Posts published by “Crystal Dunn”

Far Fetched Dog Podcast

Dog Grooming Myths

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Part 1

Becca Rainwater from As The Fur Flies joins Crystal to talk about all things dog grooming. From preparing your dog for the groomer; to how to get the cut you want; to ear plucking to undercoats, they cover just about everything in this two-part episode. Brace yourselves! There will be anal glands.

References

Akc – what to ask you dog groomer before you hand your dog over 

AKC S.A.F.E. Grooming

Grooing Certifications – https://www.thebalancecareers.com/dog-groomer-certification-125641

Notes From The Grooming Table – Melissa Verplank

Crystal Dunn 0:00 Do you have anything that you want to write down or anything like that real quick? Or are we pretty much good to go? I think we’re pretty good to go. I have my notes pulled up. I think that should be, should be pretty good. Um, you know me, I kind of like to shoot from the hip even if it is prepared. Yeah, yeah. I like to prepare it so that I can bend shoot from the hip. That’s my that’s my M.O. Becca Rainwater 0:31 Yeah, be asked to stay on script. It’s never gonna happen. Crystal Dunn 0:36 You have the chance to like organize your thoughts in your head ahead of time. That just makes all the difference for me. Yeah. I can talk pretty freely after that. But if I’m just old, it’s a little different. So yes, some of my wittiest moments have been when I’ve gone in cold though I gave some really good interviews. I was pretty impressive myself. My last interview was cold in it apparently did quite a did it did great. I did great. People love that episode. So it’s just my mom listening to it over and over again, she just placed it on repeat. Your mom must be really good at selecting grooming or boarding and daycare facilities now. Welcome to Far Fetched a podcast on the many myths and misconceptions about dogs. I’m Crystal Dunn, writer, dog behavior consultant, host of podcasts and person who is physically unable to not laugh at the word Shih Tzu. Okay, so with me today is my friend, former co worker and dog extraordinary Becca rainwater back out. Welcome back. Yes. Very excited to be back. Yeah, he joined me once before on this podcast to talk about all boarding and daycare facility well, how to choose a boarding and daycare facility. And now you’re back to talk about how to pick an equally important pet care service, which is how to select a groomer. So, so just so people know, in addition to a long history, running a high end boarding and daycare facility that also offered some grooming services, you’ve done a fair amount of grooming on your own. Becca Rainwater 2:27 But you are also or you’re currently a manager at a grooming salon as well. So, yeah, so I thought this would be a really great conversation for us to have because you see it every day you work with some really, really talented groomers. I really do. Yeah, and your grooming salon has an amazing reputation in this town. So it’s very grateful. Yeah, so before we jump into how to choose a groomer, what you should know about grooming and all that good stuff. Crystal Dunn 2:58 I thought it’d be fun to kick off this. This episode with a with a grooming story of some sort of, do you have any favorites? Like, like, my mind’s real short because I have a very limited experience with grooming. Not my specialty at all, which is why I brought you on here to answer all my questions. But, but my, in my limited experience. I’ll never forget the first time I called a Lhasa Apso’s hair fur. the extremely irritable man who owned this dog informed me that that is not for that his hair. And to never reference his dog’s hair as fur ever again. Becca Rainwater 3:48 Yeah, the shave is that the groomers are calling it both behind his back, he’ll never know.Because they do they don’t really make any distinction. There’s no real. I mean, let’s think about the whole continuum of coat links that are out there. You know, when does it stop being a hair and what does it when does it stop being you know, fur and becomes hair? Crystal Dunn 4:12 I was Like, sir, I stand corrected. Yeah, just backed away. Just the conversation. That’s kind of what you got to do. Yeah. So I don’t get roasted. A lot of people draw the line that like hair grows like human hair and doesn’t shed the same as for Becca Rainwater 4:30 I would ask those people to please please take a look in their shower drain. As it turns out, they are shedding too. But yeah, I mean, we’ve speaking of Shih Tzu, we have had some fun. We had a Chi-shit the other day, a chihuahua Shih Tzu mix. I kid you not they self reported this dog as a purebred. That’s a personal favorite of mine. Right now I’m on like this big drive that we shouldn’t be calling them bernedoodles We should be calling them Bernese Mountain doodles. Just think it’s a better name, honestly. Yeah, so we get some fun, get some fun names coming through, we get a lot of people who don’t know what they have, or they think they have something completely different from what they actually have. And I have to stop myself every time from going well, if you went on WebMD and typed in all your symptoms, and it told you you had cancer, would you believe it? Or would you go ask a professional? Depends on who you’re talking to. True? Yeah, I’m like this professional telling you, you have a Havanese mix. It’s not a rare breed your it’s your Okay. I want to show it. I don’t have a pedigree, I don’t know what you shouldn’t. So Don’t. Don’t do that. Well, I’m sure some of our misses are going to jog some of your grooming story memories as well as we go through. So the first thing I want to do is just go through just basically a cache of either complete falsehoods or partial foul falsehoods for us to kind of crack open. Crystal Dunn 6:24 Again, I am not a specialist here I am going mostly on the advice of other people’s because this is this is not an area that I have ever worked actively in. I’ve worked alongside groomers and I’ve had dogs that had to be groomed, but that’s where my I’ve cared for dogs who were into growers. That is my that is my limited experience here. So, so I’m just gonna jump right into our favorite dog grooming myths. The first one is, I don’t need to do anything. Before my appointment. I just need to bring my dog to the groomer. Yeah, just you know, roll up, dump him out and roll off. That’s fine. I’m pressed for time. Yeah, so um, you know, there’s there’s a pretty short checklist of things you need before you go and see your groomer. Number one is vaccines, make sure that you meet their vaccination policy. Most groomers only require rabies. There’s some places who who specialize in younger dogs and really getting a good start with young dogs. And they will also record require distemper, Parvo and possibly Bordetella, depending on the space. Right now, we only require rabies, I’m kind of trying to push towards us requiring distemper Parvo, as well, because we do you see some younger dogs, you also want to make sure that you have an idea of what you want from your dog’s haircut, look up some reference photos, you know, it doesn’t even have to be of your specific breed as long as the kind of coat type is kind of the same. So if you have like a kind of curlier, dog nature, you’re bringing in pictures of curly dogs and not straight coated dogs, we will not be taking a hair straightener to your dog. Unfortunately, that’s what I do before I go to the salon every time I just grab a picture of somebody with really curly hair, because mine is bored straight. And I take it into them. And I’m like, I want this. Yeah. And make sure that if you’re using terms, you’re using the right terms. A puppy cut is a different thing on every single breed. And it’s really non standard. So make sure you’re being specific. You know, if you come in and say you want an Asian fusion look, please make sure you know what Asian fusion is because it is a very distinct style. Personally, I think it’s super cool and very cute. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea. And we have had people who were like, Yeah, let’s do an Asian fusion fail on them. And then they get their dog back. And they’re like, Excuse me, this is what now? All the more reason to be like, Okay, where’s the picture? Right? Like, yeah, the picture. You can’t argue with a picture like this. Yeah. And then that way the groomer can tell you, Yes, that is possible or no, that is not possible on your dog. And maybe you can find something else if it’s not possible, right? Yeah. What’s even better is old picture or pictures of your dog after a fresh groom that you really liked. So if you get your dog back, you absolutely love their cut, go home and do a little photo shoot. The worst thing that happens is you get a bunch of likes on Instagram. Yeah, the best that happens is that you can recreate that look with your groomer every single time because you will have pictures of a fresh cut. Please don’t give us pictures of your dog. Two weeks after their hair cut. We it’s really hard for us to judge what it looks like. Generally, that happens a lot. I’ll get reference pictures that are like I want it to look like this and like this dog is like a poodle with a ton of shrinkage because it’s been like running around and a human feel like bad news. 30 dogs I would imagine that would be really, really problematic with curly dogs it Yeah, yeah, the curly ones are can be a little bit of a mind. Intense for sure. And get a little bit of exercise into your dog. We don’t want them to be like overtired. Like overtired toddler about to throw a tantrum, but a light jog before they come in. If they’re the kind to get a little sleepy from a couple Benadryl, like, that’s fine. Like it’s their first rodeo, right? Like, yeah, whatever, I tend to chill them out. Yeah, and I’m a big fan of medication is not a dirty word, you know? Although do be aware of how your dog reacts to something like, Oh, yes, time because they always do a dry run at home first. But as a caveat here, make sure you ask your benefits or Becca Rainwater 10:52 talk to your vet, always. This is this is assuming that you’re going to your vet for these medications. Don’t go read your own your mom’s, you know, medicine cabinet for her 10 year old and go to your vet for that one. But yeah, I mean, like, as a human being with a lot of anxiety, anything we can do to make things look, I know exactly how that feels to be in a new environment, you don’t know what’s about to happen. And you’re really, really stressed out. It’s so much worse for your dog, because we can’t explain it sit down to them and explain to them what’s about to happen. You know, their groomer is about to touch literally every square inch of their body and I mean, every square inch of their body. That’s a lot. It’s a lot to process. You know, from a baby behavior standpoint, you know, going into the groomer a few times before your dog has to be groomed. Just to acclimate them to the smells and the sounds and the people is an extremely good idea, especially if you’re going to have a lifelong dog. Your dog’s going to need grooming life for for life. You know, it’s one thing if you’re going to bring your dog in just occasionally. But those little hairy guys, there’s there’s definitely a warming process that has to happen and good groomers are really good at doing that making it a pleasant experience and warming them up to them. Yeah, I just did a little happy visit with a little doodle puppy. This earlier this week. She just came in to eat some cookies and look at all the stuff. Wow, let’s go. And that’s all it is. Just go in they get treats, they get snuggled. And then they get to you. And that’s it. They might rush. Right. And that’s what I Oh my God. That’s what I say to all the dogs. Let’s go look at stuff. Wow, let’s go look at things and they’re like, Oh my god. Okay. Sounds fabulous. Yeah, like, Yeah, let’s go. Yeah, we’ll walk away and their parents sneak out the door. While we’re, you know, in the back, they’ll never know that you left. So let’s but yeah. So let’s go on to the next one. So this one strikes me similar to like, the common sense that you would, you know, use with going to a salon, but I should pay the same amount from room and a groomer? Is there a standardized fee schedule with groomers? No, not not even a little bit. Um, where you’re located in within your own state within the nation is going to vary widely. So grooming pricing tends to follow the cost of living. So we’ll have people who, you know, would be like, Oh, my gosh, your prices are so high. They’re not the same as they are in rural Georgia. Yeah, no joke. Yeah, this this is this is a large city. Correct. I don’t even want to think about the grooming pricing in places like New York and Los Angeles that, that terrifyingly high. Yeah, for your high end salons, which is another factor that plays into it, right, like some salons are really known for what they do. And they have drummers that are extremely experienced and, and just in, you know, in the field, like the best of the best at what they do and really passionate about it, and then you’ve got people who are like new to it. And you know, they’re going to need a little bit more practice. And they’re probably going to be a little cheaper and, you know, in every gray area in between, right. So it’s just like going to get a haircut. If you want the really high end stuff, you’re going to go into town, you’re going to go to the really high end salon and they’re going to give you a certain level of attention. And if you want a budget friendly experience, then if you’re like me, you go to birds barber shop where they shove a beer in your hand and call it a day like Yeah, and I pay 55 bucks for my haircut. Perfect. So yeah, grooming cars generally follow the cost of living. It also changes from year to year their yearly cost increases. We see the same increase in cost of materials and I mean you would be shocked at how quickly rumors go through blades like they can be sharpened, but you want to sharp as late as possible. because you’re going to get the best cut as possible from that. So they’re replacing them frequently. Shampoo prices, I swear double every three months. It’s ridiculous. You’re also going to pay more for mobile because they have to factor the cost of gas and travel. Especially travel time traveling between different spaces. If time is a big one there. Yeah, you get so many dogs as a mobile as a mobile groomer. Oh my gosh, their time is money. Yeah, it’s impaired mobile groomers. Well, they deserve it. They’re not only dealing with the shenanigans of dogs all day they’re also fighting your cities traffic all day. Yeah, fair. Give them a little credit. Also, if they have any, like fancy certifications, that’s that’s going to, you know, change your cost as well where if you’re free, which gives us a little liberty to charge slightly more. Really, the difference is not all that much from the other grooming salons where we do charge a little bit more because we are fear free. But yeah, so all of those things factor in I also hear a lot people will be like, Well, my dog is so small. Why is their grooming so much? Like Well, you know, small bugs are hard to grow. They’re difficult they take a really high level of skill because you are using the same size clippers you would use on your neighbor’s new fugu, as you’re going to do on your teeny tiny little three pound Yorkie and so the skill required to use those slippers on that small of a dog I mean, that skill levels high and not every river likes to pose little think of it because it’s it’s Think of it this way what you’re saving in vet bills for your dog right you’re making up for in your grooming bills. Yes. Oh, yeah. Yep. Yeah, they are. You gotta be real careful with those, those small fries. Little guys little tiny tendons. So what about my groomer shaves my dog because it’s easier. Oh, man. Okay, let’s get into this one. I would love to talk about this one. And so something that a lot of groomers will talk about is humanity over vanity. That’s a big thing that they say a lot. We want to prioritize the humanity of the dog over the vanity of brushing out mats. Brushing your mats is extremely painful. It is so so painful. It hurts your dogs. It hurts your rumour. It’s not good for their back. It’s good for their arm. It’s not good for their body. No good for their psyche their God. No terrible. Yeah, and I mean, like, there have been studies on what it does to humans to be forced to torture other living beings. Not to say that the matting is torture, but you’re inflicting pain by doing what by demanding it is very painful. It’s also not easier to shave your matted dog, it’s genuinely not easier to do. So the more matted a dog is, the more likely it is to nick the skin when you’re shaving them. Because that hair pulls that skin up so tight, it’s so easy for it to pull the skin up between the clipper blades and Nick the dog groomer has to slow down dramatically if they’re shaving a mad dog. They have to go super careful. Honestly. Shaving about a dog isn’t all that good for their back either because they’re going to be hunched over your dog paying super close attention to where that Clipper is going where that blade is and how the dog’s body is responding to this process. So it’s actually not easier for your groomer to shave your mad dog they just don’t want to see your dog in pain. Yeah, I think it’s painful matting is painful. brushing out matting is painful. Shaving matting is no picnic either but it is of the three options leaving it brushing it out or shaving it is the least painful option. Imagine can be dangerous to it It disrupts the dog’s blood flow we’ve had some people who will say that you know we gave the dog clipper burn or they have some kind of rash after the grooming and what it is is that hair rebounding from being pulled up so tight by that matting madding sucks. Yeah, it’s like bomber and you know, and this kind of leads us to our next one too, which is I brush my dog but my groomer still says that they’re matted. So what happens here when that when you take your dog in you think you’ve been doing right by them? Yeah. And then your groomer says yeah, you’ve got mats. It happens. And it happens for a lot of different reasons. Um, one of the things that you may see if your dog is between like six months and a year is that they’ll go through an adolescent code change. Sometimes it happens a little bit over a year, but their code will start to change as they get a little bit older from this nice, fluffy car. puppy coat to this more. You know, hate to say wirey but it’s you know, it’s it’s a mature code, it’s less fluffy. It’s less cottony it’s less downy. So when those two textures come across each other, they’re not friends. As he does puberty never is your friend, you know, they don’t get along well. So we do tend to see some matting around that time, that’s super normal. If you have a dog who their coat is one that does need to be cut very regularly, so something like a poodle, lico doodly coat, you know, Maltese, Shih Tzu, whatever, and they’re going through this code change. As much as you love them fluffy, it’s gonna save you a lot of headache just to kind of cut them short that one time and just start over again, it’s gonna save your dog a lot of issues with matting just makes everyone’s life a little bit a little bit easier in hair grows back, I promise. Every dog’s hair grows back might grow a little bit slower than others. But all all hair, all hair grows, all hair grows back, it’s normal to need a reset here and there. You know, for those little hairy guys, especially I think, where it’s just you kind of try to maintain like, I’ve always always liked our dogs, you know, we had a we had a shit up. So growing up. And I always liked like the puppy cut look on him to like, Gary and everything. And yeah, but you know, I remember having to reset that a couple times not because we were neglecting him just because you know, their code, just like you said it changes over time. And developmental changes can affect that. And weather can affect that, I think and it’s just a lot of things at play there. And how thorough you are at brushing certainly if there was a huge learning curve for me, I was a dog groomer basically, as a teenager in between sessions. That was my chore was I had to brush off. And, and I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, of course. Yeah, that’s that was something I wanted to mention is that you want to make sure that you’re also you know, brushing effectively, that’s an important part of brushing just running a comb through them. It’s not, you know, not as effective as you know, actual effective coat brushing, which is brushing so that you are brushing all the way down to the skin, you want to be able to park their coat and see their skin right there on every part of their body. I’ve had quite a few people who are like, I can get a brush shirt, I’m like, Yeah, you can get a brush through the top through the like, last two inches of this coat. But there’s another inch underneath there that is just matted to the skin. And we see that occasionally, you also want to make sure you’re prioritizing the areas that are more likely to match. So really anywhere your dog’s body contacts, each contacts itself. So in their armpits, between their back by the hind legs, Yep, yeah. Yes, or their ears anywhere around their ears, because those are constantly touching itself. And around the collar, yeah, around the collar, anything. If you have a dog who’s prone to matting, let them go naked as often as possible, that’s going to cut down on your matting significantly. and ship them to their rear of their legs. So where they sit down on themselves that tends to get matted really frequently. You can request that your groomer goes a little bit shorter in those areas, we have quite a few dogs that we see that they’re like, yeah, just you know, taking really short and the armpits really short in the back of the legs and kind of blended out. And I’m always thrilled to report that back to the groomers you know, they’re always happy to do that, because they know that it’s going to be easier for everybody in the long run. Yeah, anything. Yeah. And then also, like, work with your groomer to find a sweet spot for the length. There’s a really fine line between the length by like in too long for me to maintain appropriately. And I’m finding more and more I’ve had so many clients coming in the past week who have been like, you know, they don’t need a huge haircut, but it’s right on that cusp that I know if I get let it get a little bit longer. It’s gonna Matt and I’m like, Thank you for coming so brown. So much for being so proud. Yes, we’ll take him in to be perfect or it’ll be great. Like that’s, those are the interactions I love. I love having where they have the foresight and they’ve been paying attention and they go you know what, if I let this go longer, it’s gonna be a problem. Let’s go ahead and take them a little bit shorter. Or if they’re like, You know what, we’ve been going for this really plush coat and it’s been fun. But it’s a lot to maintain and I’m exhausted. Let’s just go with a shortcut for the next couple of times. Great it’s gonna save you so much trouble. In Yeah, so yeah, well, I mean work with your groomer, they want your dog to be beautiful. They want your you to enjoy your dog and enjoy your dog’s coat. And if that’s a team effort, you know as it is with any pet care service, this is a team effort. So please communicate with your firmware about about what you want and what you can do to achieve what you want. Yeah, okay, good. Good tips. Yeah. The next one I have here is if I shave my double coated dog, so we’ve entered that that realm now. It will grow back right? double coated dogs. This is a big, there’s a lot of debate about this. People have a lot of desires when it comes to their double coated diet. Yeah, this is gonna get me canceled. I’m probably gonna get some hate mail from Yeah, from either pet parents or from pet professionals. Probably both. They’re all going to be mad at me. It’s fine. The vast majority of double coats you actually can shave and they should grow back normally. groomers. Don’t send me hate mail. A lot of the times when coat grows back improperly after shaving a double coated dog. There’s an underlying health issue going on. There’s some kind of thyroid issue going on. There’s some kind of chemical imbalance that’s causing this coat to grow back. Funky. If you think that you know shaving your double coated dog is right for your dog. I mean, go for it, you know, well and also keep in mind that a double coated dog can look vastly different from one to the next like an Akita Alaskan husky, she knows he knows. This is what people are usually imagining when they think of double coated dogs but you’re also talking about Bernese Mountain dogs grape tyrannize, Newfoundlands, Golden Retrievers, Labradors, and there’s a lot of variety in there too. So to kind of make a hard and fast rule about this shirt would ignore a lot of other detail a lot of varieties coats or marine Iranians have any problems I don’t know sometimes the pumps go back right and sometimes they don’t and sometimes it’s due to an underlying health issue and sometimes it’s not. I do find that people don’t seem to realize that there actually is a some a really nice wide range between shaving your double coated dog and letting your double coated dog have their full and complete coat. There’s a big range between they’re anywhere from closer to be keeping their full and complete coat area you can do regular dish settings to remove any loose coat that gets caught up in the rest of their coat that happens all the time we see so much impacted coat bills are those videos where you see people taking the high pressure dryer to the coat and you just see the dog just like if you’re gonna do that, definitely buy a beekeepers hat. Yeah, your face. Wear some sort of protection over your mouth and nose to Yeah, you can but you can do a D shedding and then do a Phaeton sanitary trim so they’ll clean around their sanitary area so they have cleaner boots and on to wipe their butt and worry about dingleberries or anything like that. And then clean up their feet because they need absolute maximum grip for maximum speed. Okay, you guys we got to clean up their feet all the way to you know, in the middle ground you have the silhouette trim or the outline trim, where your groomer will actually scissor cut your dog so that it is closer to their outline without shaving your dog. I love a good outline trim not every groomer loves doing them but if you can find a groomer who’s like yeah, I would love to find your money your dog good as gold keep them they’ll ask you a little bit about furnishings Do you want the like the feathery hair on the back of their legs trimmed down or not? Do you want the beautiful Aussie peach but the court or the Corgi peach but going on with jodhpurs my family oh my god that’s so good. I don’t think I I can’t say that. I don’t know if I any I don’t know that the average human smart enough to get very good. Yeah. Yeah, if I call it the peach but they know exactly what to do the Corgi famous they want a perfect peach emoji walking ahead of them down the street. I mean who doesn’t you know doesn’t um or you know if you like their, their pants or their feathers a little more natural you can do that way as well and just kind of thin things out. You know there’s a there’s a wide range if you’re not if you’re if you’re concerned that your dog has too much coat that it’s causing them trouble with heat regulation. We’ll talk about that eventually, I suppose. Then a good dish setting is going to go a long way but you don’t have it but you’re like a little gun shy about like I don’t know if I want to shave them. You don’t have to you know There isn’t really a way for your groomer to guard the two. We get this a lot to cut the guard hairs but not the undercoat hairs and I’m like, so they are all mixed together. We can’t cut one without cutting the other.