dollars, would make a decent gift.

50 Simple Ways to Pamper Your Dog

Hi Jill. Here’s a grooming question for you: our dog, Bridget, howls like a banshee the moment you put a brush within a foot of her fur. Any tricks to make her like it better? She looks such a mess if we don’t brush her and she gets really hot and uncomfortable in the summer.Thanks, Betsy

Hi Betsy. Thanks for writing. Now I will put on my dog groomer’s smock: is this a dog you’ve had since a puppy, or adopted later? It’s possible there was some bad history with brushes, if she’s an adoptee.

Also, what kind of dog and what kind of coat? If she’s really matted, I’d recommend going to a groomer for a shave down first. But this also depends on what kind of coat we are talking about. Some double coats should not be shaved.

If shaving is an option, as the hair grows back in, you can slowly ease Bridget into a brushing routine. By the time mats might occur again, she will be comfortable with it all.

Here’s what to do: Have short (five minutes, ten max) play sessions daily, with yummy treats and toys, lots of praise, and just let the brush ‘hang out’ with you, in your lap or whatever she will allow. Don’t touch her with it for a few days. Just let it be there. In fact, let it lie around on the floor all day for awhile, like furniture, so she can see it is not a threat.

Let the play sessions end on a happy note, each time. You are training for positive responses to the sight of the brush.

If she can tolerate the sight of the brush, try turning it over (smooth side) and letting it go over her skin without bristles. Praise her for accepting it with treats and lovins. Eventually she will let you gently brush her, and she should still be mat-free from being shaved. If there are mats, leave them alone until she accepts brushing.

What kind of brush are you using? A “slicker” type is better than a pin brush or human one.

Other options include soft rubber brushes that feel like a doggie massage, and the “zoom groom” (look it up online), that dogs don’t mind on their bodies because it feels nice to them. The zoom groom won’t take out mats but it’s non-threatening, and really great for getting off dead hairs, which means no more shedding if you use it every day.

Now, for de-matting, you can certainly ask a groomer for advice on tools and techniques. Brushes can prevent future mats but should never be used to get out an existing mat. Get a specialized tool for that and ask a groomer to show you how to use it. She won’t charge for this but you should give her a tip of 3 or 5 bucks for her time. There are easy ways to take out bad mats without hurting the dog, but using a plain brush would just be painful for Bridget. And for you! Good luck!

I just bought an RV. I’m doing lots of research about the lifestyle, and am thinking of grooming on the road, while I travel, to help pay expenses. Traveling Groomer? Why not?So I took Introduction to RVs and the RV Lifestyle, Barry Houseknecht’s online course to get introduced to the concepts, the language and the nuts and bolts about RVing.

This is a SuiteU course, so it was a natural to enroll (this being the sister program to Suite101). If you are thinking about moving to the RV lifestyle, start with this great beginner’s course. My research has shown most of the websites dedicated to RVing assume you already know the jargon and are currently on the road.

Here’s my short review of the Introduction to RVs and the RV Lifestyle course:

Houseknecht’s course is pleasant to read - he never talks over the beginner’s head. The four lesson chapters lead the student through choosing the right kind of RV (did you know there are three classes of motorhomes and a whole smörgåsbord of trailables?), going to the dealer, getting your rig ready, staying in touch with the world (mail forwarding, Internet access, cell phones and GPS) and how to get started finding work on the road.

From a newbie’s perspective, I was glad to have this course; I felt less intimidated by everything I needed to know. There are a few simple course assignments and quizzes to get through, along with links to helpful resources.

Altogether, this RV course should get anyone from the RV Dreamer/Wannabe stage to their first trip on the road. I’d like to see a follow-up, more advanced course to teach me about holding tanks, best RV parks, cooking on the road, and all the numerous, day-to-day details of living the life, so to speak.

Do you bring your dog on your RV excursions? Do you think you would use the services of a groomer while at the RV park? Start a discussion below and let me know what you think.

And by all means, give Barry’s course a look-see if you are thinking of getting an RV.

Featured Course:
Introduction to RVs and the RV Lifestyle

I have been using my Yoga in Bed book here and there, and thought I might try it as a ’session’ today.

THE AM SECTION

The AM routine took about 45 minutes to do, but I would imagine it would be shorter or longer to do the whole thing depending on how long you held each pose, how slowly/quickly you breathe and move through things, etc.

About half of the poses offered in the book used up the entire bed, so my poor dog had to keep moving around. I imagine sharing a bed with a sleeping human would entail only doing some of these poses.

The only props needed are bed pillows, which worked fine. I had to shove all the blankets off the bed to really be able to get good stretches in. Of course, I could have *made* the bed instead, but I felt lazy.

I thought the yoga poses themselves were super relaxing. Almost too relaxing. I was expecting a few of the energizing poses you can actually DO in bed, like the cobras and down dogs, but the poses offered were honestly just prep poses and stretching. I added a of my own few boats, bows and locusts just to keep things interesting. For the AM routine, this could have been a tad more stimulating.

THE PM SECTION

The PM poses were just what I was hoping for - relaxing, a way to ease out the kinks of the day and release the stress. I found doing the entire routine took about 25 minutes. I particularly like the massaging the Mind and Rub the Slate Clean techniques.

There is a Savasana at the end called the Chill Out Meditation. I like this one - this is rather how I end up doing the meditation part (to be loving and gentle with your puppy-like mind). And if this section results in sleep, that is just fine. This IS a sleepytime routine, after all.

The book finishes with some information on yogic sleeping (lucid dreaming, prophetic dreaming). This part is really just a blurb - there is nothing here to instruct the reader on these techniques. It’s more of an “here are some things you might want to look into” bit.

The last few pages of the book describe how to create a sacred sleep space (how to set the mood, how to make good sleep a priority) to help ease you into restful slumber. A few resources for insomnia/sleep disorders are listed.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

Overall I like this book and find it very handy. I like the way the spiral binding folds out flat. I like the thick, smooth pages, and the large, bright, happy pictures.

I also like the soothing text that describes the poses as “sweet” and “delicious,” reminding me just how luxurious yoga is supposed to feel.

I think the AM part is a little underwhelming for experienced beginner yogis and above. I would have liked to see some harder bed poses here. However, absolute yoga novices will not be intimidated to begin yoga right here, with this pleasant little book.

The PM section is appropriate and lovely. I was able to actually do all these poses with DH lying in bed next to me, which was a plus.

I did find that this book was a LIFESAVER for me when I was sick. I recently had a several week illness that really took me out. I was able to use and enjoy this book the entire time to keep up with my yoga practice. There is nothing challenging here and all the poses really are designed to gently stretch and relax the body. I imagine this book would be really very helpful to people on bed rest or with some forms of disability.

Recommended on various levels with the understanding that these are all super easy poses.

Yoga In Bed

Those of us who are groomers are aware of what a stressful job grooming can be. Dogs can be barking, the phone can be ringing, people are walking in to ask about prices and schedules…and all the while the clock is ticking on the pets you are supposed to finish by the grooming deadline.While you can’t control everything in the salon (no matter how much you try!) you can budget a bit of your time and effort to making the stress less of an issue. Here are some ideas to engage your senses.

1. The Phone - try to have a ring that doesn’t set your teeth on edge, and a message that assures people you will get back to them quickly. While you don’t exactly want to answer the phone when you have your hands full of soapy wet dog, or even dog pee, your client doesn’t understand when you don’t answer the phone. They assume the worst - that you are unprofessional. Make sure your message assures them you ARE around and that you WILL be in touch within the half hour - about as long as clients are willing to wait.

2. Soft Music - If you are like me, you don’t like that soft rock/muzak/easy listening stuff that reminds you of growing old. But grunge, alternative or even retro oldies won’t impress the customers. What to play?

Good music to groom by includes interesting but not boring ideas like Spanish Classical Guitar; Piano Concertos by Mozart or Bach; crooner music from the 1920s-40 (think about the soundtrack to “When Harry Met Sally”); the soundtrack to movies like Gladiator, Star Wars, The Fifth Element, or whatever movies you dig; some of the milder, more relaxing salsa sounds; Italian Opera (La Boheme is great); or ethnic tunes from many countries - like Australian Maori music, US Native American, Greek classics or other World Beat sounds. Be creative. I recommend checking out the world-wide musical selections on Amazon.com.

3. Scents - It’s up to you whether to use candles, aromatherapy, sage smudges, incense or potpourri…but find something you enjoy that makes you feel calm and at ease.

4. Stay hydrated and fed. If you aren’t cranky, you will be better able to put on your smiley face for customers, even if you have just been bit, pooped on, and are running three dogs late!

Note - if you are calmer, your doggie clients will certainly pick up on that and be better behaved as well. The nice music and soothing scents won’t just help YOUR well-being, but will also create a soothing stage for their “spa day out” as well.

Is your grooming shop affiliated with an adoption agency? A lot of us, being animal lovers, give a bit of free time to the local pet shelters or rescue society, trying to make a difference in saving the lives of dogs. Often a groomer takes a few hours to brush out, de-matt, and spiffy-up a bedraggled homeless specimen…turning him into an fluffy, adoptable ball of love. This saves lives in a very real way!The online course, Enhancing the People/Pet Partnership, is directly related to the field of grooming. Whether we, as groomers, donate grooming time, or answer questions for clients on how to help new dog owners care for and bond with their pets, we are actively promoting pet welfare.

After enrolling in this course, I believe all prospective and newbie dog owners should be required to work through, and complete, this excellent program.

What’s in the Program?

Lesson One begins with a short treatise on the importance of animals to human co-existance, whether those pets are therapy dogs, search and rescue hounds, animal helpers, war dogs or just our loving companions. Compassionate stories of animals saving lives, from pigs to birds and all pets in-between, are relayed.

Lesson Two offers the real meat of the course, with sections detailing these important concepts:

• Choosing, Commitment, and Common Sense
• Pet Safety
• Pet Care
• Vaccinations
• Recognizing Common Health Problems
• Pet Manners
• Emergencies and First Aid

Lessons Three and Four are the Dog Whisperer part…with sections on how to bond with, spend time with, and love your pet…and also how to ease the suffering of both of you when it’s time to let your beloved friend pass over.

How You Can Help Teach Pet Owners

You can help people learn to better care for their new friends, too. You can take this course and/or recommend others do the same, or you can put a link to it in your salon newsletter - whether that newsletter is Web-based or paper.

If your newsletter is online, you can even earn extra cash by using an affiliate link (available free, whether you take the course or not).

A free course could be part of your New Puppy Grooming Package that includes a salon bandana, toothbrush, toothpaste, soft slicker brush and a year’s worth of salon visits (got to train those dogs to handle being groomed, and train their owners to come in regularly).

Course enrollments can be offered as holiday prizes in your raffle gift baskets (those were always very popular in my salon, along with a few nice toys, a holiday bandana, nail clippers, and a bottle of specialty dog shampoo).

You could also give out a free course with each adoption from your affiliated shelter (along with a new grooming, by YOU!), possibly including the course price in your adoption package.

The idea is there are lots of ways you can incorporate training your clients to work with, care for, and bond better with their animals. None of these options will detract from YOUR bottom line, and can increase your client retention rate dramatically.

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Here is the button for you to explore the course curriculum for Enhancing the People/Pet Partnership. Take a look at the introduction and overview to get a feel for the instruction provided!

Featured Course: Enhancing the People/Pet Partnership

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Who is the Author, anyway?

Course Author Joy Butler knows her stuff - she grew up on a farm with animal friends, has been involved in pet therapy, animal communication, dog obedience and other dog sports shows. She authored the ebook In the Hearts of Beasts, manages the Pets and Animals Community at Suite101, is Dean of Pets & Animals at SuiteU, is Contributing Editor for Suite101’s Extraordinary Animals topic, and volunteers her extra time in pet rescue in south Texas. Butler is currently owned by 6 dogs, with whom she Dog Whispers her way into loving, bonding, obedient relationships!

I like houseplants and have them all over my house, which is also my Grooming Salon. Houseplants clean the air, provide a bit of humidity to my dry indoor climate, and look cheerful!However, with all the dogs in and out of the place, I have to be careful which houseplants are within reach, or can be pulled down by curious dogs for chewing.

Some plants are poisonous! Don’t let your dog get these plants in his mouth:

• Diffebachia/Dumb Cane
• Pothos
• Calla Lily
• Anthurium
• Peace Lily
• Philodendron
• Cactus (not toxic, but those spines hurt!)
• And during the Holiday Season, be careful of decorating with:
• Poinsettia
• Holly Berries
• Mistletoe

This website lists ingestion symptoms and tells you what to do (obviously, immediately call your vet in ANY case of suspected pet poisoning!): Poisonous houseplants

These are nice-looking, no fuss plants I would use in the salon:

• Palms
• Jade Plant
• Schefflera/Umbrella Plant
• Dracaena/Corn Plant
• Wandering Jew
• Spider Plant (snip off rootlets, so dogs can’t drag this plant down onto their silly heads!)
• Catnip (grow it in a small pot - cats LOVE it and dogs ignore it. It smells nice when you bruise the leaves, and makes a good tea to help settle upset human stomachs)
• Monstera

Grooming Salons usually bustle with young people training as bathers. Especially at PetSmart, there was a constant, almost insane amount of turn-over with dog bathers.We all know that good bathing is a skilled trade that comes with time, but in a time crunch, it seems like any warm body to wet a dog will do! What salon ISN’T under frantic time constraints?

Retaining your young, enthusiastic employees is a must to enhance the quality of groomed dogs, your reputation, and your sanity as a salon owner or manager. Training from scratch over and over and over WILL decrease your bottom line. And, among other things, more dogs will get their quicks cut by fumbling newbies, making for less-than-pleased clients.

If you can keep a bather long enough, he or she will even start to be requested by clients. You’ve probably heard something like this…”Please have Sarah wash and brush out Jake; she always does such a good job.”

While it’s a good thing to WANT to keep employees, we also have to realize we live in an unstable economic environment. Bathing simply does not pay well, as a rule. Many bathers live on food stamps, are single parents, or eke by on a subsistence level.

Groomers at least usually work for commission, and at a higher rate. But for bathers, many of whom have the embarrassing credit problems of the young, there may not be a lot of incentive to stay and bathe once they have burned out past the Gee-I-Love-Dogs phase.

Provide Good Training

Good training materials are a must - bathing books, handouts, videos and courses. The Simple Guide to Grooming Your Dog, by Eve Adamson and Sandy Roth, is an excellent book to have as a resource, besides the obligatory but intimidating Stone Guide to Grooming and AKC Book of Breeds.

I also have a more radical idea - help teach these young people to help themselves out, financially. This is a wholistic slant to employee education that might work better for them, and for you, in the long run.

Many young - and not so young - employees have hit rock bottom with their credit and finances in these trying times. The online course, Improving Your Financial Self Esteem, addresses these issues directly, so you won’t have to become your employees own personal financial advisor.

Course Author Taura Lynn Colbert’s first person and friendly approach is unusual in today’s online course setting - a welcome tactic for addressing the real fears and shame of employees with terrible credit histories and limited bank accounts. Colbert openly shares her story through her own personal money denial, personal bankruptcy, the terrors of checking her own credit report…and eventual courage to tackle her own situation, piece by piece, day by day.

You can help your staff to help themselves by enrolling them in this course. For $24.95, they can enroll in the read-only course, or, for $5 more, they can have the interactive version, with Colbert herself assisting as a personal advisor to getting themselves back on the road to monetary self-esteem.

Lessons include assessing your “money personality” (she says many of us live “money drunk” and don’t even know it), seeking change, finding credit counseling, making new goals, and using a bit of sanity to enhance your financial well-being.

Bear in mind your employees will probably not be even able to afford this course, or even feel moved to enroll on their own. This is all par for the course with someone experiencing poor financial self-esteem. It would be a worthwhile investment for you to actually sign them up and pay for it yourself. Proof of completion could be part of the bather’s training program. Workplace studies show that investing in your staff’s education gains loyalty for the business that bothered.

Click the button below to read the introduction, overview and course syllabus of this course. Good luck with keeping those bathers on staff! A good one is worth their weight in GOLD!

I’ve got my mind on RVs these days. A LOT of people traveling in RVs - fulltimers, partimers and weekenders alike - bring their doggies along for the trip. What do you do to keep your mutt looking pretty on the road? What happens when you let Fluffy out to do her business, and she comes back with a coat full of burrs and mud? Even if you are just road tripping in a car, it pays to have a little ‘grooming emergency kit’ tucked away somewhere. These are the essentials:

1. Fine-Tooth Comb - you can work out the burrs before they get really entwined with any plastic comb. Just don’t yank on your poor dog - be gentle!

2. Dog brush - once you have the burrs out, brush through the fur to remove leaves, dirt and mud blots.

3. A small scissors is a lifesaver if there are matts.

4. Tweezers to remove the thorns and spines. Check your dogs feet every time you think of it - a thorn could become an infected abscess if neglected.

5. Baby Wipes are great for touch-ups between baths, for wiping eye boogers - and can really help out when you see any dangling dookie (you DON’T want THAT in your vehicle)!

6. A small spray bottle of doggie cologne, to help cover up any odors from Fido rolling in the cow pies. Find a scent you like since it will linger in the car or RV with you - there are hundreds to choose from; something for everybody. I am partial to the Christmas Spice-type scents…plus, after Christmas, you can probably buy a bunch of bottles on sale and use all year.

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If your dog has a short coat, you might be lucky enough to not deal with burrs - at least, not as many. Plant burrs are essentially hitch hikers, and have evolved to cling to skin, fur and feathers. This moves the little seeds from their parent plant to a possibly better, more fertile area for new growth. It’s a very effective means of weed propagation.

You’ve probably had little burrs cling to your own blue jeans, so it’s not a stretch to see the little seeds sticking to your short-haired dog. It can be a nightmare for a longer-haired one!

The key is removing the burr as soon as possible, before there’s been time for either 1. the burr to work it’s way into skin, and 2. your dog’s hair to get more firmly wrapped around the little seed, eventually becoming a solid matt.

If you have a show dog, it’s a good idea to have a pliers or hemostat in the car, which can hold the burr while you pry loose the hairs from around it. Gently! This saves the coat from needing a scissors…and if you are enroute to a show, the last thing you need is a big hole in the coat you have spent so much time perfecting!