I was just over 10 years old the first time my Grandpa Wilbur Bishop took me to the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Traveling to South Dakota also meant driving through the expansive tribal grasslands of the Rosebud Sioux Reservation that fills much of the…
Over the 45 years that I have been a dog groomer, I have noticed that some of the most important things I have learned are short, random, simple, clear truths that I find myself repeating over and over to clients, co-workers and to myself in…
We see it everywhere at grooming competitions or in the dog show ring: beautifully hand-stripped wire-coated dogs. Hand stripping empowers the naturally rich pigment and characteristic hard texture of this most distinctive dog coat type to function just as designed, which is to keep their…
It goes without saying that cat grooming is different than dog grooming. And while a lot of the differences are widely accepted, some of the most important differences in grooming cats are not obvious or even visible because they are anatomical, involving microscopic differences in…
We groomers are in the middle of a knowledge explosion that is revolutionizing our pet grooming industry; however, this explosion is still in process. And while not all pet groomers have had access to the new information about genetics, dermatology, and general science about dogs…
I have saved several dogs’ lives. I know this because their veterinarians told the dogs’ owners that I did and the owners called or came in to thank me. I have been the recipient of several tearful, grateful hugs during an in-person visit, often accompanied…
n Earth, where we humans and our pets live, our calendars are divided into periods of time called months. This thing called a month exists in every culture and language, and it drives the organization of our time. However, it is much more than a…
You’ve probably heard older groomers express regret that they did not do more when they were young to take care of their hands. You may have seen some of us with swollen joints and bent fingers, or others wearing compression gloves, splints or other mechanical…
T dropcaphere are an estimated 900 million dogs in the world and most are double coated. Approximately 80%1 live without a home or owners and are called free ranging.2 They are all short- or medium-length double coats, and a large number of pet dogs are…
We face a tug-of-war every day we do our jobs as pet groomers. There are daily pressures on us to do our jobs “efficiently”—which usually means someone, or something, pushes us to do it as quickly as possible. But the stark reality is that we…
The start of the new year is always a good time to take stock of where we have been and where we are going. One of the most exciting trends in grooming as we dive into 2024 is the significant increase in groomers who are…
As much as we want this not to be true, there have been incidents reported in the news throughout the United States of groomers abusing dogs entrusted to their care…some to the point of death. The subject of groomers abusing dogs is nothing short of…